Is David Moyes reshaping Shinji Kagawa?

Man cannot live by stats alone, yet Shinji Kagawa is running low on sympathy and circumstantial evidence at Old Trafford having failed to record a single goal or assist in 13 appearances this season.

Like Michael Carrick before him, the question of whether the Japanese international is underrated or underperforming has started to be treated like some sort of online football IQ test, with the identity of the invigilator determining the outcome of answering A or B.

His defenders will cite the Japanese’s nine key passes—four in the Premier League and another five in five Champions League games—yet they only further entrench his status as a rather academic player relying on theory rather than application.

To his critics, these stats are likely to go as unappreciated as the interceptions notched up by Carrick during his own wilderness years. After all, such intangibles pale in comparison to the blunt truths of goals and assists, especially as Wayne Rooney gallops about matches making things happen with little regard to finesse or subtlety.

Rooney may remain unsuited to the lithe, short passing game required to play as a No. 10 but he is almost always able to make the best of a situation thanks to his rough ‘n’ ready improvisational skills, something that Kagawa struggles to do.

And while his supporters will protest that he brings benefits to the team that can be difficult to measure or define, his competitors in the United squad rarely require polemics or debates to justify their selection or performances.

While his quality can be obvious at times his aptness in a United shirt rarely is, and it can be argued that having continued to do well with the well-drilled Japanese national team he is a player who needs a more systematic playing style to flourish, as he did at Borussia Dortmund.

The emergence of Adnan Januzaj could not have come at a worse time for the playmaker, with the Kosovar-Albanian a vision of intent out wide and through the middle. Rather than wilting against stronger opponents with his slight frame, the Belgium-born 18-year-old has shown himself able to shape games rather than wait for chances to come to him. His impact is obvious, Kagawa’s often isn’t; an observation that may not be limited to the ranks of spectators.

Unfortunately for the Japanese it’s never taken much effort to understand and enjoy United’s best players. They’ve almost always pervaded a sense of impatient destiny, from Best, Robson and Keane to Cantona, Scholes and Beckham.

Even Cristiano Ronaldo, during his peak years at the club, was a focussed shot of flair rather than a formless mess of wasteful glamour. Instead, Kagawa is sliding into the club’s bin of flops and unsuitables alongside Dimitar Berbatov, Diego Forlan, Juan Sebastian Veron and Karel Poborsky.

Progress hasn’t been forthcoming this year either with his most noteworthy performances of late having been rather muted compared to his emphatic hat-trick against Norwich City last season.

In United’s Champions League opener against Bayer Leverkusen he loitered on the edge of the opposition box, receiving and laying off quick, simple passes from the left-sided channel. As Rooney and Robin van Persie roamed free around him, he was a mundane yet useful pivot to play off yet still ultimately benign.

He later looked rampant if unfulfilled away against Real Sociedad, and was involved in both Antonio Valencia and Chris Smalling’s goals in the second clash with Leverkusen, but under David Moyes he has so far looked like a peripheral co-star rather than a decisive protagonist.

Those who still trust that Kagawa can come good may turn to David Silva’s stats from last season for support, with the Spaniard strangely subdued as a goal-creation machine as Manchester City failed to defend their title. He recorded only eight assists in 32 league appearances, yet was able to supply his teammates with a total of 95 key passes. That’s just under three key passes per game (2.97) compared to Kagawa’s current rate of one every other game (0.5).

But could it be that he really has become a contributor from the shadows at United, whose best work regularly goes unappreciated?

Compared to his opposite numbers at Chelsea, City, Liverpool and Arsenal, Kagawa comes out second for his defensive actions, and top for interceptions. Meanwhile, his performances as a duellist appear to have been hampered by a lack of minutes rather than application, that is until you look at these numbers in the context of his own team-mates.

Here—regardless of goals scored and assists made—Januzaj and Rooney’s immediacy becomes clear with Kagawa’s stats sharing more in common with the much-maligned Ashley Young than his more highly regarded associates.

It’s tempting to explain away the likeable Japanese’s failures at Old Trafford by saying that he is the right player at the wrong time, or a victim of tactical incompatibility and circumstance, but such excuses benefit no one.

Can a playmaker influence his team’s season without troubling the statisticians? Of course. Luka Modric was a player celebrated for his ability to play the perfect pass to create the assist during his Premier League days, but Kagawa is yet to do enough to deserve such a generously cerebral explanation of his role. He lacks the evidence of any such before-the-chance productivity to give credence to the idea that he is influential beyond the stats sheet.

More so, he has become an apologised for passenger of late at United, and unless he can unearth the make-do-and-mend mentality of Januzaj and Rooney, any assertions that he is a player somehow too good or intelligent to make his presence known to the naked eye will remain pure fan fiction.

Whether it’s time for Moyes to give up on the former Bundesliga Player of the Year depends on whether Kagawa can show that he doesn’t need to rely on others to provide him with confidence and initiative in order to salvage what’s left of his United career.