Angel Di Maria image 7

Angel Di Maria Argentina flag

2014-15 Performances

View full 2014-15 profile

5.7 Season Average Rating
Appearances
32
Goals
4
Assists
13
Yellow cards
3
Red cards
1
Status
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Brilliant dribbling! But needs to improve his shooting technique?
 
The Azzurri said:
Did we overpay for adm? To be honest I expect much more from him. Is he the same player that he was when he was at real? Or did the players like Ronaldo, benzema, etc made him look good than he really is?
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We overpaid because we are Manchester United and we were in crisis at the time, but he is still a genuine world class player and every bit as good as we all thought he was.

You can see by the way he can pick the ball up deep and just waltz through the opposition midfield/defence how good he is... there are VERY few players in world football who can do that. He needs to be able to run at players, not receive the ball with his back to a line of defenders.
 
We did overpay for him for him but who cares as long as he plays well?

He's just the player we need in that role. Unlike a certain other Spanish #10 we have, he never hides in games and is constantly trying to create chances and take on players.
 
He's not a match winner but he is a game changer. Really can change the tempo of an attack as soon as he receives the ball. I think if we surrounded him faster quicker forwards. . We'd be bagging plenty of goals, he creates so many dangerous opportunities. . Its just he can't put them away himself.
 
Jev said:
His passing is not good enough for this role. The reason he was dangerous for Madrid in midfield last season was that he was essentially a half-winger. He started in midfield but would often drift out wide and go on his devastating runs down the left when space opened up. He can't do that down the right because of his oneleggedness and there's rarely space to do it down the middle.

Despite the Caf consensus, he is not an out-and-out midfielder and to use him as such is as much of a waste as it is to play him in attack. He's better on the left-wing than he is in this role.
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Out and out wideman is a complete waste of this boys talents. I think most of us are in consensus on that.
 
He should have done better in the final third, but as a threat he was great. The swagger, touch, brilliant dribbling was all starting to come back.
 
The Azzurri said:
Did we overpay for adm? To be honest I expect much more from him. Is he the same player that he was when he was at real? Or did the players like Ronaldo, benzema, etc made him look good than he really is?
Click to expand...
if your manager stopped swapping tactics / formations every 5 minutes and played him consistently in the same position with the same players around him....you'd see his best.
 
Of course we overpaid for him. We were desperate as feck and he is a top top player. Don't care though as he's just the type of player I wanted at United. Brave, creative, willing to take players and never stops running. If we consistently play him in midfield hell do great. Obivously much depends on how the team and its chemistry develops of course.
 
The Azzurri said:
Did we overpay for adm? To be honest I expect much more from him. Is he the same player that he was when he was at real? Or did the players like Ronaldo, benzema, etc made him look good than he really is?
Click to expand...

He was worth £35-40 million in real terms, he is very similar to Nani in terms of consistency and decision making, he's not a goal scorer either. But he is an excellent player, just not £60 million excellent.
 
legball said:
You people can be desperate sometimes. He was better than in previous performances but that was a wasteful performance by Di Maria, his final ball was lacking every single time and his decision making was hit and miss. It seemed like he was in competition with Rooney for who will missplace the more passes.
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Well he won that competition. 69% pass completion vs 86%.
 
He had a good game yesterday, probably our best player after Blind. Talk of wastefulness is boring when you consider the cowardly nature of many of our players in recent years.

We tend to lack pace, conviction and imagination and Di Maria offers that from deep. That second goal doesn't happen if he's not on the pitch.
 
Maybe not conviction, but yes, I agree. He's probably the most gifted plank of wood I've seen.
 
Has great ability but I would expect more from a player of Madrid. The shot he skied, he was right too shoot despite Wilson being there for a tap in. A little bit more composure and it's a controlled finish. I think Ruud said that he used to try to score great goals but you don't always need the hollywood finish. The pace was on the ball and a controlled side foot would have got him his goal. Up to a point, he's quality and we're lucky to have him. He reminds me of a certain Portuguese player playing for Sporting. Next season could be a lot of fun
 
Must have been Falcao, the bloke is stealing a living at the minute. Lol
 
DWelbz19 said:
Must have been Falcao, the bloke is stealing a living at the minute. Lol
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They were very forward in their demands. Di Maria - not being a fan of that position - was confused by this.
 
One of the fastest players in the world. Truly unstoppable when he turns on the speed. Time to build the attack around him.
 
Yep, and that's why I feel he should play centrally as a #10 in a sort of free roaming role.

Lets assume for arguments sake, that Nani does come back and Bale signs for us in the summer.

?????
Bale - di Maria - Nani
Blind - ?????​

The three behind the striker would have the pace, power and trickery to kill any side on the counter. That's what we should aim for.
 
Bwuk said:
Yep, and that's why I feel he should play centrally as a #10 in a sort of free roaming role.

Lets assume for arguments sake, that Nani does come back and Bale signs for us in the summer.

Rooney
Bale - Di Maria - Nani
Blind - Pogba​
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He is quite similar to Nani i have to say. Both can be quite careless mainly because they're risk takers and not safe players who are everywhere in this team. In my opinion there is very little that separates Di Maria from a fully fit Nani.
 
Firstouch20 said:
He is quite similar to Nani i have to say. Both can be quite careless mainly because they're risk takers and not safe players who are everywhere in this team. In my opinion there is very little that separates Di Maria from a fully fit Nani.
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He's vastly superior to Nani. As wingers there wasn't much between them when Nani was at his best. But di Maria has a lot more in his tank. There's no way Nani could have been as much a part of the "engine" of a team as di maria was at madrid. His stamina and running ability is nuts. Nani is quite lackadaisical in comparison.
 
He and Blind looked really promising as 2/3rds of a CM, I thought. Di Maria is so good on the ball that he can turn pressure into an advantage rather than being forced backwards.

DiMaria----Herrera
------Blind------

needs to come back.
 
Godfather said:
Patience ladies, patience. Calm your tits he'll come good.
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If he was an 18 year old, bought for £10M, we could definitely give him time.
But for £60M, a player is expected to make immediate impact. He should be the finished article.
Sanchez, Costa, Fabregas, etc have all made immediate impact.

Half the season is over and we have to accept that this is now his 'normal' standard of play.
Either his standard has dropped or he just doesnt suit our team/play.

The other thing to remember is that he may be a big game player which means that on big Champions League nights, he may come alive - but we need to wait and see.
He certainly hasnt covered himself in glory when we have played big (EPL) teams. His best performances have come against the likes of QPR, which is not reassuring.

IMO we overpaid and if I had a choice to do a straight swap with Fabregas, I'd bite Chelsea's hand off.
 
amolbhatia100 said:
He's vastly superior to Nani. As wingers there wasn't much between them when Nani was at his best. But di Maria has a lot more in his tank. There's no way Nani could have been as much a part of the "engine" of a team as di maria was at madrid. His stamina and running ability is nuts. Nani is quite lackadaisical in comparison.
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Nani was fit as a butchers dog. Did a lot of good work defensively. To be honest, I'm really not seeing much of a difference between what Nani could have brought to the team this season and what Di Maria is bringing to the team this season.

Lots of nice touches, some neat dribbling, a few goals and assists but generally a bit wasteful, makes poor decisions and frustrates fans and team-mates alike. And that's "bad Nani". The "good Nani" of a few years back was miles better than what we've seen from Di Maria this season. Plus you have to bear in mind that Nani was a big game player. Even in seasons where he wasn't at his best he seemed to step up his game against the best teams around. The opposite is true of Di Maria. So far.

All the provisos about new league, playing for team in transition and all that still apply. So there are very good excuses for him not being as good as we'd hope. But let's not kid ourselves that he's been anything other than slightly disappointing. If was to continue to play at the same level we've seen in the season so far he would be a really terrible waste of money.
 
But he has made an immediate impact?

The majority of games he plays in usually results in his work producing a goal. Whether he scores himself, gets the assist, shoots and someone gets the rebound or he's ran past 3 players, he's making an impact. His issue is inconsistency in games, he can look like the best player in the world one minute and the next he's playing the most wayward pass you wouldn't even see in league two.
 
NotoriousISSY said:
But he has made an immediate impact?

The majority of games he plays in usually results in his work producing a goal. Whether he scores himself, gets the assist, shoots and someone gets the rebound or he's ran past 3 players, he's making an impact. His issue is inconsistency in games, he can look like the best player in the world one minute and the next he's playing the most wayward pass you wouldn't even see in league two.
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So pretty much exactly what we would have got if we'd held onto Nani and kept the 60 million quid.
 
RedDevilCanuck said:
One of the fastest players in the world. Truly unstoppable when he turns on the speed.
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I dont want to sound negative, but the 'Galacticos' of Cambridge Utd found it quite easy to stop him.
In fact, many teams have found it quite easy to stop him and all our forwards. We have struggled to create chances or score goals lately.
He played a little against 10 man Aston Villa who Arsenal put 5 past.
Unstoppable isnt the word I'd use to describe ADM.

Off the top of my head, the EPL players who I would class as unstoppable are Sanchez, Aguero, Costa, Kane, Fabregas, Hazard, but to name a few.
 
sunama said:
I dont want to sound negative, but the 'Galacticos' of Cambridge Utd found it quite easy to stop him.
In fact, many teams have found it quite easy to stop him and all our forwards. We have struggled to create chances or score goals lately.
He played a little against 10 man Aston Villa who Arsenal put 5 past.
Unstoppable isnt the word I'd use to describe ADM.

Off the top of my head, the EPL players who I would class as unstoppable are Sanchez, Aguero, Costa, Kane, Fabregas, Hazard, but to name a few.
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Don't know how you work that out, as most of them have been "stopped" plenty this season. Including by our own creaking defence.

But yeah, ADM sure as hell isn't unstoppable either.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Nani was fit as a butchers dog. Did a lot of good work defensively. To be honest, I'm really not seeing much of a difference between what Nani could have brought to the team this season and what Di Maria is bringing to the team this season. Lots of nice touches, some neat dribbling, a few goals and assists but generally a bit wasteful, makes poor decisions and frustrates fans and team-mates alike. And that's "bad Nani". The "good Nani" of a few years back was miles better than what we've seen from Di Maria this season.

All the provisos about new league, playing for team in transition and all that still apply. So there are very good excuses for him not being as good as we'd hope. But let's not kid ourselves that he's been anything other than slightly disappointing. If was to continue to play at the same level we've seen in the season so far he would be a really terrible waste of money.
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Nani was fit. But he didn't have the kind of engine that Di Maria has. The latter if used in midifeld can run and run and run. Nani was your typical attacker. He did a bit of chasing here and there.

Thing with us is that we're an inconsistent side. We're trying different formations. Trying different styles. Playing players like di Maria upfront and rooney in midfield. It's no surprise that we have a lot of players sometimes playing well and other times playing poorly. Rooney as well has been affected by this. Like di Maria has done some very nice stuff this season but also struggled, given we want to now turn him into Danny Murphy.

Also it has to be added that unlike Costa and more like hazard and ozil, di Maria isn't a powerful player so he's obivously got more adjusting to do. It would have affected fabregas more as well had he not played here before.

But no doubt he has to be more precise with his play than he has since his return from injury, although I thought he did well in our last game albiet without end product.

At the end of the day, I hope he settles quickly because I think he's capable of peforming a role for us few others can. Like I said last season, I have rarely seen the kind of combination of skill and running and harrying, that he showed for madrid then. So I hope we can get the best out of him.
 
In this team we are crying out for a Nani type player to play ahead of Di Maria. As much as Nani frustrates we miss a players of his skill set in this team. Even an average Nani produces more than Adnan imo. Can't believe I'm saying this but bring back Nani
 
Apart from a few games he's been largely crap. His long shots are hardly ever near the target or are nonthreatening, his crosses have slowly gotten worse, his corners hit the first man a lot and he gets muscled off the ball easily. A lot of his attempted through-balls are way overhit as well. Needs to get on the same wavelength as the rest of the team.
 
We paid more for Di Maria than what Madrid paid for Kaka who was a ballon'dor winner For what he's produced so far, we've been mugged of badly.
 
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