What happened to Shinji Kagawa?

UweBein

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On his day... he was absurdly world class... has played one of the best seasons in German football since the 90-ties.
 

Lay

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Not being funny but I watched Japan vs Syria (2017) while I was in Japan on holiday. They sucked big time. They drew 1-1 but we’re losing to a Country controlled by terrorists. I love Japan but they haven’t come close to producing another Nakamura.
Syria have been on the cusp of a World Cup appearance. They had to do without their two best players and still almost qualified over Australia for the 2018 World Cup. They lost 3-2 in the playoff against Australia. Not sure how they are now but they weren’t a bad team.
 

L1nk

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Not being funny but I watched Japan vs Syria (2017) while I was in Japan on holiday. They sucked big time. They drew 1-1 but we’re losing to a Country controlled by terrorists. I love Japan but they haven’t come close to producing another Nakamura.
No, I agree, but 2017 is when Kagawa was already on the decline, i'm talking around the time he played for us, the national team was looking great with him and Honda and a few others in the squad
 

do.ob

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I thought he was still good individually for the first couple of seasons after he went back to Dortmund(even though the 2014-15 season was terrible for the team overall) though i was only watching a game or two every month and not week in week out, but then he started to become injury prone, declined quickly and lost favour by the time Bosz was manager. Saw him a few times for Japan since and he's physically finished for good level football.

Don't think there is much mystery to his decline, just another example of a player that keeps it together physically for about ten years then drops off quite quickly.
I think that's mostly correct. Also Dortmund bringing back Götze was probably a big factor, as he's a fairly similar player. Yet despite his injury problems and having to compete with the bigger name and more expensive player in Götze, he always came around during season and got his starts and delivered some goals and assists. It was Favre who decided he was going to play a 4231 and tough luck for Götze and Kagawa, because he also put Reus on the one position they could have played. Götze managed to pivot to the no9 role for the season, but Kagawa was just axed completely and that seems to have killed his drive. Because after that he had a loan at Besiktas where he couldn't win a starting spot and then he went straight to Segunda Division, to get Spain off his bucket list.
 

Yagami

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Random bump but he was catching up with Mata a few months ago in Japan


Even though Kagawa left shortly after Mata arrived, they seemed to become good friends.

A video dedicated to his link up play with Rooney:



12/13 season:



13/14 season:

 

Brophs

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He signed for a club well above his level and then regressed after losing all confidence.
 

FrankDrebin

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At the time, I remember us heavily linked to both Kagawa and Lewandowski.
 

Yagami

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At the time, I remember us heavily linked to both Kagawa and Lewandowski.
Mourinho tried to sign him at Real Madrid before us. Mourinho was honest about what his placement in the team would be which is why Kagawa rejected them.
 

horsechoker

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It might have worked out for him here had Fergie stayed and Rooney been sold and he was made no.10 behind RVP.
 

Borninthe80ts

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Fantastic footballer. Two footed, balanced and wonderful touch. Like Veron for me, wrong timing but loved watching them play.
 

padzilla

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Another big reputation, high profile signing from Dortmund that failed to deliver on the hype. At least Mkhitaryan and Sancho proved there wasn't an issue when we sign players from there. Wait a minute...
 

buckooo1978

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classy player and a victim of post-Fergie United.

In an alternate reality Fergie stays on, sells Rooney and Kagawa would have been in contention to take his spot....

maybe a move towards a more system, possession driven United
 

padzilla

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That's more an issue of who we choose to sign. If we had signed Lewa, Gundogan, Haaland, Aubameyang it would be different
Yeah that's a fair point, I just think we need to stop signing hugely hyped wingers from Dortmund. Strikers on the other hand - Haaland or Lewa wouldn't have been so much of a problem.
 

Ekeke

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He's a 10 playing for Klopp. Signs for United to play for Sir Alex, Rooney has the 10 sewn up regardless of how well he plays but he's normally playing really well so not a problem us. But a problem for a 10 comng in. Then Sir Alex leaves with unfinished business with players like Kagawa and Zaha. No doubt he thought he was leaving fantastic players for the next manager to build a great team with.

Sir Alex and Gill leave at the same time. Not only do we have a new manager and new coaching staff come in, but we have a new man in charge of making the transfers happen. It couldnt be worse timing and results in our big summer signing being... Fellaini... Who was available earlier in the transfer window for less money and we didnt sign him.

We have a season where expectations are still high for Moyes and we dont come close. And then he's gone and LVG comes in.

Kagawa's main standout qualities were his dribbling and more importantly he would join the attack at the right times to get on the scoresheet. Klopp said he had the best nose for goal of any player he managed at that point. 13 goals and 8 assists in the league alone in 11/12 gave him that impression.

LVG comes in and coaches the attacking instincts out of everyone. We have Rooney and Mata playing as central midfielders at certain points. Mata who came in under Moyes and was our most creative player lost his edge in the final third too and never recovered to be the same player either although he still produced more in the final third than Kagawa. They were coached into keeping the ball at all costs and not taking chances to try and change the scoreline. Mata and Kagawa playind down the sides had decent enough play before the box but no cutting edge in the final third.

So Kagawa is moved on and he plays a deeper proper CM role now, probably because he's lost that goalscoring instinct that had been impressive before.

Realistically after he went back he was still a fairly good player for Dortmund. He just wasnt the same player. He wasnt the 10 joining and scoring lots of goals, he was an 8 scoring some and setting up goals for others and he was no longer looking among the best players at Dortmund.

Whether it was the LVG coaching in his head leading to him not getting himself in the same positions to score goals or a loss of confidence where he was thriving at Dortmund and then at United he was just a kag in the wheel, a stand in for Rooney in his actual position, played out of position on the left or coached out of creating and scoring goals by LVG's tactics he couldnt find the Kagawa he was the first time at Dortmund. I have sympathy for him for his time at United but I think if he was strong mentally he would have been able to find the player he was after he left and he didnt quite get there. So that last part falls on him. Plus they say you should never go back because it'll never be the same so perhaps it wasnt the right move anyway. Regardless I did think he would do better than he did post United even though he was once again a pretty good player for Dortmund, he could have been more.

All in all a big shame for United. At Dortmund he was flying and looked a fantastic player who could be a big part of our first team. He was one of several who were caught in the many different directions people were pulling the club after they came in and he no doubt changed as a person and as a player
 

ROFLUTION

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It might have worked out for him here had Fergie stayed and Rooney been sold and he was made no.10 behind RVP.
I genuinely don't believe it would ever have worked with him here. For me he is the archetypical player coming from Bundesliga who's not ready for the task and who hasn't got the physique and tempo to fit Premier League, never mind dictate games. Where David Silva looked like a fine ballerina with the ball, Kagawa always looked like a hockey player to me with his turning, reading of the game, etc.

I had higher hopes for Mkhitaryan than for Kagawa.
 

Chipper

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I never saw too much of him before he joined us. I was aware of his stats and that for Dortmund and had seen highlight compilations etc. but that was it. As such I didn't have much in the way of pre-conceived ideas about him.

Must have been difficult for him after us signing Van Persie which came somewhat out of the blue. Still, I can't say Kagawa ever did much for us to make me think he'd be a good player for United. He'll always have the Norwich hat-trick game of course. Can't really think of any other fond memories I have of him.

Pretty sure his debut, or one his early games was against Everton away in an evening kick off and I thought he was borderline terrible. I only remember that because I came on here afterwards and there was lots of praise for him which baffled me. Nani was genuinely terrible that night from memory and I think he got subbed off early. After that I was thinking Kagawa was the 2nd worst player of the 22 who started for both sides. Can't recll the score without looking it up, think we might have lost 1-0?

He didn't hit the ground running and never really got it going, which again was always going to be hard with his limited opportunities.

There seemed to be a bit of a cult around him here, not just from madwinger which at least provided some comedy value.
 
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Ole'sgunnarwin

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He was doing really well with Dortmund and apparently joined Man United. The latter learned their lesson not to buy from the aforementioned in the future.
 

Terry Chango

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Not signing players from Dortmund because some failed is just stupid. Next time just sign the Haaland and not the Kagawa, Miki or Sancho. Identify the right player.
I was just pointing out sancho. It wasn’t my logic
 

L1nk

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He was a #10 in a High pressing all action Dortmund team. We signed him and decided to mostly play him as a Winger in our 4-4-2 system. He was never a Ronaldo or a Nani, it was never going to work, a proper square peg in round hole situation.

Was gutted too cause I thought he was class, he's the kind of player that would absolutely excel in Liverpool or Man City right now.