3. Vision & Intelligence: Great midfielders make the game look simple, this lad plays as if he’s in slow motion. He spots runs very easily and due to the fact he’s very ambidextrous, he doesn’t need to waste that split second to get it on to his favoured foot, he can release the pass first time off either foot precisely with the right weight of pass. This is despite the fact in addition to this, he seems to have developed an extraordinary use of the outside of the foot pass, most players develop this technique to cater for the fact they’re one footed, he just seems to enjoy the fact it gives him extra unpredictability and he is very Scholesy-esque in the way he executes it. In addition to his intelligence in terms of through-balls and general ball retention, his awareness of how to move in and around the box in terms of locating pockets of space and timing of runs is excellent.
4. Finishing Ability: There’s no point of making all those excellent runs if you don’t have the technique or the confidence to put chances away and whilst the latter may be in question with regards to whether he can regularly be relied upon to put chances away in a high pressure enviroment such as Manchester United, there’s no doubt that technically he’s a very complete goalscoring attacking midfielder. He can score volleys off either foot, finish with curls, chips, from the edge of the box or one v one. Long range shots to be honest are probably not a speciality but this is more due to the fact he likes to keep the ball and ensure he has a sure fire chance to score rather than take pot shots from distance. His heading is unlikely to be the second coming of Ronaldo, but he is capable of putting headers away and no doubt he has years to develop this side to his game.
5. Commercial Success: There has been much talk about how United are buying him for commercial success and no doubt, this aspect to him as a player has definitely drawn extra attention to him from Old Trafford circles. He is already a budding star in the east, but mark my words, when he signs he’ll be the greatest Asian Footballer to have left those shores – period. Unlike Park who seems abit overwhelmed with the attention he recieves, Kagawa is alot more self-confident and would take it in his stride, he’ll revel in being a far east poster boy. Nevertheless even if he didn’t possess this aspect to hm, I and many others would’ve advocated signing him anyway, his talent rather than his ethnicity speaks volumes.
Despite marvelling at his attributes, one has to bear in mind he is slighly lightweight in terms of physique and experience in terms of being a big number 10 who dictates games on a regular basis. The likes of Messi, David Silva, Iniesta, Kroos, Ozil, Sniejder… they excel for club and country (bar Messi) due to the fact they have an excellent support structure in midfield, which allows them to move around the pitch without being man-marked too heavily and kicked out of the game. It is often cliched to say football is a team game and no individual on his own can make a difference, but when one looks at Messi for his club and Messi for his country, the saying has never been truer.
The modern game is so physically demanding it seems unlikely that a Maradona type player or even Ronaldinho at his pomp can transcend the averageness of his team mates and run a game single-handedly and that is players of extreme calibre we’re talking about. One only has to look at Eden Hazard’s recent performance for Belgium against Montenegro to realise just how difficult it is for the budding number 10 to completely dominate a game as an old school playmaker. He was made to look distinctly average and predictable, and he’s not alone, most top footballers who look great at club level, tend to look awful at international football tournements these days due to the improvements in organisation and fitness. Thus the point I’m trying to make is you need a strong team in terms of technique, movement, intelligence and a variety of threats, to bring the best out a modern playmaker and make no bones about it, Kagawa is without doubt an old school playmaker.
What United need to do to bring the best out of Kagawa and the team?
To truly create a functioning midfield which is capable of weaving the same patterns of play as Barcelona, Madrid, Bayern.. you need three players in a midfield which share similar characteristics to an extent. They must be intelligent, confident, technical, industrious and mobile… other than that, their actual qualities can be different and the roles they play can be divergent. Whereas at Barcelona there is Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets – at Madrid there is Ozil, Alonso & Khadeira, at Bayern there is Kroos, Schweinsteiger, Gustavo… at United, ideally Scholes, Giggs and Carrick as a trio on paper can match up, but in reality the former two lack the industry due to age to perform consistently at high intensity and furthermore Carrick for all his qualities in terms of reading the game defensively, doesn’t match up to the other simple passers aforementioned in terms of mobility, a key attribute which is often overlooked in defensive midfield players.
Thus to allow Kagawa to be our Ozil we need players similar to him terms of mobility, confidence and intelligence. Cleverley is perhaps the only younger player we possess on his wavelength. We need one more, as in my opinion Anderson just can’t be relied upon as he always has one major injury a year. The issue is however do we buy a young mobile defensive midfielder and allow Cleverly and Kagawa the freedom to run games in tandem or do we purchase a more deeper lying playmaker in the mould of Modric and use a combination of Carrick/Jones or Cleverley as our defensive midfielders. Either way one more midfield talent is needed in my opinion, if we want to make a mark on Europe. Kagawa alone might actually be enough to win the premiership bear in mind Vidic returning and hopefully a injury-free season from Cleverley, but if we want to aspire to a very high standard of play we need two playmakers and a mobile defensive midfielder.
Modric-Kagawa
Cleverley
It would be pretty mouth-watering in terms of possession, it might not be defensively strong and it lacks bite, but to be honest the Barcelona, Bayern and Madrid midfields lack bite and it doesn’t seem to be hurting their possession stats one bit. The need for an old school Keane like player in terms of personality is not really needed anymore, but what is needed is Keane’s presence, authority and understated elegance on the ball in those deeper positions. Cleverley has to take his game to the next level and remain injury free in order for United to get the best out of new recruits and take that midfield to the next level. Jones can possibly play in that position, but he’s abit gung ho and I just don’t think he has the intelligence of Cleverley on the ball or the nimble footwork.
Conclusion
In conclusion I think the signing of Kagawa is a brilliant one, if he’s the only purchase we make, our play will still undoubtedly go up a notch. With the return of Vidic, and the greater experience in general of our defenders we will go further in Europe this season and I think we could wrestle the title back from City. But in my opinion to truly get rid of the malaise which has been evident in this team since the back end of 07/08, we need to revolutionise our midfield. To truly compete with what will be a resurgent Barca, giving the likes of Scholes one year contracts is not going to help. Kagawa is just one half of the solution, the other half needs to be found.
Written by Raees Mahmood (follow me on www.twitter.com/redrae7)
