David Moyes has been praised by powers above at Manchester United for his handling of the club's summer transfer activities.

He supposedly had two aims, keeping Wayne Rooney and signing a midfielder, which have both been fulfilled, the latter one by the capture of Marouane Fellaini.

With Moyes therefore starting the season with the squad he wanted, one would have been forgiven for presuming the Scot had plans on how to make use of all the resources at his disposal.

However, Shinji Kagawa has made just two competitive appearance for the Red Devils so far this season, playing 70 minutes in the Champions League and appearing in the Capital One Cup on Wednesday.

The mystery behind why the 24-year-old is not playing is made even more baffling by the fact that Borussia Dortmund were not allowed to re-sign their former charge, who they wanted to link back up with.

Kagawa might not have had an awe-inspiring first season at Old Trafford, but the £17million signing was hampered by injury and when he did appear his talent was undoubted.

Moyes insists the reason Kagawa has not been getting game time is due to his international schedule.

He said: "There are quite a lot of players who have not featured yet.

"But if you look at it most of them were late back from international duty after the Confederations Cup, then they were away for a friendly international and a long-haul flight, then they were away again for another international.

"If you look at the reasons why people haven't played it is more to do with them not being available for that to happen."

Could there be more to it though? Is there more to it?

It could certainly be said that, if considering Kagawa's best position, there seems not the space for him in United's side at the moment.

When he helped Dortmund to back-to-back titles, the Jap was a vital component of the German side, slotting in the hole behind Robert Lewandowski.

Of course, due to Robin van Persie's arrival at Old Trafford, that position in United's team has been filled more often than not by Rooney.

The England forward still holds that position down ahead of Kagawa despite having to wear a headband for protection from a cut.

Indeed, when Kagawa featured for United against Bayer Leverkusen and Liverpool, he appeared on the left, where it was clear, from the amount of times he drifted inside, he was not completely comfortable.

Perhaps it is not a positional issue and more that Moyes is not overly keen on Kagawa as a player.

He might have denied Dortmund access to Kagawa in the summer, but maybe since then he has not found Kagawa to be the player he thought or wanted.

Equally, perhaps there is a personal issue.

Kagawa was quoted saying "please ask David Moyes why I'm not in the side" when asked why he was not playing, although he has since said that he was misquoted and the evidence suggests he was.

Whatever the case, Man Utd fans, who have been unhappy not to see Kagawa feature in the Premier League, will have been happy when they heard that Kagawa was willing to fight for his place.

"Tough times are continuing, but all I can do is to work hard," he said at the beginning of this month.

Whether Kagawa's hard work will be enough to see him become a regular player under Moyes though, remains to be seen.