If a player scores a hat-trick, he would normally expect to keep his place in the team. Not so with Shinji Kagawa. After he scored a hat-trick against Norwich on 2 March 2013, he was dropped for the next game against Real Madrid, and has since been in and out of the team (mostly out). There have been no reports suggesting that Kagawa has been injured, so presumably the decision to drop him comes down to 'footballing reasons', as they say. But since the Norwich game, we have played six games. Among those, we have won only two, drawn one, and lost three. Kagawa has only started two of those (the win against Sunderland, the draw against Chelsea). It seems to me that we are performing significantly better when Kagawa is on the pitch.
Compare that record to Danny Welbeck, who arguably has played only two good games the entire season (incredibly, both against Real Madrid), yet keeps being selected regularly as a starter. In my (subjective) view, we have to go back to Kieran Richardson to find a player that has played to so frequently for United, despite such a poor performance. Like all United fans, I love it when players come through the youth programme and break into the first team (and even the England squad!). However, it is also frustrating when there appears to be double standards in effect when players are picked for United's starting line-up (just ask Dimitar Berbatov).
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