reelworld
Full Member
Don't think I can blame Van Gaal for not treating Di Maria like a galactico. The room for error last season was miniscule. He doesn't have a chance to entertain Di Maria in midfield. He got a working formula with Fellaini and Young and ran with it. If he gave di Maria freedom that he wanted and we lost a few points and out of the top 4 it would be a disasterYep, definitely. The thing is Falcao was bought on name alone. He was just a crap signing that Woody has to take full responsibility for. Di María was bought because he was a big-money Galactico but also because he could offer something very few others in world football offer - that pace and creativity we still sorely lack. I prefer to look at it as a risky gamble. It's easy to forget just how much of a wave he made when he played his first few games...
So even though United were far from his first choice he clearly had the potential to do great things for us. His attitude grew continually worse as the season went on but that all stemmed from how he was managed. If van Gaal treated him like a Ronaldo-esque superstar and gave him the freedom to do whatever he liked then I think he would've been perfectly happy here and would've been one of the few world class players in the league. Van Gaal isn't that kind of manager though. Moved him away from his most influential position for the benefit of the team and the "philosophy" and then publicly criticised him.
That's the worst part of it all. Woody wanted the Galactico signing and van Gaal had no interest in treating any player like a Galactico. Complete mismatch.