An Appreciation of Shinji Kagawa

Sir Alex Ferguson has expressed his determination to win back the BPL title through his activity in the transfer window, spending £41m to bring Dortmund midfielder Shinji Kagawa, and Dutch goal machine Robin Van-Persie into his already quality Manchester United squad.

With all the hype being centred around the latter of the two players, the fans and the media have overlooked the cheaper, and (in my opinion) better of the two, Kagawa. Most English football fanatics won't even cast an eye over to the other European leagues, but those who do will know just how good a signing this is for the Red Devils, who have lacked an attacking play maker for years.

 Style of Play

Kagawa isn't your normal number 10, he gets amongst the goals as well as providing assists, scoring 29 in 71 appearances for Dortmund at 2.45 games per goal, a stat better than Welbeck's last season, and just short of Rooney's 182 goals in 367 games for the Red Devils, an incredible stat for a midfielder. A fantastic dribbler of the ball, the agile Japanese maestro often looks to beat his man, and with his quick changes of pace he can sneak through a defence easily (shown in the video).

Overall, his strengths are a great vision for a pass, with the technique on the ball to meet it, with the play maker known for excellent passes. His agile dribbling and pace are two other aspects to his brilliant game as I mentioned before. Another one of his qualities is his movement, something I saw against Everton,(where he was one of the only good Man Utd players) was his great movement, which saw him get on the ball often, finding space to receive a pass from his teammates.

 

 

The Statistics

• 49 appearances in the Bundesliga over two years at Borussia Dortmund
• In that time he scored 21 league goals
• Kagawa was Dortmund's second top scorer in the Bundesliga, behind Lewandowski (23), with 13 goals.
• He had an incredible shots per goal ratio for the Bundesliga club at 4.14 (87 shots, 21 goals) in his two seasons there.
• Out of those 87 shots, 62% of them were on target (54) 
• The Japanese midfielder created 78 chances, at a rate of 1.45 per game.

As you can tell from these stats, Kagawa is more of a goalscoring midfielder than a classic number 10, however he has the ability to play both roles, which we could see him do at the same time in a Manchester United shirt.

 

Borussia Dortmund

Kagawa in the Dortmund Side

For Die Schwarzgelben, Kagawa played just behind the striker in a 4-2-3-1 formation, who was usually Lewandowski. Kagawa formed a good partnership with the Pole, who finished the Bundesliga season with 22 goals, which won him the player of the season award.

The number 10 often played very close Lewandowski, turning the 4-2-3-1 into a 4-4-2, as the Japanese striker linked well with him and Gotze, who usually played in the RW position.

Manchester United

With the Red Devils playing a similar formation to Dortmund, Kagawa should settle in to Ferguson's system, playing in the highest midfielder role of their new 4-2-1-3 formation.

With the options of Rooney, Welbeck, van Persie and Nani ahead of him, not to mention Young and Chicharito, Kagawa will be looking to get many assists this season, with the quality of players he will supply to, he should be creating more chances than the 1.45 per game he managed at Die Schwarzgelben.

Kagawa in Man Utd's new system

Another contributing factor to my expectations of him getting plenty of assists is the fluidity of the front three ahead of him. All three of the forwards are versatile, able to play as a striker or winger, and we will be seeing them interchanging positions frequently, something I mentioned in my recent article on their new system. This means that they will often find space, with both wide men cutting inside and Rooney dropping deep, they are a lot more fluid than Dortmund's attack, which will in turn lead to Kagawa creating more chances for his new club.


Though it's too early in the season to make a judgement, I'm sure that Kagawa will be another of Sir Alex Ferguson's great signings. With an impressive record for his Dortmund team, the number 10 will want to improve on his 21 goals and 9 assists, something I fully expect him to do. He won't take long to fit in, in fact, judging from his performance against Everton, it looks like he already has done. He started performing immediately when he joined Die Schwarzgelben, scoring 12 goals in 28 appearances in first season at the club.

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