1. There's no solving a problem called Di Maria
When Angel di Maria arrived in English football from Real Madrid for an eye-popping £59.7 million British transfer record in August, many felt Manchester United had actually snapped up a bargain.
Three goals in his first five games – including a goal of the season contender at Leicester – underlined that view, but it’s been a dramatic fall from grace for the Argentina star who has since only been on the scoresheet in an FA Cup tie at League One outfit Yeovil, and no tinkering with his position by United manager Louis van Gaal has worked.
Di Maria has been utilised on the left, up front and in a free role and in Saturday’s scratchy win over Sunderland he operated on the right, but too often he ran up cul-de-sacs, frittered away possession and was simply shrugged off the ball.
Van Gaal’s half-time hook for “tactical reasons” was another sad indictment of Di Maria’s feeble form and provided another conundrum of how to get the best out of a player named man-of-the-match in Real’s Champions League triumph last May.
Source: DSG
