Mixed bag: Shinji Kagawa blows hot and cold in his mission to impress David Moyes

Manchester United fans finally got their wish on Wednesday night when star playmaker Shinji Kagawa was “released” against Real Sociedad.

Having played in just one Premier League game all year for the Red Devils, the Japan international played the full 90 minutes against the Spanish club as United irked out a 1-0 victory, but his performance still left more questions remaining than it did answers in terms of his role at the club this season.

Played out on the wing (in a role that would no doubt have broken Jurgen Klopp’s heart), Kagawa struggled to find his feet against Sociedad’s defence. Part of that was the Spanish club’s desire to get men behind the ball after falling behind 1-0 early, but part of it was also his positioning.

Kagawa — regardless of how many times he’s played there — isn’t a winger, and showed again here that he’s far more prolific in the middle of the field than out wide.

As his Individual Action Areas Map shows, Kagawa showed a real willingness to get into the middle of the field. Of the time he spent in Sociedad’s half, more time was spent in the middle than on the left wing.

He and Wayne Rooney interchanged a lot in this — swapping between being an inverted winger and a central playmaker — but it was clear that the 2012 summer signing was much more effective centrally than out wide.

When he did manage to get on the ball, Kagawa was extremely effective. He misplaced just 10 passes all night (three of which were long balls) and created three goal-scoring chances also. Only Rooney and Ryan Giggs would create more goal-scoring chances on the night.

Kagawa offered glimpses of his attacking talent by completing four of his six attempted take-ons (only Giggs completed more than him), but was largely left frustrated by being out of his favoured position. His three attempted shots for the night were either blocked or off target, and he finished with United’s second-lowest Individual Performance Score for the night.

Unfortunately, his low score doesn’t quite show how effective he was at times in this one and how potent he looked running centrally, and it’s certainly unfair to judge him based on that fact alone.

Kagawa was an effective distributor and caused Sociedad plenty of problems, but his lack of defensive contribution (which is one of his major weaknesses) let him down in this one. Moyes can hardly fault him for that, though, given that Kagawa’s lack of a defensive game isn’t a surprise to anyone and one of the key reasons why he shouldn’t be played out wide.

Only time will tell whether the positives from Kagawa’s game against Sociedad are recognised by those that matter most and result in the 24-year-old finally getting the regular starting appearances that he deserves.