Fergie: Kagawa Still Adapting

Whilst Shinji Kagawa has shown great potential since joining United in the summer, we’ve yet to see him shine on a consistent basis. He has spent a large chunk of the season injured and for some reason seems to fade in the second half and not influence the game as much.

Sir Alex Ferguson has today defended Kagawa and claimed that our young Japanese player is still adapting to the more physical nature of this league.

“The difference between German and English football is that in Germany you can’t foul,” Ferguson said. “You are not allowed to touch anyone in Germany, so he has come from that environment to the Premier League which is totally different. There is a physicality to our game which is different from Germany, but next year he’ll be better. I thought in the first half-hour [against Real] he was terrific and he was making some great runs through them. We thought that was going to be one of our biggest assets in the game, someone to play in the second balls and he was just unlucky with a couple of heavy touches on the ball. But he kept on opening them up and if people don’t see that, it’s actually unfair, but he did really well for us in the first half.”