Adnan Januzaj's Loan Move Is Not Paying Dividends for Anyone so Far

Upon his arrival on loan from Manchester United on the last day of the German transfer window, young Belgian midfielder Adnan Januzaj was met with curiosity more than anything else.

Dortmund fans had heard the name, of course, and some surely had seen him play from time to time, but on the surface at least, this was a peculiar move. 

Two months later, it's still difficult to make sense of the decision—from all parties involved.

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Consider this: Januzaj has started twice as many games for United this season than for Dortmund, four to two.

The Belgian had started four games in a row before a slight injury kept him out of United's meeting with Swansea one day before the German transfer window closed. He even scored his team's winner against Aston Villa. Januzaj seemed to have finally made the important step up from talented fringe player to regular.

At Dortmund, he is, at best, the third option in attacking midfield. His only two starts for the club came in the Europa League, filling in for injured Marco Reus against Krasnodar and starting at PAOK Salonika when five regular starters were rested.

In most games so far, Januzaj was relegated to mop-up duty. Outside of his two starts in the Europa League, the Belgium international has been on the pitch for 166 minutes in six appearances as a substitute, according to Transfermarkt.de, which means that, on average, he got about 27 minutes of playing time per appearance.

That's not to say that Januzaj has been bad when he got the chance to play. The 20-year-old has created a team-leading eight chances in his two Europa League games, per Squawka. He's also looked lively as a substitute, with his only assist, a delightfully chipped pass to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang against Darmstadt, coming on one such occasion.

Januzaj's problem is that he's just not nearly as good as regular starters Reus and Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who can't stop scoring right now. Additionally, the emergence of Gonzalo Castro on the wing has seen Januzaj slip even further down the depth chart.

Since all three players ahead of him are just as versatile as the Belgian himself, his opportunities will remain few and far between unless Dortmund are bitten by the injury bug.

Januzaj's lack of playing time is obviously not ideal for his development, which is why United's decision to loan him out to a side as strong as Dortmund remains baffling. One can't help but wonder if Louis van Gaal and Januzaj himself underestimated Dortmund's firepower.

Even more baffling is the decision to loan out a 20-year-old who had yet to make his breakthrough on the last day of the transfer window, robbing him of invaluable preparation time. In a way, this set him up to fail at Dortmund from the get-go.

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His new side have played 12 competitive matches in the 64 days since Januzaj's arrival. Take out two international breaks, the first of which he spent with Belgium, while staying at Dortmund with the few players not on international duty for the second in October, and they have played a game every four days.

Even world-class talents like Robert Lewandowski or Ilkay Gundogan struggled to make great impacts early in their time at Dortmund—and they were both signed long before the new season started. 

With that in mind, asking Januzaj to produce seems unfair. Loaned-out players, however, should produce right away. Dortmund, by all accounts, don't have an option to buy the attacking midfielder next summer, although local paper Ruhr Nachrichten have indicated there might be an informal agreement in place to make the deal a permanent one.

Januzaj's parent club can't be overly happy with the way the loan is going, and one could wonder if United would like to have him back immediately. The Red Devils have struggled to create much of anything offensively, as discussed by Bleacher Report's Paul Ansorge. 

The way it stands, no one really benefits from Januzaj's year-long spell at Dortmund.

Lars Pollmann is a featured columnist writing on Borussia Dortmund. He also writes for Yellowwallpod.com. You can follow him on Twitter.