Shinji Kagawa

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I knew he was good, but this just confirmed it. He's not gonna face much tougher away games in the league than a rampant Everton swarming all over us. But you could just see his vision and touch were just top class. His retention and passing with the ball in the tightest of spaces is gonna pay dividends soon.

Unfortunately his team mates really let him down with their own performances. We just didn't use him enough.
 
ArmchairCritic said:
We have plenty of technically gifted players who like to keep the ball in small areas of the pitch like Nani, Cleverley, Welbeck, Shinji, Scholes and Rooney when he wants. The ball retention will improve drastically this year, watch
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We had 69% of the possession tonight.
 
He's looking for movement and short defence splitting passes.

There are none here though, sorry Shinji, pass it to the wings.
 
Interval Level said:
He is a brute. No where close to matching up to the very best. I just don't get why we struggle against him.
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Because we didn't defend the second ball. We were never going to win the first ball. It unless he was on vidic which he obv wasn't. But if the midfield and defence had communicated better they could have kept things tight to stop the second ball being such an issue. But I think a large part of that is both clev and scholes get drawn to the ball rather than taking up a tactically strong position.

As for fellani he might not have the technique of scholes but he's got enough to keep things ticking and get out of tough spots, with his strength also helping. Smart too, always aware if what wa around and that it didn't need to be a complicated ball just nice an simple.
 
Brwned said:
Outstanding at being a target for people to fire balls at from every angle but he's simply not even close to Kagawa in terms of technique, obviously. And he'd prefer another technical midfielder than another physical one. Fellaini's tidy enough on the ball but isn't capable of excelling in a quick, short-passing side.
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I've never said he was close to Kagawa technically. He's blatantly comfortable on the ball though. He was killing high balls instantly and flicking them onto players with ridiculous consistancy. There's a huge difference between saying somebody is technically gifted or somebody is comfortable on the ball.
 
Kagawa was out of this world tonight, can't believe that was his first PL game. Awesome. Perfect through balls with either foot, good passing range and finds people where ever they are. His touch was also decent with some nice little flicks, even when on his way down to the grass. Personally I think he was the best player on the pitch, loss or not. We were good on the ball tonight, him and Cleverley especially but poor in the final 3rd in terms of chances. Watching Kagawa made it less painful though.
 
Looks as if he's a product of the Barcelona academy. Streets ahead of every other United outfield player tonight.
 
The players' first thought should be "where is Kagawa?" when they have the ball instead it seemed to be "where is Carrick or Vidic?"

He better start the next game as well.
 
FlawlessThaw said:
Players and Kagawa aren't on the same wavelength. It will come though.
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Honestly thought he was the only one on the same wavelength as some other attacking players. He was the only one who could combine with another attacker with any fluency whatsoever.

Also agree with the comment a bit above about him being reluctant to run with the ball like he did at Dortmund. Not sure of the reasoning but he had more dribbles than any of our players last season, so he still has more to show people who dont know him yet
 
such quick feet, beautiful first touch and real appreciation for space in front of him. Looks like a top top signing.
 
To get the best out of him our off the ball movement will have to improve drastically. Our players will have to start making more positive runs and not just drifting into space and taking the easy option.

The only ones I can say for certain that will be on his wavelength are Welbeck and Cleverley. Chicharito will be a beneficiary of his defence splitting passes but his touch will probably restrict him to only finishing chances.
 
beergod said:
He is going to suffer from our obsession with moving the ball wide when we come up against a packed penalty area...
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Perfectly valid concern, but I doubt it. What happened today was this, spot on down to the reason the players weren't trying it:

Top said:
Should have received the ball far more when he asked for it.
It was as if the rest of the players thought "No, he can't possibly do anything in such a tight space" based on their own limits and lack of courage on the ball today.
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What's more likely to happen is that sooner rather than later our CMs will get comfortable with the fact that they can simply dump the ball into him every chance they get.

I'd wager a fair few of us saw what was going on and were very surprised that the coaching staff weren't yelling at Scholes and Cleverley to do just that. The one time they actually tried it resulted in him getting off that through ball to Welbeck despite being swarmed by three defenders twice his size.

You don't buy a "something from nothing" player and then not give him the nothing. Because for one thing, that's just kind of weird.
 
He played in Welbeck twice with lovely passes and Rooney once. Can't wait to see him link up with RvP and an inform Rooney.
 
I just hope he doesn't drop to the same level as the rest of the team, he may start thinking "why the hell am I the only person putting in any effort", it may tire him really quickly.
 
He will be the heartbeat of the team for the season if he keeps that form up. I thought Cleverly and co. could have played it to him a bit more often though
 
Justin said:
Was 55-45, yet Everton was the bigger threat in front of goal.
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Nope 69 according whoscored.com, perhaps skewed by Everton sitting back after the goal, they were more direct against a much weaker defence of course they were going to appear more threatening.
 
ArmchairCritic said:
Nope 69 according whoscored.com, perhaps skewed by Everton sitting back after the goal, they were more direct against a much weaker defence of course they were going to appear more threatening.
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It was 64 - 36 before Everton scored. We always had possession, just found it difficult to break the 2 banks of four down.
 
Rudie said:
I just hope he doesn't drop to the same level as the rest of the team, he may start thinking "why the hell am I the only person putting in any effort", it may tire him really quickly.
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He doesn't seem to have that kind of personality to do the bare minimum. Everytime I see him he has a great work ethic
 
Rudie said:
I just hope he doesn't drop to the same level as the rest of the team, he may start thinking "why the hell am I the only person putting in any effort", it may tire him really quickly.
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yeah I doubt that's what he's thinking after the 1st game
 
Justin said:
Was 55-45, yet Everton was the bigger threat in front of goal.
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Yes but that's because they are a set piece machine set up by Moyes and have a blue wall a million feet wide in front of their goal. We were good tonight at times, just couldn't get through. Kagawas through balls almost had it.
 
17Larsson said:
He will be the heartbeat of the team for the season if he keeps that form up. I thought Cleverly and co. could have played it to him a bit more often though
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It's like gary neville said in the post-match analysis, he's so comfortable on the ball his team-mates need to not be afraid to pass it to him even when he's really tightly marked. That will come with time though. He's going to be a terrific player for us.
 
goldenballs said:
The rest of the team have to become more aware of his vision. He can see a pass from a mile away.
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OGkush said:
yeah I doubt that's what he's thinking after the 1st game
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I didn't say he would after one game but as gb points out we need the rest of the team, especially rooney, to start linking up with him, we can't wait several games for this to start happening either, and I could see it getting frustrating for him in the long run, not after one game no.
 
Hopefully any discussion of him being played anywhere other than the #10 role died tonight. He's far too good at that position to put him anywhere else.
 
Impressed me tonight. As much as he wasn't given the ball often enough, there was a period of about half an hour where he seemed to go missing, which I wonder whether it was off the back of a couple physical challenges.

He got involved again very well though and was unlucky that one of his passes didn't lead to an assist - two great through-balls, a lovely cross for Rooney and a smart touch back to Cleverley.

Exciting times with this kid. Looks good.
 
I_live_cement said:
He's pretty much our best player.
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was today by a fair margain, and I expect him to do more of the same as the season goes on, only this time hopefuly with an in form Rooney and RvP or just basicaly anything that was better than today.
you can't just say something like that after 1 game, even though I am a big fan of his and fully expect him to be this year's best signing (not just United's)
 
Andrew~ said:
Hopefully any discussion of him being played anywhere other than the #10 role died tonight. He's far too good at that position to put him anywhere else.
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What's wrong with sticking him out wide like Silva? You're mad if you think we won't play him out wide and as a centre mid.
 
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