Attacking mid behind the striker is his natural position. It would be interesting to see if Kagawa is played in central midfield role opposite either Anderson or Carrick.
Shinji Kagawa
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Attacking mid behind the striker is his natural position. It would be interesting to see if Kagawa is played in central midfield role opposite either Anderson or Carrick.
He's playing some great stuff this half. Can't wait to see him in the league.
Ando and kagawa as a two? Reckon that'd be a disaster.
Those through balls are gonna tear teams apart 
Missed a great chance after an amazing ball from chicarito :-(
Should have scored, on the replay it looked closer, think it hit the post.
Clearly a class above. Has made the rest of our midfield look poor with his close control and ability to dribble. Its only when you add someone like Shinji to your side and put them alongside some other players do you realise how much we've missed compared to our rivals in midfield.
Depends who it would be against really, I could see it failing spectacularly or being fantastic. They both like to pass and move and carry the ball, they could be a nightmare for a weak midfield to play against but against a strong midfield I could see them struggling big time.
It's a paper scissors stone thing. A midfield 2 of Scholes and Carrick is always comfortable against weaker teams but can be accused of not applying enough pressure and as a result we get a slim win when we should be scoring 4 or 5.
Well considering he played in rooneys position more than where one of our centre mids would play, maybe he's showing up rooney?
On the ball they might be god but then you'd have to consider how much deeper they'd have to play as a midfield combo. You don't really have the space to run on the ball as much. And then when the other team gets the ball there would be a real problem defensively. I would t fancy silva and nasri as a midfield 2 or mata and hazard etc no matter how good they were at pass and moving.
He moved all over the pitch and played just as close to Carrick, Scholes and Anderson than he did to Javi. That being said apart from in front of goal, which is actually the most important thing for a forward, Rooney's performances haven't been wonderful for months.
Kagawa's ability to take the ball to feet, leave players and then move it onto a colleague is not something that our midfielders have in abundance. Actually quite the opposite and it gets horribly displayed when we play teams that do have that throughout their squad e.g. Bilbao.
He may have dropped deeper at times but most the time he play that fee drifting role much like Rooney. I don't disagree he has some talents that our midfielders don't have but hea able to influence the game like that because he has that driftin role. The players behind him let him do that.
Yeah we lost to Bilbaoa, it wasn't our strongest team though was it? We had plenty of injuries. I don't think ideally you'd look to play scholes in a game like that. Similarly when we played city we didn't exactly have our most ideal team out.
Yeah we lost to Bilbaoa, it wasn't our strongest team though was it? We had plenty of injuries. I don't think ideally you'd look to play scholes in a game like that. Similarly when we played city we didn't exactly have our most ideal team out.
I'm comparing the ability of the players. Would you argue with the statement that Herrera, de Marcos and Iturraspe have greater technical ability than the majority of the midfield players in our squad? Kagawa you can genuinely question and there are one or two others maybe but in the main...? And that was my point. When you put someone like Shinji in our side it does shine a light on others.
His first touch, vision and class was superb like we'd hope for...
His going to be one hell of a signing, I can just feel it.
His going to be one hell of a signing, I can just feel it.
Did he give the ball away once in the entire game?
I mean, it's only a friendly, but everyone else seemed to be giving it away for fun. He had that Scholsey like composure and awareness whenever he picked up the ball, plus he was willing to run with it.
It'll be interesting to see if he can still stand out like that against some proper opposition. Although to be fair Cap Town were quite good as far as hilariously crap Pre-Season opponents go.
I mean, it's only a friendly, but everyone else seemed to be giving it away for fun. He had that Scholsey like composure and awareness whenever he picked up the ball, plus he was willing to run with it.
It'll be interesting to see if he can still stand out like that against some proper opposition. Although to be fair Cap Town were quite good as far as hilariously crap Pre-Season opponents go.
Pretty much what we expected then. His control in tight areas was very impressive.
His touch, control and perfectly weighted passses are pure sex.
But like I said he plays in a different position to them. In fact I would say that his impact on the game showed what we've been missing in not getting Rooney to drop deeper/him not doing it from deeper. I don't think kagawa would have had the same impact from a deeper role and I do t think he would have done much better had you swapped him in for one of our midfielders in that game because simply we got our formation wrong. When you're outnumbered 2 to 3 and those 3 are all hard working and technically strong then it's gonna be hard to live with.
He's better than clev and ando I'm not denying that and has more technical ability than carrick and fletcher although they're obviously much stronger defensively. But my point is the role he plays, the freedoms he plays with is not something out midfielders have. They can't play that way because they have a much bigger defensive burden. As I said kagawa today to me showed how much having that link in the team, something I don't think we've been getting Rooney to do/ he's not done brilliantly recently, brings to the team. If you were to move him deeper he'd lose that impact imo.
Very impressive today. If he puts in this kind of performance in a friendly, I can't wait to see what he actually does in a competitive game.
I am stuck at work in Onne, I take it this kid showed a few glimpses if how good he could be then?
Cleverley and Anderson played last season. We could use Ando and Kagawa against the weaker teams.
He played like a Japanese version of a much less-violent Scholes. Does he obsess over trees, does he come across as a bit dim? Can he even talk? I reckon we have a star here.
I think there have been plenty of discussions of how exposed they left us. But I think ando and kagawa would be worse in that aspect. Kagawa was very impressive today I didn't really see anything that suggested to me that he had the work rate to play cm, not enough to play with another defensively questionable player. If it were 2 on 2 against a weaker team they could probably do it but it's usually 2 against 3 and that extra guy would be allowed a lot of freedoms imo.
TBF he's probably the most sure fire success player we've signed in a long time.
He'll be great over here. As long as SAF doesn't dick around and play him in a midfield two.
I think he'd be great in cm. Movement, intelligence, awareness, skill on the ball, passing - he could be our Xavi.
Yeah jokes aside he is clear known quality, hopefully there won't be a long transition period for him to produce the performances he was for Dortmund. Even though it's just a pre-season and he's out there with players he won't play with throughout the season, he's shown great signs.
Or our iniesta
Dunno why xavi's defensive game is underrated but he's very good there. What scholes has over him as a goal scorer he has over him from a defensive perspective. I dunno if kagawa can do that but I don't see why he would have that skill having not really played there before. But ultimately why waste someone who could provide us with something we've been missing which is that link in the middle. Rooney for me in recent seasons has looked better suited to being the main striker. Kagawa looked excellent today in that free role. With Rooney ahead of him and nani outwide, he'd have so much to work with. Put him in a deeper role and you're inhibiting that. Last season whether out of choice or not being asked too Rooney wasn't playing deep enough or having enough impact there. We need that. It helps the midfield and it helps the attack.
very goodTrue, but if we got Van Persie, and we wanted to play Rvp, Rooney and Kagawa together, a shift to midfield is the natural solution. On the evidence of today, I don't see Kagawa spending much time on the bench.
Most excited I've been about a signing in a long time. I think he's versatile enough and a good enough footballer to play multiple positions whilst still providing major influence on the game.
I've said it in the newbies and the Kagawa thread up here - he's exactly what we've been missing.
I've said it in the newbies and the Kagawa thread up here - he's exactly what we've been missing.
He's like our own Iniesta!
Well I agree he will play, personally I wouldn't want him to play in the middle. I don't think it would solve the problems we've had there. If we did get RVP, I'd rather go for a front 3 off Rooney, RVP and Nani, with Kagawa spearheading a 3. Like I said I think we need that guy providing the link. Rooney hasn't done enough there in the last two seasons. But then personally I would hope that having got Kagawa, Fergie rethinks RVP. I'd love to see Kagawa playing behind Rooney, Nani and Valencia on either side, with Carrick and clev/ando in the middle.
I think that he's different than all of the players that he's been compared to in this thread. That point aside, I think that a player of his skill set is capable of 'pulling the strings' from wherever he is put on the pitch.
As a midfielder (an advanced one, but not a forward IMO) he has got that cutting edge in the final third that should benefit players like Nani, Rooney and Valencia. He seems to have that rare ability to bring out the best in the players around him, which he certainly showed at Dortmund.
Glad to hear Kaggers played well.
"Our Iniesta", "Our Xavi" these are unique players, Kagawa will be a totally different footballer to them
Loved what I saw today. Just think how he'll do playing with someone capable of controlling the ball...
Rooney
Kagawa
Nani-Ando-Cleverley-Valencia
japanese reds, can kagawa become bigger in japan than ichiro?
or Godzilla?
Rooney
Kagawa
Nani-Ando-Cleverley-Valencia
yep
451 is the way forward with welbeck and hernandez backing up rooney.
instead of ando have carrick sitting deep to feed it in and we're looking better already. having two strikers loses the midfield battle and having three in midfield makes sure we feed our wide players, nani can tuck in slightly to help out and the full backs overlap when carrick releases the ball.
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