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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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Pogue Mahone said:
None of that explains why Van Gaal has repeatedly played Di Maria and Mata, or Di Maria and Januzaj in the same team. In fact, he's played one of those two pairings in almost every game we've played this season.
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Because they haven't both been part of the midfield 3 at the same time. They certainly haven't all three played together.

It's been:

Carrick/Blind
Rooney - Di Maria
Mata

Or:

Carrick/Blind
Januzaj - Rooney
Di Maria
​
Replace Rooney for Fellaini where necessary.

It's always been:

1 DM: Blind or Carrick
1 B2B: Rooney or Fellaini
1 AM/Wide Midfielder: Di Maria or Januzaj
1 #10: Mata, Di Maria, Rooney or Herrera

Herrera was tried as the B2B early on but it seems Van Gaal didn't think of him as complete/physical/defensive enough for that role.

He either battles it out with Di Maria or Mata for the #10, depending on the composition the of 3 behind him or he battles it out with Di Maria or Januzaj for the AM/WM role, both of whom carry the ball forward better and add genuine width and pace to an otherwise narrow formation.
 
RedStarUnited said:
Finally, someone who agrees with me.

Di Maria is the only one taking shots, the only one trying through balls and the only one dribbling, in the whole team! He is our lone creative spark.Only Cesc I think has more assists than him in the league, and Cesc takes every free-kick and corner for Chelsea.

We simply need him in the team, because everyone else bar maybe Herrera, are too busy playing it safe. Rooney had a very good shot on him but how often do we ever get to see it nowadays? When was the last time RVP had a shot from outside the box?
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That's definately not true, but I agree with your point though.
 
Amar__ said:
It's a different scenario, I know, I just know that Nani was never afforded this much freedom by his manager and yet when he was afforded just bit freedom he was as good as di Maria at his best.
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That's a very simplistic way to look at it. Nani was afforded just as much freedom as Di Maria for long periods before and after his 18 month hot streak and was maddeningly inconsistent. Di Maria's been up and down but his downs have been nowhere near as poor as Nani during his most hapless spells in a United shirt. Something which is getting glossed over by his many fans on here, ever since he went back to Portugal.
 
KiD MoYeS said:
He appears to be the only player van Gaal dictates complete creative freedom to on the pitch.
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Probably because he's our only attacking player who has the combination of pace, dribbling and incisive passing on the team and is a genuine threat on the ball, bar Januzaj who's not an established first teamer and is still raw.

Di Maria's still extremely patchy which is quite annoying but at least it's better than some of the passive stuff we are seeing from some of his fellow forwards. He's the only player who looks like he can make something happen on the ball and actually excites fans when in possession.

Play Rooney in Di Maria's role with full freedom and he'd probably create feckall with his technique and vision. He's an excellent goalscoring forward with good link up play (further forward) nonetheless. Mata sadly enough, seems to lack that dynamism and verve, thus needing the right system to truly thrive.

Kind of pathetic that Rooney's bang average performance against Preston, was one of the better performances from our strikers in a good while. Hopefully the RVP-Falcao nonsense stops and Rooney's runs up front would provide Di Maria with a better platform to shine. Just imagine playing with pacey forwards like Ronaldo, Bale, Jese and Benzema to playing with RVP, Rooney and Falcao... Rooney still possesses decent pace and can be useful in this regard, but only when he doesn't play like a baby elephant controlling the ball and actually tries to take on players. He still has it in his locker (against City and the penalty against Preston) but lacks the nifty footwork which coupled with the loss of his early days dynamism, means he isn't a great threat on the ball despite his decent pace.

Di Maria's got to improve his individual performances as well, no two ways about it. He was pretty damn good early on in the season and needs to replicate that form. Looks like he might be getting back to it, hopefully.
 
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Amar__ said:
It's a different scenario, I know, I just know that Nani was never afforded this much freedom by his manager and yet when he was afforded just bit freedom he was as good as di Maria at his best.
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Nani was criminally underrated by Fergy and paid for his versatility too. Valencia could only ever play RW so therefore, Nani had to fight for his place with Young (LW) whilst Valencia had a clear run on the right.

I also get the feeling that players like Valencia are super efficient in training and great at the drills so therefore managers find it easier to justify selecting them. Could be wrong though...
 
Aint gota Kalou said:
I think the Giggs comparison is probably better - Nani slowed down the play everytime he got the ball, took far too many touches. Di Maria always goes for the kill everytime he gets the ball - more similar to Giggs IMO. Leads to some frustrating moments but some moments of brilliance too. I don't mind that at the moment, this team could do with the excitement.
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I agree. If only we had more players doing so.
 
Pogue Mahone said:
Di Maria's been up and down but his downs have been nowhere near as poor as Nani during his most hapless spells in a United shirt. Something which is getting glossed over by his many fans on here, ever since he went back to Portugal.
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That's definitely not true. Di Maria probably had already few games this season which could be in contest for worst performances of the season by United player, even though manager played him all the time and trusted him. Nani had lot of poor games, I am not denying it, but whenever he was given run they were never worse than some performances di Maria put in just 6 months here. Nani's worst performances came over last two seasons at United where was being played once in ten games. Nani's worst performance in last 4 or 5 years was against Chelsea away I think 2 years back, and it's definitely not any worse than di Maria's one or two performance in december/january.
 
RedStarUnited said:
Nani was criminally underrated by Fergy and paid for his versatility too. Valencia could only ever play RW so therefore, Nani had to fight for his place with Young (LW) whilst Valencia had a clear run on the right.

I also get the feeling that players like Valencia are super efficient in training and great at the drills so therefore managers find it easier to justify selecting them. Could be wrong though...
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Yeah, I agree. Valencia was basically starter for two years for us on wing because he was good defensively, which is ridiculous because he waa terrible attackink wise.
 
Sometimes I think we don't derserve flair players the way somepeople go on, we should just sign robots who make the right pass at the right time all the time.
 
Thought he did well yesterday, really dangerous when running at players, the only player who gives us any penetration to be honest. His final ball can improve and it will as he has shown for Madrid. Despite not being at his best he's still racked up a good tally of assists.
 
Injured his pelvis in training according to the Daily Mail.
 
Amar__ said:
Yeah, I agree. Valencia was basically starter for two years for us on wing because he was good defensively, which is ridiculous because he waa terrible attackink wise.
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Was he? He put up good assist numbers and was generally a good outlet for us, and often had the beating of supposed good full backs. It was only really his last season under Fergie that he was poor. He'd had a poor spell of form after his injury but mostly he deserved his spot under Fergie.
 
This sounds like the same injury that kept him out for weeks earlier in the season.

Lucky that Young is fit again.
 
Locka said:
Was he? He put up good assist numbers and was generally a good outlet for us, and often had the beating of supposed good full backs. It was only really his last season under Fergie that he was poor. He'd had a poor spell of form after his injury but mostly he deserved his spot under Fergie.
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Last season under Fergie and then the following one under Moyes I'm guessing are the 2 years he's referring to.
 
Dominos said:
Last season under Fergie and then the following one under Moyes I'm guessing are the 2 years he's referring to.
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Oh right, maybe. It's cause he quoted a post talking about Fergie that made me think otherwise.
 
SammyUnited_83 said:
This doesn't seem to be anywhere else, and I clicked on the Mail link and it goes through to a different story.
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Yeah they've changed the story, its not on there now? False alarm? Or maybe just tidying up links and it'll reappear shortly.
 
Cassidy said:
That's definately not true, but I agree with your point though.
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His assists seem to range from 7-9 on various stat websites. Baines has 8, so dependent on which site you consider, he's second in the league, or at the very least joint third with Tadic.
 
Amar__ said:
Yeah, I agree. Valencia was basically starter for two years for us on wing because he was good defensively, which is ridiculous because he waa terrible attackink wise.
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He wasn't terrible offensively between 2010 and 2012, he produced very solid performances week in week out even if he wasn't particularly exciting to watch. It's only in 2012-13 that he started to become worse and worse going forward which culminated in a horrid 2013-14 season.
 
Sparky Rhiwabon said:
What??? It's in the paper!
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Not sure how they've managed to print a paper this morning, and find out Di Maria was injured in training which probably didn't finish until 11 this morning?. Sounds like BS to me. Perhaps somebody posted the article by accident.
 
Sarni said:
He wasn't terrible offensively between 2010 and 2012, he produced very solid performances week in week out even if he wasn't particularly exciting to watch. It's only in 2012-13 that he started to become worse and worse going forward which culminated in a horrid 2013-14 season.
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It wasn't between 2010 and 2012, I was referring to Fergie's last season and Moyes' only season in which he was absolutely terrible attacking wise.
 
Adam-Utd said:
Not sure how they've managed to print a paper this morning, and find out Di Maria was injured in training which probably didn't finish until 11 this morning?. Sounds like BS to me. Perhaps somebody posted the article by accident.
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Sorry, someone above said they were reporting it in the Mail (a British newspaper). Looks like they might have been looking at an old edition though! He had a pelvic injury in training earlier in the season.
 
Sparky Rhiwabon said:
Sorry, someone above said they were reporting it in the Mail (a British newspaper). Looks like they might have been looking at an old edition though! He had a pelvic injury in training earlier in the season.
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It was on Mail Online about an hour ago, however the link is now directed through to a different story, perhaps they heard something, it isn't clear at the moment, not reported anywhere else though.
 
Amar__ said:
It wasn't between 2010 and 2012, I was referring to Fergie's last season and Moyes' only season in which he was absolutely terrible attacking wise.
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I didn't realise, in that case I agree. He produced very little to nothing in these seasons.
 
This is all I can find on line

Di Maria helped United beat Preston 3-1 last night to set up an FA Cup quarter-final showdown with Arsenal.

But the Argentina winger could be an early doubt for that game after picking up another injury.

According to the Daily Mail, Di Maria hurt his pelvis in the warm-up for training today.
 
The Google link I found for Daily Mail leads to a different article and one other link goes to an article that was taken down. No confirm from the club.
 
I like where he played yesterday. I thought he was our best player alongside Fellaini and Herrara.

The deepish role he played must be so hard for teams to stop. He was putting in through balls and crosses (although his crosses were absolute shit) and was running at players too. That combination coming from midfield is devastating.
 
It seems LvG had enough trying to fit him elsewhere and will stick with him in the left of the diamond. Aleluya!!! (now he needs to sort the rest of the wrong placed players)

Hopefully, Luke Shaw can stay fit for a good run because they need to build a little society between them.
 
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