Ooh she's got claws! Pipe down princess.
It's not only about chances in games. Managers work with and judge players in training on a daily basis. They judge them when they actually play in the various positions they do. Then they decide who they pick. And three managers, Sir Alex, Moyes, and now LVG, all thought he wasn't good enough at her time to be a starter ahead of the big two. So yeah, he got plenty of chances whether you'd like to believe that or not. If were going to follow you're line of thinking then every player must get a long run of games in their best position, even if their manager doesn't deem them worthy based on what he's seeing on a daily basis which is pure madness. That way Kagawa never got a chance either. In fact these three managers, two of them are top drawer just love not giving top players chances.
As for him offering something different, it's irrelevant given he didn't want to be the alternative, he wanted to start, which again comes back to the crux that he isn't better ban what we have.