Shinji Kagawa

Status
Not open for further replies.
Anyone else thinks he starts to fade towards the end of games? Or am I just imagining that?
 
The second half syndrome that Anderson used to suffer from in his early days when he was still considered impressive.
 
Godfather said:
His class is obvious but I'm not sure our style of play suits him. It's also what he said some time ago. We tend to go wide so much more than Dortmund does for example.
Click to expand...

Top said:
Still don't think the other players are using him nearly enough. He makes space for himself over and over again only for us to pass it backwards or sideways.

I especially thought Scholes overlooked him far too much tonight. Carrick found him quite often though.
Click to expand...

Let's be fair, he regularly plays it right back again when he does get the ball, almost taking 'one-touch' football a touch to serious.

I am a big fan of him, but he has to be more adventurous, or I can see players passing it wide to our very good wingers.
 
Kevin said:
Let's be fair, he regularly plays it right back again when he does get the ball, almost taking 'one-touch' football a touch to serious.

I am a big fan of him, but he has to be more adventurous, or I can see players passing it wide to our very good wingers.
Click to expand...

There's a reason why he does that though - it catches the opponents off guard for a second when they have to turn twice, meaning the playmaker gains just enough time and momentum to spot other openings or bring the ball forward.

Besides, he turned with the ball quite often tonight when he received the ball.
 
I think we have been lacking such a player for a while. Some of his one twos are great and his first touch is magnificent. I think he has settled well, but expect more as the season progresses from him. Fantastic purchase from us though
 
There were times when he was in good positions in the middle, and our central midfielders preferred to go wide instead. We really need to play through him more. He's such an intelligent player and is capable of making things happen. Such an exciting player.
 
While they were times we didn't find Kagawa in the middle, we did look to pass it to him more often than in the past. When he did get it he popped off right back where it came from more often than not for me.

It's a learning process though, for the rest of the team and Kagawa. It's going to take some time for old habits to die. We've always had fantastic wingers who need the ball.
 
Anyone else notice that Kagawa seems to work a lot better with Cleverley in the side?
I mean, you could say Cleverley and Carrick as a duo haven't really clicked yet, but Cleverley and Kagawa definitely have, and I think if we played all 3 of them together more often we should be getting better results, we need a midfielder like Cleverley (or Anderson, who knows, might even be Powell as well) to play with him, someone that wants to go forward and help out in attack, so there's an actual link between our midfield and attack and we don't have to resort to players constantly passing to either Scholes or Valencia (as great as they are).
 
He didn't click with clev very well against Southampton. He does link up well with clev and i'm sure we'll see more of that soon, most likely against Liverpool as can't see scholes starting 3 in a row. If clev can just strike a better balance between pushing forward and keeping his position then should be good.

Kagawa and nani seem to play really well, they showed a good understanding in preseason and have continued it since especially yesterday.
 
Hellboy said:
When was the last time Giggs performed at Anfield ? That would be so stupid.
Click to expand...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/eng_prem/3233009.stm

Wasn't exactly yesterday.

This "experience" talk is so baffling anyway. We'll have Michael Carrick there, with 278 United games so far; Robin van Persie, with 198 Premier League games; Rio Ferdinand, with 400 United games; Nemanja Vidic, with 248 United games. Really, we don't need daddy to watch the kids, they're all grown up, bless them.
 
pocco said:
I think we'll see Carrick and Giggs in midfield with Kagawa ahead of them.
Click to expand...

Well, that would make more sense than leaving out Kagawa for Giggs.

There isn't really a "good" choice for the midfield two, really... Many will argue that the Carrick, Cleverley duo with Kagawa ahead of them should be the best but after the shite they served up at Southampton, I'm wary. I don't like Scholes starting at Anfield, if it didn't work at any time in the last five years, why would it work now? Giggs... you never know with him.

But I repeat, leaving out Kagawa makes no sense at all.
 
Having Giggs starting in midfield and gifting Liverpool with the ball for the entire match would be a stupid decision. Carrick and Cleverley behind Kagawa should be what we start with.
 
Siorac said:
Well, that would make more sense than leaving out Kagawa for Giggs.

There isn't really a "good" choice for the midfield two, really... Many will argue that the Carrick, Cleverley duo with Kagawa ahead of them should be the best but after the shite they served up at Southampton, I'm wary. I don't like Scholes starting at Anfield, if it didn't work at any time in the last five years, why would it work now? Giggs... you never know with him.

But I repeat, leaving out Kagawa makes no sense at all.
Click to expand...

The problem with Giggs starting in midfield is that he's going to try a lot of his hollywood balls and almost none of them will reach our player. The last thing we need to do is consistently give the ball away and invite more pressure on us. Cleverley keeps it simple and I think should be a better option than Giggs.
 
wr8_utd said:
The problem with Giggs starting in midfield is that he's going to try a lot of his hollywood balls and almost none of them will reach our player. The last thing we need to do is consistently give the ball away and invite more pressure on us. Cleverley keeps it simple and I think should be a better option than Giggs.
Click to expand...

I agree with that as long as the Kagawa-Van Persie duo is intact. They represent our best chance of snatching a winner. We can't field a really convincing midfield duo behind them though, no matter who we put there. Might as well be Cleverley for his extra energy and pace, I suppose, those things were sorely missed from our performances at Anfield over the last few years.
 
wr8_utd said:
The problem with Giggs starting in midfield is that he's going to try a lot of his hollywood balls and almost none of them will reach our player. The last thing we need to do is consistently give the ball away and invite more pressure on us. Cleverley keeps it simple and I think should be a better option than Giggs.
Click to expand...

Definitely. It seems blindingly obvious that the more possession we have, the quieter the crowd, the more the sting is taken out of things. Cleverley in there with Kagawa deeper and Carrick behind them is our best chance of doing that. Three of them should be looking to be available as much as possible. We should be looking to rack up the best possession stats we can. Giggser is not the man for that.
 
pocco said:
As a side note, im still waiting for him to reproduce some of his game that he showed in preseason. He's been good so far, but he'll be the star of the team if he can do so.
Click to expand...

I disagree. I think the rest of the squad needs to keep up with his movement. He's our best one touch passer and by the time one of our players has the ball at his feet, Kagawa is already in position to get the return pass. Unfortunately, most of our players aren't as quick and tend to lose possession. Carrick, Van Persie, and Nani are the worst as this. Rafael and Valencia work well with the give and go.
 
711 said:
Is Anderson not fit or what? If Kagawa's in, and he should be, I'd have Carrick and Anderson behind.
Click to expand...

Yeah, would like to see more of Anderson with Kagawa. Whatever anyone has to say about Anderson, he does at least look to go through the middle (which is where this glaring void seems to have appeared in recent times).
 
think we'll save either Scholes or Giggs for late in the game either to find a breakthrough or steady the ship
 
I'd go with Anderson and Cleverley behind Kagawa, with Nani and Young on the wings behind possibly Welbeck.. we always struggle at Anfield due to the high pressure game they usually employ against us.

Put in very mobile players and we'd work our way through the pressure and destroy them.

Kagawa v Galatasaray... apologies if already posted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPceL59-VeA
 
Maciek said:
No Carrick, seriously? Oh, and Young is out.
Click to expand...

Carrick, Scholes and Giggs are usually poor against Liverpool away in my opinion.. and ah, perhaps the Welbeck on the left experiment with Nani on the right.

We need fluidity in order to bring out the best out of the likes of Kagawa and RVP... at the moment it feels we're trying to mesh our old school way of doing things with a more continental approach, i'd prefer we commit to the continental way as we have the players to do it.
 
Raees said:
Kagawa v Galatasaray... apologies if already posted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPceL59-VeA
Click to expand...

His combination play with Nani was simply brilliant in that game. Seems to have a very good understanding between them. In fact he does have good understanding with Cleverley and Anderson as well, all quick one-touch players rather than Carrick and Scholes.
 
Didnt our first goal come from kagawa and carrick playing a one two? Carrick is plenty mobile, he could do more but most the time he's more reserved as he had to protect his partner. Too easy to dismiss him playing a faster game. Clev and kagawa weren't on the same wavelength at Southampton either and at times clev pushed to far up forcing kagawa to drop deeper where he didn't look comfortable.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.