Sint Truiden midfielder Shinji Kagawa has explained that a lack of team cohesion is what caused his spell at Manchester United to fall by the wayside.
The Japanese midfielder joined United in a €16m deal from Borussia Dortmund back in 2012 after two impressive years with the German side after joining from Cerezo Osaka.
A tally of 29 goals and 16 assists in 71 games certainly caught the eye and led Manchester United to hoping he could repeat that in the Premier League.
He arrived at Old Trafford with a big reputation because of those numbers and initially impressed, with six goals and six assists in 26 games in his first season, a decent enough tally.
He was subsequently sent back to Borussia Dortmund in an €8m deal the following year and, looking back, now believes it was the change in coach that ruined his Manchester United career.
“Of course, there were many reasons and not one in particular, but the most important one for me in retrospect is the change of coach,” he told Transfermarkt.
“When a new coach comes in, there is usually a different tactic. As a team, we then didn’t function well in my second year.
“When that’s the case, it becomes harder and harder for the individual player to function well, too.
“That happens in football all the time, and finding that out was an important lesson for me back then.”
