Di Maria seems to enjoy those races, but he's not combining well with his teammates.
Copa America 2015 | Tournament over, Eboue misses the final, everyone lols
- Thread starter Samid
- Start date
Not sure why people are getting excited about di Maria playing well against the reggae boyz. 
Anyway shocked its still 1-0. That's progress for us
Anyway shocked its still 1-0. That's progress for us
Messi has quite simply been terrible in this Copa so far, even worse than in the qualifiers for WC '10 under that natural disaster called Diego... Last year in Brazil he was infinitely more involved and crucial despite generally looking similarly lethargic to this. In both other Copas ('07 & '11) he was incredibly active in every game and his WC in South Africa is Maradona '86 compared to this.
Is this on telly?
It's his best match in quite a while.Not sure why people are getting excited about di Maria playing well against the reggae boyz.
Anyway shocked its still 1-0. That's progress for us
To be fair, I wouldn't really say that he has been terrible. He's not done too badly, but he does look disjointed with the rest of the team. It's as if he has barely any chemistry with anyone else. It doesn't help that he's playing in Martino's more rigid setup as well.
It's on Premier Sport, isn't it?
Richard Keys is still hinting over di Maria leaving Man. Utd. I'm not sure why he's persisting on this.
Premier Sport? Never heard of it? I have a sky box. Guess that's no good?
Yeah but it's against Jamaica. Need to see him do it against better opposition for me to be more encouraged I guess.
Premier Sports is a channel in the UK, Sky 428. You'll have to pay to view that channel, though.
Guess I've lowered my expectations for him too much.
I think he has been poor, because while you can excuse him not being able to marry his goalscoring with his playmaking ability for the NT, when he's doing neither to any great effect there's no real excuse. There looks indeed to be about zero chemistry within Martino's system (which was similar in his time at Barça), but Messi should still at least be the player driving them forward (as their best player and as their captain), not only Di María.
Blimey. Di Maria absolutely thunder bolted that
That's why I prefer di Maria to play from the right than from the left.
So close. Hope we get this Di Maria next season
Wonder what the keeper thought to leave it alone.
Thanks. Feck. Season finale of GOT it is.
He must show more against better teams. He hasn't always had problems with such minnows.
'Awful' by his ridiculously high standards, perhaps. He has made some fantastic cross field through passes throughout and one or two great skilled runs against Paraguay but he hasn't truly controlled games or clinically finished enough.
Again, he scores that for Barça... misplaced two straightforward passes before that as well.
Messi scores that for Barcelona. Zero confidence there...
True it's not the most impressive team to face, but at least he's looking lively and dangerous again.
He has been playmaking, though, but the lack of chemistry and the rigid approach from Argentina makes it difficult for Messi to really get the numbers. Plus, he can't drive them forward if the team's not built around him.
It also seems like Messi himself isn't giving is all in this match ever since Argentina went ahead. I think the fouls he suffered in the past couple of matches is making him play more cautiously and within himself.
Terrible may be overstating it, but still by his standards, yeah, he's been very poor. By normal standards he's just been average/poor. Part of this is Martino's system where he always seems far too minimally involved for some reason, but overall he's just lacking dynamism, energy and, most tellingly, effectiveness.
What striker doesn't shoot there? Higuain should've smashed that.
Higuain again. Di Maria should have 3 assists just from Gonzalo
What was that from Higuain? Why didn't he take the shot? Also, I hope that Martino takes out Messi. He isn't really doing much in this match like Pastore.
Jesus, they're so wasteful.
Watching this on BeIN Sports. The commentator is absolutely hilarious. Does anybody know his name? He screams at every half chance and he just called the Jamaican keeper "the red octopus".
Ray Hudson.
Pretty much. He has years to do what he wants. Zero pressure. It would be like being happy Rooney had a good game against some league 2 side. Di Maria is a world class talent and needs to start showing it against some proper opposition.
That free kick!
To a quite poor standard, can't even remember a single through ball attempt, and apart from his favourite pass out to the LW he hasn't done much. Pastore and Di María, however erratic they may have been so far, have done far more in that department this Copa. Either way, huge test coming up for Messi in the ko stages of this, a game against Jamaica doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things... it's just that there hasn't really been an evolution to speak of so far over the 3 group games, neither for Arg collectively or Messi individually.
It's not like anyone else for Argentina is playing well, he's quite comfortably the best player on the field tonight (bar Miller in goal).
Thanks! Is he always like this?
I have no idea what Martino is doing with Messi. On paper Messi plays the same free RW position as ever but on the pitch he doesn't perform as well and this was also the case with Martino's Barca.
Yes.
Yes
Seems to be playing deeper.