I just wish he was kept far away from free kicks and corners. His ability to find the first man is amazing.
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Not true. He missed the first man on one set piece yesterday - kicked the ball straight out of play instead.
He's obviously extremely talented, so his recent poor performances are all the more puzzling. I think he'll pick up again, but I am a little worried as to whether or not he's suited to the Premier League. Will he really be up for the cold winter games? I'm not certain and if his play doesn't improve, will LvG be brave enough to drop one of our marquee signings?
jorgelinacardoso
1 hour ago
You are free to think whatever you want, but in fact, Angel is absolutely happy of being in Manchester United... Buenas noches!!!
Take that Scholes!!
Good woman his wife
No im referring to the countless of people who blame it purely on his position, while its just the general picture of him atm thats wrong. Its not just his position, its his general decision making regardless of where he is on the field.
Its the curse of the number 7! :P
Hopefully Young will free him up to move centrally. As others have said though, not sure why playing a few meters further out would cause him to not be able to pass a ball without giving it away...
Last few games he has been really poor (after a fantastic 1st few weeks). I was at the game on Saturday and he was massively underwhelming.
Don't buy all the middle vs wing debate - he is a quality player, but regardless of where he plays he needs to complete more dribbles / passes.
Sure he will come good though...
Don't buy all the middle vs wing debate - he is a quality player, but regardless of where he plays he needs to complete more dribbles / passes.
Sure he will come good though...
At the moment you don't want Di Maria centrally, he gives the ball away too easily, and his deep in form, is just Di Maria being Di Maria.
His delivery is amazing from free kicks. Not sure about corners though.
He seemed to be trying too hard at times Saturday and making the wrong decisions. Hanging on to the ball too long and shooting when itwasn't on. Free kick delivery was decent but corners were awful, hence Rooney took over, plus he had gone off!! Who picks up the baton and drives the tempo when he is having an off-game? Well that was clear to see - no-one, hence the laboured struggle on Saturday. A little worrying.
Agreed. His set piece delivery is getting tarred with the same brush. His freekicks are consistently dangerous, even in games where his corners are consistently hitting the first man. I really don't understand what the reason for this is though, as the technique is fairly similar.
The way the pitch drops away by the corner flags perhaps? Or has he been doing this on pitches where that's not a problem? Proximity to the fans affecting him somehow?
What the feck is wrong with him these past few games? moving him out wide shouldn't turn him into the average player we've seen. It's typical though. More baffling under performance from another one of our top class players.
The thing with Rooney's corners compared to di Maria's, is that even though Rooney consistently drops the ball in the danger area, it's nothing like as dangerous as when di Maria gets his corners right. The way di Maria whips his balls in low and hard make them very difficult to defend and only require a little redirecting to likely score. The downside of this seems to be that it's a much harder technique, so a much higher percentage hit the first man.
Should go back to RVP and Rooney taking corners, they haven't score many corners anyway plus the chances of scoring from their set piece is greater than them in the box and a poor set piece coming in.
I think he just needs to relax a little more. He's trying to do everything himself. He doesn't have to make something brilliant happen *every* time he gets the ball.......
His indirect freekick delivery is mostly very good. Somehow his corners are completely different.
I don't see why he's on direct free kicks over Mata or RVP, or even Rooney. I can't remember seeing Di Maria score many.
He only really became a world class player when he played more centrally. Last season was his best in a central position and again when he started at United in a similar role
Van Gaal seems to have decided that we are not solid enough with Di Maria in that role so he has moved him out to the wing where he is less effective but the overall balance of the team is better.
He was playing with Ronnie to be fair, he wouldn't have got a look in to take free kicks at RM haha
What the feck is wrong with our club management deciding to play players out of position?
Asking a professional footballer to play a position he has previously played literally hundreds of times at the very highest level is really not a good excuse for a crap performance.
The "out of position" moaning is fast becoming my new redcafe bête noir
He is not out of position he can play both centrally and on the wing and he is a very good player in both positions.
However I think fans underestimate how difficult it is to play on the wing for United when you little movement in the rest of the team. What Di Maria and Herrera added to the middle of the park was bags of movement which Fellaini/Carrick/Rooney haven't really offered, makes a wingers job very difficult as they can be double/tripple teamed.
Saying that though his performances haven't been very good and you would expect better BUT definitely not as bad as some are making out, worst player on the pitch blah blah blah nonesense.
The same people complaining about him shooting from 40 yards seem to forget he has 2 assists from shooting from distance already this season, they wern't complaining when he was doing that, and IMO we need more of our attacking players to take shots at goal.
Yes. There are some reasons for Di Maria's subdued performance that are not within his control. Still think putting it entirely down to his position is a cop out though.
I agree, its not soley down to position. I think he has been off colour and also he misses what Herrera brings too.
Need to find the story with LVG commenting on Di Maria not having a lot of space to dribble in, so it's been difficult for him but, that he needs to then learn to make certain passes. He certainly has been trying a bit more on his own but, perhaps that stems from the idea of being a wide player and that's what he thinks his role is. For Mata's goal and leading up to it - when central, he was already trying to work the quicker passing.
Earlier in the season though he was the man picking up the ball deeper and work the passes or drive forward but, at least on Saturday Rooney dominated that role, so obviously wasn't going to have the same impact as those first few games.
Hopefully LVG will get the team playing a little more through the middle with the quicker passes soon enough and also Di Maria needs to understand just because he is playing wide - he doesn't have to do it on his own as much as he tries. Let the game just come to him and trust in the others around him.
Earlier in the season though he was the man picking up the ball deeper and work the passes or drive forward but, at least on Saturday Rooney dominated that role, so obviously wasn't going to have the same impact as those first few games.
Hopefully LVG will get the team playing a little more through the middle with the quicker passes soon enough and also Di Maria needs to understand just because he is playing wide - he doesn't have to do it on his own as much as he tries. Let the game just come to him and trust in the others around him.
http://www.goal.com/en/news/12/spai...d-to-lose-control-says-ancelotti?ICID=HP_BN_1
Poor by Ancelotti slamming Di Maria like that.
Di Maria isnt talking about Madrid, dont understand why Ancelotti feels the need to talk about Di Maria.
Poor by Ancelotti slamming Di Maria like that.
Di Maria isnt talking about Madrid, dont understand why Ancelotti feels the need to talk about Di Maria.
He's not wrong. Especially this bit, based on what we've seen at United so far.
In view of his praise for Kroos, am I the only one who thinks that he would have been a better signing for United than Di Maria?
Not that it was necessarily an option but I'm struggling to see the logic in spending so much money on a CM who often misses the target with his passes. Perhaps I'm a bit old school but I like my central midfielders to have pass completion close to 90%. The place for inconsistent and risky passing is not in the centre of midfield IMHO. All well and good in the final third but a serious liability any deeper than that.
The big bonus with Di Maria - or so I thought - was the fact he could also play wide and we were crying out for some more/better options on the wing. Yet now I'm being told/witnessing that he's actually not very good as a winger?
Hmmm....
Big headline for a pretty uncontroversial quote in my opinion. He is obviously just answering questions about James first months as a Real Madrid player. It's not an attack on di Maria at all.
The passing critique is all well and good but then I watch back his performances as a CM against QPR, Leicester and Everton and I don't care. His performances on the left side of the diamond were a thing of beauty, turning past players, regularly beating 2 players, stretching the pitch and moving out wide to collect the ball, and constantly offering an option. I actually think he played as a sort of a winger-cum-CM in the diamond, someone who spent part of his game operating out wide but also drifting into the CM area, and he was ridiculously effective there.
No, reason being Di Maria is very unpredictable. Kroos would have been a great signing for us yes, but he isn't going to draw 2/3 players out of position. We have midfielders who can keep posession Carrick/Blind/Herrera (although the latter is a bit more risky with his passing) you also need one of those midfielders who is going to take risks with the ball.
Like a Hazard, Messi, Di Maria etc otherwise you will be all to predicatable.
Maybe Kroos would have been a better signing than Herrera but to be honest I like Herrera because of his enegery and tenacity.
EDIT: Also we needed PACE!!!
I think that we bought a player who can become a Robben type of player, i don't think that LVG wants Di Maria to play as a CM. And yes Kroos would have been a better option in midfield.
Maybe he's not wrong but I dont understand why is he saying that now..
Di Maria played as a winger till last year when he had great time as a CM.
I think its not that he's not very good as a winger, he's just in a bad form for whatever reason. And I woulndt say he's not playing good cause he's playing is a winger, that would be a cop put, I think you mentioned sthing like that too.
Its not risky passes I think its just that his passing is off.
Maybe Kroos would be a better signing but we have Herrera and I like what Di Maria brings, its just that he's out of form, nothing less nothing more imo.
CM can have a 90 percent pass completion by just passing to the nearest player majority of the game.
It's great to watch but you're basically watching a very good winger playing in central midfield, with all the pros and cons you'd expect from doing that.
It's easier to dribble past players because CMs aren't as good as fullbacks in a one on one and it's easier to "attack the space" because he's not hemmed in by the touchline. To be fair to Di Maria, the one thing he does better than most wingers I've watched is play a killer pass. So that's a bonus. Still not sure it's worth the simple passes misplaced and general lack of shape to our midfield.
To be honest, I just want to see him play like a very good winger on the wing!
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Kroos as a calming influence is fine when you have dynamic players like Ronaldo, Marcelo, Bale, but what we needed was a dynamic player. Of course he will misplace passes, but we didn't buy him to play it safe, we have enough of those!
He is responding to the "fan's frustration" question and answered that Di Maria is a great player who can't provide you any control in midfield, which is true.
Who asked him to respond to fans' frustration anyway?
Any control? I'm sure he can provide some control..
All of whom play out wide, where it's safer to take risks.
We definitely need a bit more dynamism in their positions (although Shaw is starting to fulfil the Marcelo role). Just a pity that we've not seen much of this from Di Maria.
Who asked him to respond to fans' frustration anyway?
Any control? I'm sure he can provide some control..
The journalist ?
And no he can't, Di Maria will always try to dribble his opponents or try a killer ball, it's in his DNA, you can change that but then you won't have the Di Maria that we know.
In reality we needed an other CM(a rythm controller) AND Di Maria.
Isnt Herrera 'a rythim controller'?
As for journalist and fans frustration or whatever, its just cheap journalism at its best.
Nope. His passing is a bit wayward too.
I think we can play one or other of them in central midfield (Hererra is closer to what you want from a CM) but play both of them together and we lose any semblence of control.
No, Herrera isn't, he is the player who should do Di Maria works in CM, accelerate the play through runs and passes, he is a direct player.
I need to precise that all that, only works if you except to control the game.
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