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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I want him on the ball as much as possible, it is a joy to watch him in the midfield...i hope LVG hasn't decided the physicality of the premiership is too much for Di Maria and moved him wide to lighten his workload.

But with the run of games United are on it is probably not such a bad thing, but i hope he moves back inside after the City game.
 
Sam said:
Madrid didn't suffer defensively with Di Maria in the middle.
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It's not so much him specifically, it's the overall system. If we play him in the middle as part of a 3, then we either play 3 strikers or 2 and Mata behind. Unless Herrera plays as a 10. Either way, it's 2 strikers up top so that's always a more open system. Madrid had Ronaldo and Bale on the wings, and then Modric and Alonso next to Di Maria... You couldn't really hand pick better players for that system.
 
I think he will do well at the head of a midfield trio but then we have no wingers and have too many strikers that must always start, by the looks of things. But even if he starts on the left we shouldn't confine him on the wing, he is good enough to drift inwards and fo his thing.
 
Sam said:
I really don't think its a coincidence that his worst two performances have come in the games he's out on the wing.

Put him centrally and build the team around him.
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I think that it's more due to Rooney and Herrera absences, they are our engine, Di Maria is "only" the spark.
Di Maria is a better CM, he has been discovered with Benfica playing there but he is also very good on the wing.
And i will add that Di Maria is frustrating because of this kind of average games that he always had, no matter is position.
 
I thought starting him on the right was a mistake. All of our best passages of play were coming down the left and I think if he was there he would have created more than Januzaj did if he was on that side to begin with. LvG realised and played him on the left in the second half where he was more involved and had a better spell. I think he needs to do what Ronaldo was allowed to do and basically roam around and find the vulnerability in the opposition defence. Out other players like Rooney, Herrera and Januzaj are all intelligent enough to occupy whatever space he vacates.
 
bosnian_red said:
It's not so much him specifically, it's the overall system. If we play him in the middle as part of a 3, then we either play 3 strikers or 2 and Mata behind. Unless Herrera plays as a 10. Either way, it's 2 strikers up top so that's always a more open system. Madrid had Ronaldo and Bale on the wings, and then Modric and Alonso next to Di Maria... You couldn't really hand pick better players for that system.
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Just because that's what we've done so far when AdM has played more centrally, it's not a prerequisite for doing so. The main thing for him to get that hybrid role he thrives so much in is that the space out left is open for him to drive into. Another option of not having a wide man, is playing the same system as we did today, but with a left winger who's capable of drifting inside to open up the space for Di Maria. This was obviously how Real Madrid did it, with Ronaldo moving in when attacking.

Today we could have easily put Mata out wide instead, and had Di Maria as a part of the midfield three instead. In fact, I'm a bit nonplussed as to why we didn't try it, because I think it would have gotten more out of both Mata and Di Maria. The former is more effective in and around the box, whereas Di Maria is more effective with a deeper and more central starting position, compared to where they started today.

I'm sure LVG has his reasons though.

Edit: This is obviously ignoring the fact that he started on the right, and not on the left. Januzaj would have to be shifted to the right wing from the get go for this to be an option, which could obviously be one of the reasons why we didn't do it.
 
More effective dribbling from midfield than marooned out wide. I always thought, good as he was as a winger, Di Maria blossomed as part of Madrid's three man centre midfield. His last two seasons were definitely the best of his career. Really feel he'd be better served by United going back to the diamond. He doesn't seem to enjoy being shown down the line. Against, West Brom and Chelsea he hasn't really clicked into gear like when he was regularly getting inside e.g. for his goals against Leicester and Everton.
 
C'est Moi Cantona said:
If we got a top winger then could he not play behind the striker? As he does seem better in midfield.
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I think it will be too restrictive for Angel to play as a N10, he plays perfectly as a roaming midfielder who can drift wide or play through the center. He was just too inconsistent even at Madrid on the wings, but he was an absolute beast in center midfield.
 
With Rooney back and possibly Falcao next week, I imagine he'll go back to playing in midfield and hopefully will increase his influence amongst the side.
 
Vs City Hopefully:

---------------------------------DE GEA-------------------------------

RAFAEL-----------SMALLING----------------ROJO-----------------SHAW

---------------------------------BLIND---------------------------------

-----------------HERRERA--------------------DI MARIA-----------------

--------------------------------MATA----------------------------------

---------------ROONEY----------------------------FALCAO--------------

OR:

---------------------------------DE GEA-------------------------------

RAFAEL-----------SMALLING----------------ROJO-----------------SHAW

---------------------------------BLIND---------------------------------

-----------------HERRERA--------------------DI MARIA-----------------

--------------------------------ROONEY-------------------------------

---------------VAN PERSIE------------------------FALCAO--------------
 
Dumat12 said:
I think it will be too restrictive for Angel to play as a N10, he plays perfectly as a roaming midfielder who can drift wide or play through the center. He was just too inconsistent even at Madrid on the wings, but he was an absolute beast in center midfield.
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I agree he's best in the middle but in the 4-3-3 system it's hard to see him there.
 
XdanielredX said:
Vs City Hopefully:

---------------------------------DE GEA-------------------------------

RAFAEL-----------SMALLING----------------ROJO-----------------SHAW

---------------------------------BLIND---------------------------------

-----------------HERRERA--------------------DI MARIA-----------------

--------------------------------MATA----------------------------------

---------------ROONEY----------------------------FALCAO--------------

OR:

---------------------------------DE GEA-------------------------------

RAFAEL-----------SMALLING----------------ROJO-----------------SHAW

---------------------------------BLIND---------------------------------

-----------------HERRERA--------------------DI MARIA-----------------

--------------------------------ROONEY-------------------------------

---------------VAN PERSIE------------------------FALCAO--------------
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Not a snowball's chance in hell that RVP is getting dropped after playing a very decent first half, and getting the equalizer at the death today, and rightly so. Barring any injuries (fat chance) it will most likely be your second line-up, but with Fellaini in Herrera's spot.
 
Jed I. Knight said:
Not a snowball's chance in hell that RVP is getting dropped after playing a very decent first half, and getting the equalizer at the death today, and rightly so. Barring any injuries (fat chance) it will most likely be your second line-up, but with Fellaini in Herrera's spot.
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Quite right too. I've been a big critic of RvP's invisible performances this season, but today he actually rose to the occasion and was physically superior to Terry and Cahill on numerous occasions. And then THAT equaliser.

He deserves to start against City.

From the looks of things Falcao hasn't really turned up fit despite passing his medical and can't be relied on at this point.

I'd like to see RvP up top on his own against City with Rooney supporting him.
 
Can't be our best player every game. His crossing wasn't great (except the fk for the goal) and his running, just looked a little lethargic.
 
I hope he tears City a new one. Rubbish today, but i'm pinning my hopes on him taking points of them. Utd are due a win as well.
 
Not a great game by his standards but nothing to worry about.

He is our best player, so we need him in the middle on the ball, I understand that he can do quite well out there but you want your best players on the ball as much as possible.
 
Terrible performance, just one of those which you will get from him on the right wing every now and then. Nothing to worry about though, a lesson for van Gaal I guess.

Needs to start his runs from the left midfield and he will be rocking again.
 
Not his best game but you've got to cut him some slack he's been exceptional so far.
 
Not his best game today but the main thing is that he doesn't hide.
 
Yeah wasn't very good but oh well. He won't be brilliant every game. Hopefully he is better against City though.
 
The thing with playing him out wide is that you lose two of the best things that he brings to the team..

a) His ability to bring the ball through the middle, from deep, with pace pace and purpose. We've missed some proper drive through the middle for years now (probably since Anderson's heyday about 5 years ago)

b) His vision and passing. Something that I didn't realise was so good until we signed him. He's constantly seeing things, and picking out passes that no one else would see, never mind pull off.

With him stuck on the wing, he just can't get into the game as much as we need, and he's far easier to nullify. The few times he did pick the ball in a central position and run at Chelsea, were the few times they shit themselves. I really hope he's central against City.
 
He really dropped in confidence it seemed because he was just waiting for a pass to Shaw to happen there toward the end. When he did try to make a run he gave the ball up. Course, in hindsight I think he was double teamed quite a bit and didn't have anywhere to go. I also think he may be at his best when he is in the center of the pitch. I have to say...it will be quite nice when we can put out a full strength squad...whoever that may be in the end. I'm really missing Falcao not playing.
 
ManUSarge said:
He really dropped in confidence it seemed because he was just waiting for a pass to Shaw to happen there toward the end. When he did try to make a run he gave the ball up. Course, in hindsight I think he was double teamed quite a bit and didn't have anywhere to go. I also think he may be at his best when he is in the center of the pitch. I have to say...it will be quite nice when we can put out a full strength squad...whoever that may be in the end. I'm really missing Falcao not playing.
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Thats another thing actually, he's much easier to double up on when he's on the wing. In the middle he's a lot more unpredictable and harder to handle.

I think it was one of the Madrid fans (possibly @Vato ?) who said that Di Maria as a winger wasn't world class, but once Ancelotti moved him centrally, thats when he became world class.
 
Not a great game today but I'm not worried; even when he has looked far from his best today he still had the most key passes out of all the players and was involved in the equalizer.
 
Very poor today. Need much better performances from him in big games. Both Di Maria and Januzaj should have done better than what they delivered. When we play with 1 striker, we cannot have the wingers hugging the touchline so much. They need to do what Hazard and Willian do, play in the gap between the full backs and the central defenders.
 
ghagua said:
Very poor today. Need much better performances from him in big games. Both Di Maria and Januzaj should have done better than what they delivered. When we play with 1 striker, we cannot have the wingers hugging the touchline so much. They need to do what Hazard and Willian do, play in the gap between the full backs and the central defenders.
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Januzaj did that really well, can't complain at all about him IMO. Di maria had an off day but I wouldn't be worried, he's normally excellent in big games, mourinho and Chelsea just nullified him today.
 
Sam said:
Thats another thing actually, he's much easier to double up on when he's on the wing. In the middle he's a lot more unpredictable and harder to handle.

I think it was one of the Madrid fans (possibly @Vato ?) who said that Di Maria as a winger wasn't world class, but once Ancelotti moved him centrally, thats when he became world class.
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It was most probably @jojojo or @Raul Madrid who said this as I didn't see much difference. Half of the time I don't even know a player's position and other obvious stuff though... I'm not the best go to guy for an analysis.
 
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Probably his worst game in a United shirt today. Though that isn't exactly hard considering how good he has been so far. Things just didn't seem to work for him at all unfortunately. I prefer him more centrally, or at least with a greater licence/ability to roam inwards than he had today. Hopefully he is back to his best against City.
 
Sam said:
Thats another thing actually, he's much easier to double up on when he's on the wing. In the middle he's a lot more unpredictable and harder to handle.

I think it was one of the Madrid fans (possibly @Vato ?) who said that Di Maria as a winger wasn't world class, but once Ancelotti moved him centrally, thats when he became world class.
Click to expand...

Depends on how you look at it, he was still producing loads of chances and assists, but was more inconsistent and erratic. I'd personally still call him world class as a winger, but for Real Madrid (and before that Benfica as well) and Argentina he was/is at his most influential and instrumental (Copa, CL, Arg's best or 2nd best player in WCQ) in that LCM role.
 
As a winger, i don't think he ever reached the levels Ribery or robben have. He was always a tad too inconsistent. As a midfielder he's absolutely brilliant, though. And I think wen(and he) lose something when he's out wide. For one, our threat of being able to go cut teams open through the Middle goes.

Also, I think we haven't utilised his pressing abilities yet. I hope he doesn't lose that. For me that's as much what makes him a special player and we haven't seen it much so far. I hope he doesn't turn into a pure attacker here.
 
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