After the trauma of last week's defeat to South Korea, Japan salvaged some much-needed confidence — if not a result — against England. But if manager Takeshi Okada decides to stick with the revamped formation that served him so well on Sunday, where does that leave Shunsuke Nakamura?
Okada finally addressed his team's soft spine in Graz by adding Yuki Abe as a defensive midfielder behind central pairing Makoto Hasebe and Yasuhito Endo, shoring up an area that has long looked in danger of being outmuscled and overrun in South Africa.
One attacking midfielder had to drop out as a result, and with Nakamura struggling with injury, Okada's decision was made for him. After watching his side stifle Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard for the majority of the 90 minutes, however, finding a place for his most famous name suddenly becomes problematic.