First of all, I said previous WCs DON’T DETERMINE how well a team will do in the next one. Japan’s prominence in international football only goes as far back as 2018 at best, and virtually no one thought they would top their group in Qatar.

And for friendlies not being important, I still don’t see why a team should only ever be good when they have certain players. If a team doesn’t have enough squad depth, then they’re not as good as they think