Kagawa joins magical marketing tour with much to gain

Deployed freely in the centre – and with Rooney surely off to pastures greener in west London – Kagawa may even help the new manager evolve United’s style of play. After all, with United only marginally deviating from a 4-4-2 last season, Sir Alex Ferguson’s team was, at times, a little predictable.

But if Sir Alex didn’t fully understand the player, whom United acquired last summer for around £14 million, then his former manager Jurgen Klopp surely does. The Champions League finalist is in little doubt how United will gain most from Kagawa’s time at the club.

“Shinji Kagawa is one of the best players in the world, and he now plays 20 minutes at Manchester United – on the left wing! My heart breaks. Really, I have tears in my eyes, ” Klopp told The Guardian in May.

“Central midfield is Shinji’s best role. He’s an offensive midfielder with one of the best noses for goal I ever saw. But for most Japanese people it means more to play for Man United than Dortmund. We cried for 20 minutes, in each other’s arms, when he left.”

In that there is a salutatory lesson for Moyes, although it comes with no guarantee that it will be heard. Not that the Glaswegian is likely to break down in tears, but there is a question whether the 50-year-old will be bold enough to deploy Kagawa between the lines of midfield and attack.

After all, Mikel Arteta and Steven Pienaar, playmakers both, were frequently deployed on the wing under Moyes’ stewardship, while the Scot often used Marouane Fellaini ‘in the hole’ – a tactic that normally provoked Everton’s dogs of war to launch repeated waves of direct balls at the Belgian’s substantial frame.

Moreover, with United chasing Barcelona’s Cesc Fàbregas and prepared, it is reported, to spend heavily on Gareth Bale, Kagawa’s starting berth in the centre is at risk. Both potential acquisitions played much of last season as advanced central midfielders, leaving Kagawa to benefit should the club instead pull off an audacious bid for Real Madrid’s Luka Modri?.

It is a scenario, albeit one in the spirit of fanciful speculation that is so common this time of year, that edged a step closer on Monday, with Barcelona once again rejecting United’s bid for the Spaniard.

Yet, the new United manager has revealed little of his tactical thinking in the 22 days since he was officially crowned as Ferguson’s heir; less still about what, if anything, he has planned for the club’s Japanese star.

“I know a little about him as a player,” said Moyes on Monday.

“Sir Alex spoke in glowing terms about Shinji and how good a player he is. I’ve just met him today, so we’re getting to know each other. I’m trying to learn Japanese and he’s trying to understand my Scottish.

“It was his first season in the Premier League last year. He’s a young player so we hope his development continues. I look forward to working with him and hopefully he has a really good season coming up.”

That, of course, depends on Kagawa playing more frequently for United and in a role that suits his plentiful skills. Neither is guaranteed.

But then again nor has the midfielder’s opportunity been so great – and that has little to do with those sponsor commitments that so dominated Kagawa’s return to United action on Monday.