David Moyes Will Struggle to Get Van Persie, Rooney and Kagawa Working Together

As Wayne Rooney and Shinji Kagawa near full fitness, David Moyes will soon get his first crack at solving a problem to which even Sir Alex Ferguson never found an answer.

The problem—how do you fit Rooney, Kagawa and Robin van Persie into the same team? 

In mitigation, Sir Alex never got much of a chance to experiment. Injuries to Rooney and Kagawa at different stages of the season meant all three were rarely fit at the same time.

Still, that they only started together eight times out of United's 54 games last season is a strange statistic. After all, Kagawa and Van Persie were the two premier summer signings and Rooney the talisman.

It was a problem that became clear as soon as Van Persie joined from Arsenal. 

From the outside it looked like Sir Alex had signed Kagawa to play behind Rooney. But when Van Persie became available it was too good an opportunity to turn down.

Of course, his decision was ultimately vindicated because the Dutchman scored the goals that won United the title.

This summer, Moyes made a point of keeping his squad together.

He inherited three wonderfully gifted players in Rooney, Kagawa and Van Persie. But he's also inherited Sir Alex's unsolved problem.

The overriding issue is that their best positions overlap. Van Persie is a centre forward, Rooney a centre forward who can also play as a No. 10 while Kagawa's preferred position is as a No. 10, too.

Unfortunately for Moyes, three into two doesn't go.

He has options—many of which involve playing Kagawa or Rooney wide in a front three with Van Persie as a central striker—but only one that would satisfy all three.

That would mean playing Van Persie and Rooney up front with Kagawa in the hole behind. But there is no evidence, either from his time at Everton or so far this season, that Moyes is that adventurous.

It is much more likely that Moyes will adopt a policy of rotation. 

Sometimes it'll be Rooney and Van Persie. On other occasions it might be Kagawa and Van Persie. It could even be Rooney and Kagawa on the rare occasions Van Persie is rested. They'll sometimes play together, but more often than not with Kagawa pushed out to the left.

Cue more tears from Jurgen Klopp, who admitted this summer it upset him to see Kagawa misused in such a way.

Rooney is nearing a return from the gashed head that kept him out of England's two World Cup qualifiers.

Kagawa, meanwhile, is yet to play a minute of Premier League football this season and was left out of the squad altogether against Liverpool at Anfield. But he proved his fitness during the international break by starting two games in five days for Japan and will return to Carrington this week ready to play.

This week the midfielder admitted he was "frustrated" at being sidelined by Moyes. Not as frustrated as Moyes will be when he sits down to solve the Kagawa conundrum.