– Ikke noe dårligere enn Özil

Look at the end for the interview with the Dortmund-fans in english.

Tirsdag bekreftet Manchester United at sommerens første overgang var i boks. Klubben var enig med både Borussia Dortmund og Shinji Kagawa om alle betingelser. Det eneste som nå gjenstår er at han består legetesten han skal gjennom senere i juni.

United.no har snakket med flere om overgangen de siste dagene.

Nå har vi også snakket med én av redaktørene på fansiden schwatzgelb.com.

– Har United kjøpt en spiller som kan hjelpe laget tilbake til toppen av Europa?

– Kagawa er utrolig talentfull, rask og med god teknikk. Han nærmest danser rundt motstandernes backrekke. Som alle gode midtbanespillere er avhengig av, har han også glimrende pasninger. Han er uhyre fa til å spille fri lagkamerater. Samtidig er han en spiller som kan score mål på alle mulige måter i feltet.

– Jeg kan faktisk bare huske at han scoret én eneste gang med hodet, og i Dortmund var han ikke nødvendigvis spilleren som tok frispark, men uansett – antall mål han scoret for oss sier sitt. Jeg vurderer ham ikke som noe dårligere enn for eksempel Mesut Özil.

– Det skal imidlertid sies at Dortmund som lag rett og slett har klikket de siste par årene. Jeg har ingen tvil om kvalitetene hans, men i Dortmund så forstod alle spillerne hverandre. Det har vært total harmoni. Han trenger nok spillere rundt seg som kan tenke like raskt som ham selv hvis han skal kunne vise seg fra sin beste side. Jeg håper han finner disse spillerne også i Manchester.

– Kagawa er verken fysisk robust eller høy. Derfor var det ofte en fordel for ham å møte lag som ikke var så tøffe I spillestilen sin.

– Jeg har imidlertid blitt fortalt at han kan få noen problemer med å tilpasse seg en noe tøffere stil i England. Han kan nemlig falle lett – ikke fordi han filmer, men rett og slett fordi han er en liten spiller som kan bli tatt på det fysiske av og til. Ellers er han heller ingen stor hodespiller, og kan bli bedre defensivt.

– Hva er styrkene?

– Styrken hans er teknikken, og da tenker jeg på hvordan ballen er som limt til foten hans samtidig som han har oversikten over hvor lagkameratene er slik at han kan sende ballen til dem. Det er han fantastisk god på. Han er også rask, både i hodet og til å løpe, men som jeg allerede har sagt – han trenger spillere rundt seg som kan tenke like raskt.

– Han han fungert like bra på vingen som rett bak spissen i Dortmund?

– Da han først kom hit, forsøkte treneren vår å bruke ham på en av kantene. Han bestemte seg imidlertid raskt for at det ikke var hans beste posisjon. Dermed ble han flyttet inn i rollen rett bak spissen.

– Samtidig skal det sies at systemet i Dortmund innebærer at de offensive spillerne ofte bytter plass, og Kagawa har også vært involvert i det. Han er imidlertid klart best sentralt i banen.

– Er det trist å se ham dra?

– Veldig trist. Kagawa var en av de mest elskede spillerne, og det er trist at han drar etter bare to år. Sangen «Kagawa Shinji» ble sunget av fansen hver eneste uke på vår såkalte Südtribune, og vi elsket ham. Rett og slett. Etter hvert skjønte vi imidlertid at han kom til å dra, og da er vi glade for at vi har fått Marco Reuss i stedet.

– Kan du forstå at han drar?

– Spør du meg så er svaret egentlig ikke. Kagawa var alltid en av de som jublet mest sammen med fansen og laget, og her i Dortmund vet vi hvordan det skal feires.

– Med all respekt, jeg tviler på om han vil finne det samholdet og de samme følelsene i England. Samtidig er Premier League en attraktiv liga og veldig populær i Japan så han har ikke gjort et dårlig valg. Jeg håper bare at han lykkes der også, og at karrieren hans fortsetter like fantastisk der.

– Jeg er imidlertid overbevist om at han vil savne Dortmund.

– Hva er ditt beste minne av ham?

– Den er lett. I Dortmund er den viktigste kampen alltid derbyet mot Schalke 04. Begge lag deler en lang historie i Ruhr-området, og har vært rivaler i lang tid. For fansen er dette årets kamp, og vi sier normalt at en seier i derbyet er som en seier i serien.

– I Kagawas første sesong spilte vi mot Schalke tidlig i sesongen. De fleste av oss boikottet kampen i Schalke på grunn av vanvittige billettpriser. Dermed gikk vi glipp av hans store stund. Vi hadde ikke vunnet mot Schalke på lang tid, men han scoret de første to målene i en 3-1-seier. Da var han helt, og derby-helter glemmer vi aldri i Dortmund.

– Fansen ventet på spillerne da de kom tilbake på kvelden. Det var en av de beste kveldene for oss alle, og Kagawa sa senere at han aldri kom til å glemme den. Fansen sang «Kagawa Shinji»-sangen og løftet han opp og ned gatene på skuldrene sine. Tenk på hvordan det må ha vært for den unge japanske gutten

– Var han en fan-favoritt?

– Ja, han var det. Dessverre snakket han ikke tysk spesielt godt så det er ikke så mange andre historier om han og fansen, men han skrev alltid autografer villig da han møtte fansen. Akkurat som alle de andre spillerne gjør – siden treneren er klar på at det er viktig.

– Har det vært et eventyr?

– Med tanke på hva vi betalte for ham så skriver tysk presse ofte at det har vært et eventyr. Men et eventyr ville det egentlig bare vært om han ble i laget også videre.

– Ingen forventet noe da han kom, så ja, det er en fantastisk historie. Samtidig har det vært på samme måte med et par av de andre spillerne våre, som Bender og Piszczek. De kom gratis, og har begge hatt en utrolig utvikling. For meg er det egentlig slik Dortmund er for tiden. Vi har et fantastisk lag og en trener som makter å få ut det beste av spillerne sine.

Dortmund fan-interview in english:

(the interview is done with one of the editors of the Dortmund fansite, schwatzgelb.com.)

Have United bought a player that can help the United back to the top of Europe? Kagawa is an incredibly talented, quick, and technically adept player, that can dance around and through a defense in any way, if he wants to. But not only that, just like a good midfielder should do, he can play great passes into any direction of the offense in order for someone else to score the goal. On the other side he is able to score a goal from pretty much any angle of the penalty area as well. I can only remember him scoring with a h4 once and in DOrtmund he wasn’t necessarily the man for the free kicks- but the number of goals (and especially important goals) he scored speaks for him I would say. I would not rate him any less than I would rate Özil for example. What needs to be said though, in my opinion, even though I have no doubts about Kagawas qualities, our team harmonized in an enormous way and Kagawa had the perfect players to play alongside with him, the understanding of the game, that all players shared, was and is incredible and I do think that Kagawa needs equally quick thinking and acting players around him to show how great he can be. He can make a difference for sure. But our whole team always stood out by combining the greatest goals together, so I hope he will find suitable players in Manchester as well. Do you think he can get even better in United? Kagawa isn’t the tallest and not the biggest. This often helped him when we played against teams that weren’t to rough in their way of playing. I have often heard from other people though, that Kagawa might have some difficulties to adapt to the English way of playing since it is said to be a bit more rough. He sometimes does fall easily, which doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that he does dives, but that he is a rather skinny and small player that gets run over more easily at times. And as I have already mentioned above, he is not necessarily the man for h4s after cornerkicks for example, which is probably also because of his height. What are his main strengths? Anything he is not that good at?His main strength is most certainly is technical quality. The way he keeps the football attached to his foot but still has the eye to look around and to find someone to forward the ball onto, is amazing. He is fast, in running as well as in thinking, and can turn a game around from one second to the other. But, like I said before, he needs players who can think and react just as quickly. I would say that his defensive work might need some building up as well as his qualities in the air. Is he as good on the wing as just behind the front striker?When Kagawa first came to Dortmund our coach Jürgen Klopp tried to put him on one of the wing positions as well but pretty quickly decided that this was not the place for Kagawa. He hence put him onto the position behind the striker. Our system in Dortmund, however, consists of a lot of rotating and so our players in the center often changed sides. Sometimes Kagawa was involved in that as well. He mainly stayed in the center of the pitch though.As fans – are you sad to see him leaving? Very sad. Kagawa was one of our most cherished players and we are sad to see him leave after only two years. The song «Kagawa Shinji» was sung by the Südtribüne every week and we fans loved him. Most of us, however, have expected things to come like that and we are great to welcome Marco Reus instead.Do you understand that he wants to leave?Me personally? Not really. Kagawa was always up front when it came to the celebrations with the team and the fans, and here in Dortmund we know how to celebrate ;-). I doubt that he will every find the union and the passion that our team and fans share in England. No offense. The Premier League is, however, very attractive for many players and is also very popular in Japan, so it is not like he made a bad choice. I hope he will find his way in England and will do great in his career in Manchester as well. I am still convinced that he will my Dortmund as a team.

Whats your best memory from his matches for Dortmund?That is an easy one. Here in Dortmund, the most important game of the season is always the Derby against our rival FC Schalke 04. Both teams share a long history in the «Ruhrgebiet» and have been rivals for a long time. For us fans, both sided, this game is the game of the years and we usually say «A derby victory is like a CHampionship victory». In Kagawas first season, we played against Schalke very early in the season and since most of us fans boycotted the game due to outrageous ticket prices, we missed the game in the stadium and Kagawas hour of perfection. We hadn’t won an away game against Schalke in ages and Kagawa scored the first two goals (it was a 3:1 victory for us in the end) of the game and was a born Derby hero. And Derby heroes are never forgotten in Dortmund. It was the moment when Kagawa became a hero of the fans and we welcomed the whole team and especially Kagawa in Dortmund near the stadium in the evening with thousands of fans. It was one of the greatest days for all of us and Kagawa later said that he would never forget that day in his life. Fans sang the «Kagawa Shinji» song and carried him up and down the street on their shoulders. There are videos on youtube. Imagine what this must have been like for the Japanese boy.

Was he a fan-favourite?

He was a fan favourite and the story from above is probably THE Kagawa story with fans. For him it must have felt insane. Unfortunately his German is not very great (not sure about his English skills) and so there are not great stories of him meeting fans but he gives autographs just like all the Dortmund players do. Our coach Klopp always said that it was important to do so and so they all do. But he always enjoyed to celebrate with the fans after the game.Kagawa was almost an unknown player when Dortmund bought him in 2010. Has it been a fairytale-story?

It was often said by the German media that the price we paid for him and the outcome of what he was and is able to do is like a «fairytale». A fairytale it would have been if he had stayed with the team and had grown with it even further. Noone had high expectations when he came, so in this sense, it is a great story. However it has been the same with a few of our other players like Bender and Piszczek who all came for free and have developed in an amazing way. To me, this is the story of Borussia Dortmund nowadays. We have a fantastic team and a fantastic coach and he brings out the best in our players.