Wednesday 6 February 2013

Shinji Kagawa, still time to prove himself


In June 2012 it was agreed that established Japanese star Shinji Kagawa would join Manchester United for £12 million, potentially rising to £17 million (that's equivalent to 3 Andre Santos') and I, along with many other Manchester United fans, got very excited indeed. An energetic and technically gifted playmaker seemed a good fit to the fast paced United ethos. Now we find ourselves in February and he is yet to hit the heights that he seemed destined to. Why?

It could simply be put down to a settling in period. Having moved to a new country it is understandable that whilst he gets used to the culture, weather and language it may not be possible to perform to his absolute best every single week. It could also be credited to the fact that he is playing in a new league, the Premier League is widely regarded as the fastest and most physical elite leagues in the world, many very gifted footballers have failed to produce at all in the English game. There are, however, some other potential reasons for Kagawa not reaching the form he did at Borussia Dortmund.

Firstly, Kagawa hasn't been played in as many games as he may have liked. In fact he has only started 10 of the 25 Premier League fixtures to date. In these 10 starts as well as 1 substitute appearance Kagawa has provided 2 goals and a further 2 assists, not the sort of form that could lead to him being labelled as a flop (he has registered a pass accuracy of 90.5% after all), but it still leaves him languishing behind the likes of Mata (10 goals, 9 assists, 23 appearances), Cazorla (8 goals, 6 assists, 25 appearances) and even Damien Duff (3 goals, 7 assists, 20 appearances). Kagawa himself has made it clear that he feels hestill has an extra level to find.

Competition for places may be a barrier in allowing the number 26 to play his best football. Kagawa is not naturally suited to playing a traditional central midfield role and is much more at home further forward on the pitch, in a central attacking midfield role or even a second striker style role. This puts him in competition with the likes of Rooney, Welbeck, Cleverley, Young and arguably Van Persie, Nani and Valencia. With Ferguson seemingly favouring Van Persie in an advanced role and Rooney just off of him (which can't really be questioned given how it has worked out this season) Kagawa has had to play second fiddle to Rooney when looking to play his best position, or be forced to play slightly out of position in a role either out wide or further back on the field. As a result of this it may take a drop in form or even an injury to Rooney for Kagawa to really get a chance to shine.

Consequently of not receiving a great deal of game time and occasionally being played away from his favourite position Kagawa hasn't been able to develop an on field relationship with the very much on form Van Persie quite like the one he had with Lewandowski. In Germany Kagawa and Lewandowski performed very well together, often exchanging neat 1-2s in tight regions at the edge of the area in accompaniment to accurate long passing by Kagawa to find Lewandowski. It seems only reasonable that a relationship similar to one formed with the Polish Lewandowski could also form between Van Persie and Kagawa. Time will tell.

Kagawa is inarguably a talented footballer, his marvellous assist in a recent Japan international match shows that he is still sharp and I see it as only a matter of time before he starts producing glittering performances for United.

Kagawa assist for Japan

Kagawa and Lewandowski (forgive the editing, it's all I could find)

May be of some interest if you have 15 minutes to waste
  
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All statistics taken from the wonderful whoscored.com

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