I think it's a mental problem; I distinctly remember him, during the early parts of the season, constantly tracking back and never giving up. Like some have said, the international break will do him some good, he'll be able to refresh as well as getting out of the country, and sort himself out. I do think we're just picking on him, at times; he's still putting in the effort, as seen in his attacking play over the last two games. All players will be guilty of lapses in concentration, especially those who seem be suffering from off the field issues.
7
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 32
- Goals
- 4
- Assists
- 13
- Yellow cards
- 3
- Red cards
- 1
- Status
I think it's a mental problem; I distinctly remember him, during the early parts of the season, constantly tracking back and never giving up. Like some have said, the international break will do him some good, he'll be able to refresh as well as getting out of the country, and sort himself out. I do think we're just picking on him, at times; he's still putting in the effort, as seen in his attacking play over the last two games. All players will be guilty of lapses in concentration, especially those who seem be suffering from off the field issues.
I'd like to see him start against Villa. It's a good chance for him to find form and we should beat them easily even if he underperforms
Mata's pass was a 1,2 it was really the obvious thing to do
The Rooney pass was a bad pass
The pass to Blind was a good one, but when Blind is open with a lot of space running into the box and you are being marked on the left side, i really don't see how you have any other options except to pass it to him.
Seems like Di Maria is being praised for making obvious decisions (albeit in a fancy way), our attack was relatively worse when he came on, which is not entirely his fault, as we became complacent and Rooney had a terrible game, he still lost the ball a lot though, and you can go on about how he is meant to lose the ball and all that crap - it doesn't justify the fact that he loses the ball way too much, he is our main man so naturally he gets to receive the ball a lot and only has 3-4 great moments (being generous) and a host of crap ones.... do those 3 good moments justify his other bad ones? are we supposed to be excited that our star player can only create 2 great chances a game and do feck all for the rest of the game?
Is his finding form more important than maintaining our current team chemistry?
The differing of opinions on him is hilarious. Some people saying his pass to mata was a bad one? Blaming him for trying to spot runs instead of doing a turn back tony every time he gets the ball. Fair enough he should have worked harder but we didn't sign di Maria to be this safe player. His pass to mata is clearly one only he would try and pull off in our team, and it wasn't just the pass it was the vision and speed of thought to put it there in the first place. Something he has a habit of doing in almost every game he plays yet you would think he screws everything up going by some comments. I can live with daft moments but if he delivers match winning assists then feck it. He can clearly play better but I can't believe how much he's getting slated.
Exaclty. The pass to mata was such a great spot. Di Maria has that cutting edge going forward that we lack. Good form, bad form, he always creates chances.
not entirely true. Young didn't make mistakes but offered very little going forward and rooney was rubbish.
Di Maria and Falcao are this season's version of last season's Fellaini and Young. You just watch them prove everyone wrong next season
There was one moment yesterday where he made a run into the area, the ball was intercepted, and all our attacking players started running back to get into position...expect Di Maria, who just casually started walking out of the area, despite having come on just a few minutes a go. He clearly couldn't be bothered.
I've defended him a lot on here, but that sort of behavior (especially in a game against our biggest rivals) is unforgivable. We've seen him busting a gut for RM and Argentina so many times, so to see him just walking around with minimal effort is unacceptable.
He was better than Rooney and Young but that's not saying much. That was Rooney's worst match in ages and Young didn't do much either.
At the end of the day he was coming off the bench to play against 10 men in a game where we were utterly dominant and the opposition could be expected to tire as the game went on and leave more and more spaces at the back when they pressed for an equaliser. You don't get a better chance for Di Maria to shine than a situation like that. So any excuse based around him being "not as good as the rest because he was coming off the bench", makes no sense at all.
He wasn't awful and had a couple of good moments, in amongst giving the ball away cheaply and messing up a number of promising situations by poor decisions (catching the ball - wtf?) and/or a poor final ball. So, fairly standard for his United career to date and the reason he started our biggest game of the season so far on the bench.
Which can only go down as a crushing disappointment from a player who arrived with such fanfare (and at such cost) Especially when we let go a player who seems more than capable of matching his contribution this season to create space for him in the squad (Nani).
Obviously, debut season in a new league blah blah. So we can expect much more from him next season. The criticism his performances are getting are entirely warranted, though. Saying he's been disappointing is not the same thing as saying he will never be good enough. He needs to improve almost every aspect of his game to deserve the "galactico" tag he arrived with. Hopefully he will.
You can see he has the quality and has shown it at times. It is clear he has struggled to settle into living here, which is usually normal. But with the huge price tag and expectation it is never going to be accepted. He has no confidence at all as you saw yesterday, he was rushing thing and looked nervy on the ball and made the wrong decisions. Hopefully he turns out good for us.
Falcao won't be here next year.
For how much we've paid for him, this is just not good enough to me. His lob to Mata was very professionally done but he gave it away too many times and he still looks disconnected from the other players when he's trying to execute. How many times have seen him make passes with no one making the run that he expects/hopes for?
Very different situations though, to be fair. I don't think people were incredibly shocked when Fellaini or Young were having poor seasons. While they're not awful players, their form this season could arguably distract us from the fact that they're generally not top class players, and would generally be seen as squad players who could earn a first team place when in form.
Di Maria and Falcao were bought in order to be world class performers who could be among the best players in the league for us. I still have some faith that Di Maria can turn it around (Falcao probably won't be here so he's very unlikely to do so), but the criticism for both largely stems from how they've under-performed compared to what we've expected of them.
It's home to Villa, it shouldn't matter. If he's poor then put Young back in for the next game.
1) It wasn't the obvious thing - the obvious would be to ensure we keep possession of the ball, by passing sideways or backwards.
2) The pass was actually more difficult than it looked. If I remember correctly, he had two options: a) either pass infront of Skirtel, which would allow Skirtel to intercept or b) completely neutralise Skirtel by passing behind, however the curl of the ball would probably take it away from Rooney. He chose option B and the ball curled away from Rooney; I think Rooney should have held is run.
3) We created far more opportunities with him on the pitch; the only clear cut chance we had before he came on was the Mata goal.
4) Young lost the ball more than him, Blind and Fellaini were equals; and all three started the game.
5) No, but do you know what risks are? Have people forgotten the days when Ronaldo would take the ridiculously stupid freekicks which involved quite a bit of risk. He missed about 70% of the freekicks he took. However, was it worth the risk? Yes
6) In the 35 minutes he played, we scored one and should have scored another. We looked really threatening on the break, too.
I'm not sure why di Maria's receiving most of the criticism. His job was to utilise his pace and hit Liverpool on the counter, on every possible occasion. Therefore, he's bound to lose the ball, as the game completely changed from what it was like before he came on. Liverpool were angered, the crowd was hostile and we were under pressure. He wasn't the only one who gave the ball, so stop acting as if he was. Yes, he was lazy, at times, there's no excuses for that; however, something is clearly wrong and he seems to be going through a rough patch.
Every game matters though, we take a home game against Villa for granted and fail to win then the away game against Everton becomes a must win, don't forget we still have the teams currently ranked 1st,2nd and 3rd in the league to play.
I think the occasion may have got to him, especially given that his first touch was that terrific catch he took. He didn't seem comfortable passing the ball backwards, which contributed to some of his loose passes. The international break will do him a world of good.
I don't think suggesting playing Di Maria instead of Young is underestimating Villa. I'd keep the rest of the front 6 the same. Young is playing quite well but he's hardly undroppable.
Yep. If he finishes the season as well as he started then all will be forgiven. The better weather might help sort his head out too.
When Mata gives you a pass at the edge of the box and runs inside the box unmarked and you have 3 defenders on you, then the obvious thing would be to pass it to Mata, you don't have to be a genius to do that.
The pass to Rooney was terrible, we outnumbered them in the counter he had enough space and time to call his wife on the phone to prepare his favourite dish for him after the game, he should have played it to Rooney's feet not behind him, surely you can't blame Rooney for not being able to score from a pass that didn't even reach him?
Di Maria created the same number of chances as Fellaini, as a team we created only 4 chances in the whole game(so we didn't create far more opportunities with him on the pitch), in the 64th minute alone Di Maria was dispossessed by Can and Henderson and Skrtel in the 61st minute - the most by a United player and he came on in the second half(55th minute), he had 2 failed crosses and only managed to attempt 1 tackle all game which was a failed one on Sturridge, even Falcao attempted 3 tackles in the game even if only 1 was successful.
It is one thing to be a risk taker, it is another to waste the majority of the balls given to you as the star man of a team, if he had played against Spurs we would not have won 3-0.
We should use some of the adidas money to build a dome around Old Trafford. Keep the stadium warm with an artificial sun, which should keep our warm weather lovers content.
We can go on and on with this, however, that wouldn't be wise.
Fact that matters: He has 4 goals and 12 assists, thus, has been the most creative of all our players. He's contributed to 16 goals in 23 starts. That, for me, is enough to warrant a starting place. He may give the ball away, he may miss hit a cross or an easy pass, however, that doesn't matter if your end product is as good as his. We didn't buy him to retain possession, or make tackles, we bought him to create and he's doing that absolutely fine. Oh, and only one player in the league has more assists. If you're going to criticise him for his distinct laziness, at times, fair enough, but if you're going to bang on about tackles, failed crosses, chances created, then you're looking at the wrong player.
You didn't just underestimate Villa, you said "a home game against them shouldn't matter", well it should, We can't afford to lose our winning chemistry to accommodate Mr £60m, Villa will hit us with the counter, just like Burnley did, and if thats the case Young > Di Maria, Di Maria loses the ball a lot and doesn't track back, Young on the other hand can afford to at least tackle somebody.
We already have a winning formula, i think we should work on maintaining it for now.
Yes, lets just forget his 23 straight games without an assist, if you are going to just throw in assists to justify his performances then you are basically admitting that you know he is shit, but he has good numbers, of course he has 12 assists i gave you stats and you run to his assists , 4 of those came at the beginning of the season when he was fired up, 3 of those came in games where he did feck all, 1 was a penalty he won, and the rest are from set pieces so of course he has 12 assists, 1 was in the FA CUP, do these assists channel his performances ?.......feck no.
Ah..yes, the whole "he can afford to be lazy, he can afford to have failed crosses,no tackles,same chances created as Fellaini" and all that crap because he isn't "that type of player", that is not his job, it certainly isn't Rooney's job but he still does it, it isn't Aguero's job, or Costa's job or Hazard but they all still do it, attempting to tackle a player isn't a job designated to only defensive players, being lazy should not be excused because your job is to assist, what kind of player only knows how to assist? did we pay £60m for a one dimensional player? who wastes more balls than the average player?
Over Glorified Nani™
What? He didn't go 23 games without an assist. He's been inconsistent, but you must be doing something right if you're still able to contribute towards the objective?
Why would judge an attacking player for not making tackles? If they can contribute defensively, then well done, if they don't but create chances going forward, then well done.
If we bought di Maria for his defensive ability, to tackle, and to intercept, then I'm afraid we've bought the wrong player. However, if we bought him to create chances, score the odd goal, utilise his speed and to help defensively, then we're good.
My word your opinion is ridiculous... every player can be afforded mistakes, which is why there are 11...
Depressing that a £60m player hasn't made himself an uncontentious and automatic starter.
Having to keep reminding myself that there is still time for him to turn things around, new league, settling in, yadda yadda yadda. Because when I don't, my confidence that Di Maria is going to work out as a United player is pretty low.
Having to keep reminding myself that there is still time for him to turn things around, new league, settling in, yadda yadda yadda. Because when I don't, my confidence that Di Maria is going to work out as a United player is pretty low.
I am not judging an attacking player on tackles don't simplify my argument, i am judging an attacking player on his overall performance in a game, him not attempting a tackle is just appalling, but that is not my whole point.
We bought Di Maria for his overall ability, who pays £60m for only assists ? yet you act like his overall performances don't matter as long as he can average 1 assist every other game (he doesn't even do that), what is the point of utilising his speed when he will eventually get dispossessed? we created more chances against Spurs than we did against Liverpool so he really doesnt have as much impact as you think he does.
Every player can be afforded mistakes, but when they make more mistakes (lose the ball) than every other player on the pitch they shouldn't be criticised for it? some logic that.... there are 11 players in a team but in our team there are 9 players, 1 GK and 1 star man who must and usually does have the ball for the majority of the game and does feck all with it, its one thing when Fellaini is being dispossessed a lot , we can afford to overlook it because the players will stop giving him the ball, its another when its Di Maria, he will continue to get the ball, infact for every good play from Di Maria we usually get 10 terrible ones afterwards.
Score 1 goal assisted by Di Maria and lose 5-1 because we couldn't create anymore chances, by your logic Di Maria should be praised for the assist and not criticised for not producing more.
i wouldn't change the team unless there's a reason. and his play isn't a good enough reason IMO.
He has apparently justified his price tag by the delusionals on here, we should be expected to spank our monkeys to his 12 assists and 4 goals and act like he has been our player of the season, his performances don't matter, ask them about his performances they reply "what performances" and begin to throw his numbers at your face.
He is lazy? wasteful? easily dispossessed? "not his job mate", he wasn't signed to hold possession, he was signed to assist, he is the only player in the world that shouldn't be concerned with holding the ball or not being wasteful - because "not his job".
I didn't mean the result doesn't matter, obviously. I meant whether it's Young or AdM on the left should not matter as to the result.
Is anyone actually really saying this?
on the contrary, his play is a very good reason to leave him out.
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CH made some decent points though: he actually has been fairly productive so far, and more so than a number of people would have you believe. He's also admitted that it's fair enough to criticise him on his laziness. Granted, he's probably giving him a bit too much leeway on his performances which have often been quite dire, but simply branding him delusional, and acting as if he's expecting us to worship Di Maria, is a bit extreme.
He has to be better than he has shown us so far, that is obvious. But taken some comfort from the fact that people frequently take a while to settle when they move to England. He's not been good enough so far, but that doesn't mean he never will be.
I hold onto that thought and I find it provides a modicum of comfort.
Read my posts and your posts, again. Pointless arguing when you say stuff like "lets just forget his 23 straight games without an assist". Lets just stop.
Perhaps, i wasn't referring to only CH though, the delusional comments are even before my argument with CH
Didn't take long for people to turn on him. Really some fickle fans here. As someone else pointed out, 12 assists and some goals is not too bad and just because he's off form doesn't mean he lost his ability
Was under the impression we stopped a while ago, the only thing keeping you in the argument was his 12 assists which don't really tell the whole story, but hey when we signed him for £60 million to do nothing other than assist i guess we should all be happy and hail him as one of the great players this season.
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