Shinji Kagawa conundrum: How the midfielder left Manchester United vulnerable against Stoke City

A common theme at the beginning of David Moyes’s Manchester United reign has been the constant questioning over the future of their Japanese playmaker Shinji Kagawa.

It has taken over two months for the new manager to put his faith in Kagawa’s ability and play him for a full game in the Premier League. He has been used sparingly so far this season, playing mainly in cup competitions, but did his display against Stoke warrant a regular place in the United starting eleven? Let’s analyse.

Kagawa was given the duty of cutting in from the left with the intention of threading through balls in between Stoke’s right-back Geoff Cameron and right centre-back Ryan Shawcross, but was forced to play sideways and even backwards on several occasions.

He may have completed 93% of his passes, but his Passing Map shows that Stoke did well to stop him penetrating their back four, forcing him to maraud across the pitch to try and get hold of the ball in advanced areas as his passing map shows.

Kagawa’s tidy passing percentage proves that he could be lethal if he got the opportunity to find pockets of space in between opponents’ midfield and defence, but he never got that opportunity at the weekend.

The Japanese international’s natural position is playing in the hole behind the striker, but United have to fit Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie into their starting line-up, meaning Kagawa rarely gets to show off what he can do in his favoured role.

His Actions Areas from Saturday’s game shows that he was often trying to drift inside into his natural role but was crowded out by the Stoke defence throughout the 90 minutes. The presence of Rooney, who was playing in that number ten role, did not help his cause either as he looked lost for ideas when he got hold of the ball.

Kagawa’s tendency to move inside meant that Patrice Evra was forced to play as a left winger for the majority of the match.

Evra relished his attacking role, completing four key passes, just one less than the whole Stoke team.

However, this all caused United some almost catastrophic problems defensively as Evra’s unusually advanced position meant that Stoke created several chances to score in the first half. Four of their five key passes in the first half came as a result of Jonny Evans being forced to cover the Frenchman on United’s left-hand side, because Evra had failed to track back efficiently due to the imbalance in United’s midfield four.

In truth, Kagawa is not a left winger, and he is obviously going to drift inside if he is forced to play there. It is a tricky dilemma which Moyes currently faces as it is almost impossible to drop Rooney or Van Persie, meaning that Kagawa is the one that misses out.

But if United are ever going to see the best of their Japanese playmaker, they have to play him in behind a striker because when he plays on the left, there is a complete lack of balance to their team.