Yeah it's odd he didn't play. Wonder what's happened thre.
Shinji Kagawa
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Well Giggs said he wanted to give everyone a match and Mata was getting the start today and Januzaj the bench spot. I think it is evident he is going to use wingers so could have just been left out since he got the start last week.
Play a maker
Dropping him today was a bizarre decision. Considering that Rooney wasn't on the game we had the perfect chance to play a duo of him and Mata which would have made the game less depended on useless wingers but somehow Giggs thought that it is a good idea to recreate the Fulham performance by playing 2 useless wingers who can't do anything than cross badly.
It wasn't anything like the Fulham performance.
Maybe he ate too much after celebrating the player of the month award?
No no, this time he drank sake until he pulled both hamstrings!
I cannot believe he was dropped. I thought he was excellent last week.
Oh come off it. He wasn't excellent last week. I like Kagawa, a lot but he was average at best last week. Could've done with him today though.
Depends.
I would say he was above average last week however it's what he provided that was very important. Our team lacks off the ball motion but that second Rooney goal, he made a run (like he always does) and took the defender with him, before this Rooney had paused and looked like he was going to play a cross-field ball to Valencia (like he is often forced to do) however Kagawa's run created vacant space for Rooney to accelerate into and get a shot off.
I think his constant off the ball motion always provides an option for a short pass reducing the need for a cross, and it causes defenders to move out of position and so create space for others to exploit, and it helps in controlling the tempo of the game.
Hernandez provided movement and Mata too 4but the static central midfield combined with Young and Nani out wide made it difficult to pass and move to create those spaces that could be exploited, the game was calling for a player like Kagawa to inject that extra movement into the team.
Had we several other players that provided a lot of movement then I don't think Kagawa's function would be as important as it is and his exclusion easily understood.
I thought he was good last week. I also think his mobility and movement is important to the team. No idea why he was dropped.
Because wingers are the United way, innit?
It's Golden Week in Japan this week so he may have been given time to spend with his family.
He was at Old Trafford.
A bit off topic as it's not related to Shinji's performances but I didn't find a more suitable thread:
Those at United dreaming of a swap with Reus or Hummels this summer or those in Dortmund dreaming of #freeShinji got a serious setback today:
Aki Watzke, our (BVB's) boss, explained in a talk show today that for Shinji to return to Dortmund, there would need to be a vacancy on the no. 10 position*, that this position is well stocked up by Mkhitaryan and Reus, and that therefore, he wouldn't see a return happening.
I know that many will think or say now that things can change, but those who follow Watzke a bit longer will recognize that he's been walking the talk when it comes to players' arrivals and departures (the only exception being Nuri Sahin
).
* Watzke also explained that Shinji is clearly a no.10, no winger
Those at United dreaming of a swap with Reus or Hummels this summer or those in Dortmund dreaming of #freeShinji got a serious setback today:
Aki Watzke, our (BVB's) boss, explained in a talk show today that for Shinji to return to Dortmund, there would need to be a vacancy on the no. 10 position*, that this position is well stocked up by Mkhitaryan and Reus, and that therefore, he wouldn't see a return happening.
I know that many will think or say now that things can change, but those who follow Watzke a bit longer will recognize that he's been walking the talk when it comes to players' arrivals and departures (the only exception being Nuri Sahin
).* Watzke also explained that Shinji is clearly a no.10, no winger
Good. I hope he stays.
A bit off topic as it's not related to Shinji's performances but I didn't find a more suitable thread:
Those at United dreaming of a swap with Reus or Hummels this summer or those in Dortmund dreaming of #freeShinji got a serious setback today:
Aki Watzke, our (BVB's) boss, explained in a talk show today that for Shinji to return to Dortmund, there would need to be a vacancy on the no. 10 position*, that this position is well stocked up by Mkhitaryan and Reus, and that therefore, he wouldn't see a return happening.
I know that many will think or say now that things can change, but those who follow Watzke a bit longer will recognize that he's been walking the talk when it comes to players' arrivals and departures (the only exception being Nuri Sahin
* Watzke also explained that Shinji is clearly a no.10, no winger
To be fair, this statement could be back tracked very easily by a single statement of Klopp seeing Mkhitaryan´s and Reus´ future more on the wings than in the center and thus creating a vacancy.
I personally believe that if we would have the chance of bringing back Kagawa for a reasonable price, we would go for it. It won´t happen, though. I just think that this is more from Kagawa´s side, who will try to realize his dream at United with another chance under a new manager. This statement by Watzke is more about positioning the club´s stance in that matter towards "We never really tried hard to get him, anyway." I´m sure Klopp (who has a history of keeping contact with former players) enquired about him and Kagawa simply declined.
Btw, nice to see you up in the Mains, Manni
.I'm with you that it's Shinji who has so far refused to return but I actually don't see how he fits in. If Mkhitaryan were to leave or Reus (in summer 2015), I'd see the point but not now. Aki hadn't mentioned that with Jojic and Hofmann, we have additional players who could play on this position (both in training and in competitive matches), and so far the club's way of finding comparably cheap talent and built them up isn't neglected.
I personally believe that Klopp will move Mkhitaryan back to the center for a number of games. We should bear in mind that Klopp's main idea when going for Henrik was an axis of him and Gündogan. Once Ilkay is back and/or once Milos feels more comfortable as no. 8, Klopp will give it another try.
Thanks, Sphaero, fun to mingle with the crowd now.Btw, nice to see you up in the Mains, Manni
Thanks.
Nah he wasn't. Everything ran through him. He was all over the place, in a good way. He was always free and was usually involved in every half decent move we were in.
Anybody know Shinji's win, lose, draw stats this stage of the season (and compared to other players like Carrick, Young and Valencia)? These are the stats I tend to like when judging a player's impact on the team...
He has to play every game.. our only player ( other than Mata) who is comfortable with the ball on tight spaces...
4-3-3.. put him as the advanced midfield 3..
4-3-3.. put him as the advanced midfield 3..
Then what do we do with Mata and Rooney
Sell em both to buy a midfield
United.no(the official Norwegian supporter group) likes to occasionally post interesting stats on their front page. They posted this on April 9.
I don't think you need to understand Norwegian to make sense of the list, but in case you can't, it says that Kagawa has "given" us the most points(2.0 on average per game this season). What's worth noticing, is that they include every league game that the player has featured. This means that they also count games you come on as a substitute, to make things easier.
Taking this into account, I find it remarkable that Kagawa has been involved in so many points in the Premier League this season. He's pretty much never come on as a substitue in games we're winning, so he's not been allowed any "cheap points".
So Kagawa is now the player who runs the most and the player who gets the most points. I know that Mata is here, but I'd still love to see Kagawa get a proper run in the AM position under a good coach. The only critque you could make of Kagawa, is that he doesn't score and assist enough, but I feel that this is connected to his lack of consistent gametime in his favored position. Give him time, and I'm sure he'll succeed. With his constant movement, brilliant technique and catalyst skillset, he offers too much to ignore him. If he could add goals and asssits on top of this, then he could very well become our best player in no time.
Came off the bench 4 times in the league. Twice we were winning, 2-0 and 3-0, won both. Twice we were losing 1-0 and 1-0 and we lost both. So he got 6 cheap points there and didn't change anything to pick up points in the other.
Well that's settled then.
Which games were these?
Feel free to make a list only including games started. I really doubt Kagawa would jump far down the list even then. We still won more games than we lost this season. Being a player who comes on as a sub consistently is gonna be the best, obviously. Kagawa might have gotten 6 cheap points in games he could do very little to change, but did he not also lose 6 points in the other two?
You're also not including City away, Chelsea away. Games against top teams we would have lost anyway.
It doesn't matter if we would have lost the game anyways. Kagawa's average would have been better had he not been used as a sub.
And he didn't come on as a sub vs Chelsea.
That's what I meant. Whether or not Kagawa started a game doesn't mean a whole lot. You have to consider the opposition and about 100 other different variables to take any meaning from games won or lost.
Why do people use a player's individual record for a season? Are they solely responsible for whether the game was a win or a loss?
The guy asked for stats... I merely delivered
Fair enoughThe guy asked for stats... I merely delivered
, nothing against you bro.Fabio and Lindegaard have 100% records in the league. Now I know what we are missing
.The guy asked for stats... I merely delivered
Thanks, Mad Winger. It was me who asked so it's my fault. Regardless of the above differences they're interesting stats nonetheless.
All stats have their positives and negatives for different players as they don't take in to account contributions of the kind that players like Kagawa (and the Carrick of last season) make to the overall team performance.
I feel that the way Kagawa has had to play this season has negatively affected the stats that many people pay most attention to i.e. his goals and assists counts. He's basically had to keep things moving for an otherwise static team and so hasn't got forward as much as he would probably like to have done. He's also had to compete with Rooney in that central role that he favours but, with Wayne in the more advanced position of the two- Shinji has played exceptionally deep at times this season. With Wayne playing on the left or in DM last season under SAF Shinji did occupy the more advanced position of the two.
If you can't laugh at simple humor, you've got a stick up your ass and are probably a bit of a douche.
That's true. Sometimes simple humor is the best.
There's none of that in the evil Kagawa page though. He can't speak English properly and doesn't play sometimes that's it. There's every joke.
Brilliant way to use Kagawa today by Giggs, dropping down to dictate the playmaking and tempo and when the ball moves up he follows. Every time he gets the ball he tries a creative penetrative pass instead of just passing it side-ways to put the responsibility on someone else
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