Talk about an overreaction. We were struggling to get a shot at goal. 100s of passes before getting into the final third where we inevitably fecked it up. Crucify him for taking a shot. Yeah it was a poor call, the one you mentioned but things like this happen with every player every game, you're making too much out of it. When we're struggling to break a team down, I have absolutely no problem with an attacker having the balls to try something of his own.
7
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
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- Goals
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- 13
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- 1
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Talk about an overreaction. We were struggling to get a shot at goal. 100s of passes before getting into the final third where we inevitably fecked it up. Crucify him for taking a shot. Yeah it was a poor call, the one you mentioned but things like this happen with every player every game, you're making too much out of it. When we're struggling to break a team down, I have absolutely no problem with an attacker having the balls to try something of his own.
Well if that's the case then Mata needs to be taken out the team. As much as I like the guy he doesn't influence games enough to be an automatic starter when we have one of the best midfielders in the world to play there.
Hopefully we play him in his actual position next game.
Poor today, not totally sure on whether playing him as a striker really works or not.
It's not the first time, his shot after the corner was equally poor decision, and have you seen one of his last cameos when he just kept shooting from various angles?
Di Maria's strength is his creativity whereas his shooting is inconsistent. Number 10 or midfield please.
He has to either play as a CAM or as a winger, he is not a striker.
If you want to play and Di Maria and Rooney and Mata than one of RVP or Falcao needs to be out of the team perhaps even both.
If you want to play and Di Maria and Rooney and Mata than one of RVP or Falcao needs to be out of the team perhaps even both.
Yes I have. He tries shots. I dont mind it given how poor we look as a unit in attack anyways. Most of the time, we're content passing it between ourselves till we actually get to the business end where we lose it. Di Maria had moments even today where he made a quick 1 touch pass and continued the run only for Rooney and MAta to take multiple touches and then lay it off wide. Shit like that gets irritating and I dont really blame him for then taking it upon himself on occasions.
If he wants a fast striker, he should go and buy a fast striker. Don't spend 60 million on a midfielder and play him out of position.
I think there's a chance that Di Maria is a huge problem for van Gaal at the moment. The way he plays in midfield doesn't suit van Gaal's idea of the game at all, he's way too direct, way too wasteful in possession and therefore needs a completely different defensive set-up than what van Gaal prefers. So the only solution is to play him in a role similar to Robben's at the world cup. The problem is, Di Maria was always an inconsistent winger, often really frustrating and he's definitely not a good finisher. Ancelotti found a role for him that fit his strength perfectly, but if that role doesn't exist at United, what to do with him?
It also raises questions who actually made the transfer decisions in the summer. All three big money signings don't fit into the team at the moment, but that's probably a discussion for a different thread.
It also raises questions who actually made the transfer decisions in the summer. All three big money signings don't fit into the team at the moment, but that's probably a discussion for a different thread.
Pretty much this.
Indeed very important question. I felt that both Di Maria and Falcao were pretty much transfers made by Woody for Woody. He wanted to show he can bring big names to the club after he bottled quite a few transfers that season before and let's be honest it worked. For some time the fans loved him for it. If Di Maria referts to his Real form from before last season and Falcao turns out to be a useless waste of money this might change pretty fast though. I still hope we can find a way to integrate Di Maria into a system that van Gaal is willing to play but atm it looks like LvG is really struggling to find a setup for all our attackers that works properly.
Just on this quickly. It wouldn't surprise me if most of the transfers were only ok'd by Giggs and Eddie. As it doesn't make any sense that Van Gaal would ask for these players and then used them in this way(Although at the start of the season there seemed to be something working)
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The answer is really simple. If he's your best player, and you're not getting the results otherwise, you accommodate him, and make the necessary changes to the setup. I'm not expecting LvG to do it, but to diminish the impact of several of your best players in favor of some idea of an ideal way playing football that in theory might work is... Well, each and every one of us can make up our own minds about what's the most suitable adjective to describe it.
Can someone please convince me he's bringing more to the team than Nani would have, if he'd stayed put?
Today was horribly reminiscent of one of Nani's bad days. Constantly making bad decisions and losing possession cheaply, combined with one or two fantastic balls into the box.
He's had some very good performances too. But you'd have got that with Nani. At considerably less expense!
Today was horribly reminiscent of one of Nani's bad days. Constantly making bad decisions and losing possession cheaply, combined with one or two fantastic balls into the box.
He's had some very good performances too. But you'd have got that with Nani. At considerably less expense!
A rusty, hopefully singular day at the office. The worst game he's had for us, don't think that is the norm at all for him
With every game that he's played out of position (and the flaws in his game become that much more exposed,) the signing makes less and less sense, particularly when you consider that 60 million could have bought us just about any player we desired last summer (bar Ronaldo, Messi and Bale.) The Di Maria we saw in those first few games looked like everything we'd been missing. The one we've seen since has evoked memories of Nani, both the good and the bad.
The weird thing was that in the summer Van Gaal said he couldn't play a 4-3-3 because he didn't have a player like Di Maria or Ronaldo. So we then proceed to buy Di Maria and he ends up sticking with the 3-5-2 and playing him as a striker.
True should have spent 30 on Sanchez if that was the case
He's in a different stratosphere to Nani, he's just had rotten luck with injuries, and needs to be played in his best position.
Even the best players will suffer when they are shifted about all over the place, and are not getting a consistent run of games, plus it's still early days in the PL for him, don't think any of our other new signings have done any better, sadly it could be next season now before we see the best of him.
And then we couldn't play a back four because we didn't have full backs. Next thing we know we're still playing 5 at the back with Shaw and Rafael at wing back.
That's a redcafe consensus. Don't think VG ever said that.
So DiMaria had just under 62% pass completion. That's fecking diabolical. The comparison, based on today's game, is unfair on Nani.
And I'm not gonna bump that Sanchez vs DiMaria thread I created any time soon. In fact, I may delete it.
He said it in an interview with MUTV.
I'm pretty sure I've heard LVG mention it.
It sure is but in all fairness he is not match fit and has only just come back from an injury.
0% shot accuracy, 0% crosses completed and 0 key passes too.
One of the few players that want to try something and gets subbed off. I'd rather Di Maria shoot from silly angles than pass back to the defence and repeat the same bullshit cycle again.
To be fair that one cross was narrowly away from Rooney and probably would've been a goal had he made any contact.
I'm annoyed we played him out of position but it's no excuse for that performance today. Hopefully the lad will step up his game.
You're not wrong.
Indeed they are. Ozil started like a house on fire, got injured and then eventually came back and played underwhelmingly in the tail end of the season. He kept it simple without being spectacular. It did not help that we had absolutely no pace in our side for Ozil to exploit (no Walcott, Ox or Gnabry even), so he just recycled the ball a lot. Don't know how many times he'd look up for a run only to see everyone standing still waiting for the ball to be passed to their feet. Ozil has played with Walcott less than a dozen times.
Di Maria has had a similar start and also had injuries which have obviously interrupted his season.
Both players are far too good not to end up succeeding. I think ADM should be played through the middle though.
Not having the Woody arguments, yet again, something LVG fecks up, we put the blame somewhere else. He's so stubborn with the 352, what he said about 433/di Maria earlier in the season, he completely threw it away. Raging about balance, afterwards, he put Rooney in midfield, mata as a 10 and 2 strikers, how imbalanced does it get? Talking about philosophy and players have to train for at least two weeks and come in slow, he suddenly puts Blind in, or using the no full backs excuse to play 352, why have we been playing it lately, the fullbacks were available. Not all his weird decisions shouls be pointed elsewhere.
He do waste possession quite alot, but he is a risk taker so it is something we will have to get used too, but that also Means he needs to produce the magic. I thought he could do well in this role "Robben-role", but after this game it is clear to see he needs space running into, we should definitely play him in midfield.
He has a genuine desire to get things going and take the game on, much like Sanchez. Both will lose the ball or play some poor passes because of this, but get them in the right system and they will obviously win games off their own boot. Players like that can create a goal out of nothing even on a poor day.
I don't understand why he's being played up-top though, it goes against almost all of his strengths - unless he's told to drop (very) deep to pick up the ball and run at defenders.
Personally I think van Gaal is trying to be too clever and accommodating all of his big names. Someone needs to take the fall and sit games out so Di Maria can play in his best position (midfield).
Di Maria - Herrera
Blind/Carrick
That seems like a winning combination to me.
Having said all this, I hope van Gaal continues to play him up-top as it is good for the rest of us.
Were wasting him 
It made no sense why Di Maria was played out of position. It almost seemed like LVG had a few players and just put them in with no particular plan. To have so many people out of position is odd, but when its your best two (rooney and Di Maria) its mad.
The fact he didnt change it at half time worried me. Di Marias main asset is speed and taking on people. He wasnt playing away from home, he was playing against a packed defence so needed to play deeper.
It made no sense why Di Maria was played out of position. It almost seemed like LVG had a few players and just put them in with no particular plan. To have so many people out of position is odd, but when its your best two (rooney and Di Maria) its mad.The fact he didnt change it at half time worried me. Di Marias main asset is speed and taking on people. He wasnt playing away from home, he was playing against a packed defence so needed to play deeper.
I'm pretty sure Van Gaal wanted Di Maria. Mentioned him by name a couple of times in the summer.
Just an utter utter waste of a player. Its beyond frustrating, and almost makes you want to cry. You watch those highlights of him from the start of the season, then you have to watch him up top, looking frustrated as hell, and getting absolutely no involvment in the game.
If we wanted a fast striker, we should have fecking bought one.
If we wanted a fast striker, we should have fecking bought one.
Is anyone else of the opinion that he just doesn't look too arsed here?
I say that because I remember watching him at Madrid and whenever I saw him even if things weren't going his way he seemed to work hard and especially last season was fairly selfless but with us he seems to stand off at times when he can press, doesn't track back anywhere near the amount he probably should and today took about 3 shots from long range which were nowhere near the target and he had better options. Would he be doing that at Madrid with Ronaldo & Bale giving him an earful?
He reminds me a lot of Ozil at times last season and their exits at Madrid have a lot of similarities so maybe it's something to do with that, it could also just be me being overly negative and knee-jerk due to a disaapointing performance from him today but I've had the feeling for a while that whereas every other player seems happy here, there's just something about him which makes me think he'd much rather be elsewhere.
I say that because I remember watching him at Madrid and whenever I saw him even if things weren't going his way he seemed to work hard and especially last season was fairly selfless but with us he seems to stand off at times when he can press, doesn't track back anywhere near the amount he probably should and today took about 3 shots from long range which were nowhere near the target and he had better options. Would he be doing that at Madrid with Ronaldo & Bale giving him an earful?
He reminds me a lot of Ozil at times last season and their exits at Madrid have a lot of similarities so maybe it's something to do with that, it could also just be me being overly negative and knee-jerk due to a disaapointing performance from him today but I've had the feeling for a while that whereas every other player seems happy here, there's just something about him which makes me think he'd much rather be elsewhere.
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