Sanfrecce Hiroshima manager Hajime Moriyasu believes his team paid the price for its own success in failing to land a third straight J. League title last season, but the 46-year-old insists that this year will be different.

Sanfrecce went into last season riding an unprecedented wave of achievement, having claimed the league title for a second year running and reaching the Emperor’s Cup final only to be denied the double by Yokohama F. Marinos.

As spring turned into summer and a second straight Asian Champions League campaign began to take its toll, however, the wheels fell off Sanfrecce’s season. A string of indifferent results as play resumed after the World Cup break saw Moriyasu’s men slip out of title contention, and an eighth-place finish was the best they could manage with defeat in the Nabisco Cup final adding insult to injury.

Now, with the 2015 campaign upon them, Sanfrecce are looking for payback. Last season’s mid-table finish means the club has no continental commitments to worry about, and Moriyasu is hoping to reap the benefits.

“We were in the title race until the summer and then we dropped out of the picture,” Moriyasu told The Japan Times ahead of Saturday’s season-opener at home to Ventforet Kofu. “This year we have to do well all year to stay in the frame for the title. Last year was a frustrating season so we want to exorcise those feelings. The players are hungry to win the title.

“Before the ACL started, we had been playing until New Year’s Day because we were in the Emperor’s Cup final. We only had three weeks off before the 2014 season started. Mentally we weren’t able to refresh ourselves. And when it came to the summer, we started to struggle mentally and physically because we hadn’t had that chance to refresh ourselves.”

Sanfrecce’s chances of setting the record straight have not been helped by the departure of several key players, with forward Naoki Ishihara joining Urawa Reds, defender Hwang Seok-ho moving to Kashima Antlers and midfielder Yojiro Takahagi decamping to the A-League with Western Sydney Wanderers.

Moriyasu admits that the outgoing players will be missed, but the manager believes emerging young talent such as Gakuto Notsuda and Yusuke Minagawa can step up and replace them.

“Of course it will hurt the team to lose such good players, but we have other good players and now we have to see what kind of chemistry the team will have this year,” Moriyasu said. “I’m looking forward to it.

“Our young players have more experience now as a result of becoming regulars in the team last season. I think the team as a whole has improved a level.”

Moriyasu can also call on captain Toshihiro Aoyama, who was named in Japan’s World Cup squad last summer and started the final group game against Colombia only to get injured when he returned home.

“The World Cup gave me experience, but after that I got injured and I wasn’t able to use that experience to help the team,” said Aoyama, who was sidelined for two months last summer. “I hope I can do that this season, and I hope I can keep improving.

“Last year was disappointing. We finished eighth and lost in the final of the Nabisco Cup, so we ended up without a trophy. We have to hold our hands up and say we weren’t good enough.”

Sanfrecce can certainly be assured of a different season in one regard this year, as the J. League abandons its single-league format and returns to the two-stage system it last used in 2004.

The inclusion of postseason playoffs gives the format an updated twist, but Moriyasu is not concerned with the details as he prepares for the season as usual.

“I don’t think there’s such a big difference between the two-stage season and the single season,” said Moriyasu, who experienced the two-stage season as a player. “It’s not something we are really paying much attention to. The merits of the two-stage season are that if you win the first stage you can think about how you play in the second stage, and if you don’t win the first stage you still have a chance in the second stage.

“I don’t think it will have any real impact. The first stage doesn’t change in that you are still trying to get as good a start as you can. Basically we want to be the team that wins the most points over the whole season. We want to be in the running to win both the first stage and the second stage.”