26 May 2015 08:03:48
There has been a great disscussion about whether Angel Di Maria will come good next season or wheter he should be sold if we can recoup most of what we paid for him.
There have been some good points made, yes he was MotM in the UCL final. But both teams were pretty poor in terms of quality in that game. ADM came up with the winning play amd therefore was given MotM, but he was far from excellent throughout the whole game.
There is a myth with ADM, the myth is he is a world class player. He is a player capable of world class moments, but for me a world class player can provide those moments when needed every time, there is a level of consistency about them. ADM has never played well for an entire 90 minutes, he is abit like Michael Owen in that he'll do nothing for 89 minutes then pop up with the winner.
Having ADM in your side means you are effectively playing with 10 men for long periods of the game.
His best spell for us came when we played 352/41212 and it was because we were playing on the counter attack, ADM was played in midfield rather than out wide. That was an unusual tactic in England where traditionally we play fast players out wide akd strong players in the middle. This lead to a combination of his pace and directness through the middle catching teams out and him having space to run into due to us sitting deeper amd playing on the counter.
But after the Leicester game LvG decided inviting pressure onto a weak defence was never going to work in the Prem due to the quality of the league. So he switched to possession football, but its not just possession football but possession played with a high line. It is this high line which screws ADM up as he no longer has any space to run into, add that to the fact that in the 433/4141 system we have been playing he has been shunted out wide limiting his effect in the centre.
He will NEVER come good as a wide player i a team that plays high line possession football. He is not in the right part of the pitch nor does he have the space he needs to run into.
We won't move away from possession football, once our defence is stronger LvG might start playing with less of a high line and play with more vertical possession. But ADM will not play central again. As a result we will not see the best of him at our club, keeping him will only see his value drop further.
So imo it would be best to cut our lossess and bring in a player who would suit the team and the tactics better. If we can get 50m+ for him then we have to snatch that clubs hand off and use the money on a player who suits our needs better.
26 May 2015 08:15:01
I think it is very rude to write off ADM so early Shappy . I do think he will come good next season . He scored half of his goals in build up play , not in counter attack and was very impressive before his injury .
Whenever i watched him in Madrid , he occasionally produced good performance and 20+ assist in a season is not a joke . I do believe he will play at his best
26 May 2015 09:24:57
Shappy, to write off ADM now is also like writing off Depay before he has even played for us.
Now I haven't seen too much of Depay, but what I have seen is that he plays a very similar game as ADM. Fast counter attacking football with a great shot.
It is my suspicion that with a better settled defence, and improvement to the midfield LVG will switch tactics, ceding possession and increasing the pace of the game.
We will just have to wait and see. I just hope that ADM is here next season and we see the best of him. With Depay on the other wing, we will have frighten pace up front.
26 May 2015 09:28:08
He makes 2/3 key passes a game, which is a huge number and at a team like Real Madrid if you play a ball through to the likes of Ronaldo, Benzema or Bale then it will likely end up being a goal, far more so than if that pass is going to Young, Valencia or Falcao atm.
The assist stat is a very misleading one. As it requires another player to make your pass into an assist. Also assists are given if you are fouled amd the resulting free kick/penalty is scored directly. Meaning you got an assit not through a good pass but by being kicked.
To use stats you need to consider every aspect and look at them in their true context.
Don't look at assists stats look at key passes, but also look at the number of times that player gives the ball away while attempting a key pass. Look at their turn over rate. Look at their pass completion rate and the average number of passes being made.
Its true ADM did get over 20 assists in his final season at Real, but he also had a pass success rate of around 75% which means one in every four passes he gives the ball away. So if he was heavily involved in a game and attempted 80 passes he would give the ball away 20 times. That is not acceptable in a team trying to maintain possession. He also would attempt 5/6 dribbles a game and would be successful on average twice a game, meaning he has lost possession 2/3 times a game from attempted dribbles.
He stands out because he is the kind of player who trys to force a goal every time he gets on the ball, if you keep trying things like that eventually you will be successful. But how many times will you give the ball away in trying to do that.
To put things in perspective in his last season at Real Madrid he scored or assisted once in every game on average though out the season. That sounds impressive, but when you consider he was making 10/11 attempts per game on average though shots, key passes or dribbles and only being successful once it no longer looks as impressive. It means he has a 10% success rate when attempting these things. Hardly world class.
I'm not writing him off after one poor season but after many, loads of people have made an assumption he is a great player based on one or two stats taken way out of context. He is a player capable of great moments but that is all, he is a luxury player that even a team like Real Madrid no longer felt they could keep. That is the bottom line.
26 May 2015 09:37:47
AdM was Argentina's best player at the world cup, a team that had Messi! Him missing the final probably let the Germans win it!
26 May 2015 09:42:42
I do agree that ADM looses the ball too much . But players who try to create something out of nothing regularly loose the ball unless he is messi . He is not a world class player but certainly can produce some world class moments .
You said he tries to create many chances in a game and usually bags assist with some so what is wrong with that ? We want players to try to create chances rather then passing sideways and backways always . A settled and sturdy defence and midfield will be able to recover those lost ball .
He certainly was a 60m player but now that we have paid that for him , i think we should keep him shappy and hope for the best that he will find his top form next season
26 May 2015 09:57:39
Another important question would be - who do we get to replace him?
26 May 2015 10:51:15
Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could just straight swap for Gotze, Munich would take a punt on ADM if reports were to be believed.
Or indeed use him in a deal with PSG for Marquinos or Cavan.
Not sure if either would stump up the number 7 shirt though! Would make his new Tattoo look a bit odd
26 May 2015 11:44:44
shappy
he was a top player at benfica playing as an out and out winger , fergy wanted him then .
he was one for reals best players for 4 years playing 3 of them as an out and out winger.
he is one of a very talented Argentina best players.
a lot of people have made the assumption he is a top player based on the previous 7 year.
yes he gives the ball away , but he attempts to do something with it .
if you don't want that type of player why SPEND 60 mil on him.
if di maria can't work the system god help depay
di maria is an exciting player, imo a man united player, who takes people on and makes things happen.
top player for madrid, top player for Argentina it will be a sad day if he doesn't fit in at united.
however i think he will , he won't be the first player to take a year to settle. he showed at the start of the season what he can do
26 May 2015 12:21:55
Apparently SAF liked his forwards to take risks. Make the run, try the difficult pass, the defence can't prepare for the unexpected. That is what di Maria brings to a team - the potential of the unexpected. If he tries 10 outlandish things a game leading to an average of 1 goal/assist then that would account for over half our goals this season. As long as the rest of the team defends well when he gives the ball away, it seems like a good deal. He's obvious he's not a truly great all round player like Ronaldo or Messi but to me the question of greatness is irrelevant.
I've been a big critic of him this season. He makes bad runs, is frequently unaware of what his team mates are doing and runs into blind alleys. He's been particularly weak on the ball and in the challenge, physically fragile, but I'm interested to see if that's changeable, or whether it's just a function of a player not adapting or adaptable to the EPL. Look at our football these last 2 years. Too often it's been a case of nothing ventured, nothing gained. If he can bring the X factor consistently, he will be of value to United. He may also be very useful in European competition.
Unless we can bring in another difference maker to replace him I'd say he's worth a gamble. Defending is critical but the most important issue for United at the moment is that we're not scoring enough goals, and in particular we seem completely impotent when faced with a packed defence. If we want to win the title that, above all other things, has got to change.
{Ed004's Note - All you have to do is look at his performances vs top teams like Athletico, Barcelona and Germany (were he played right wing this season) to see what he can bring to the table.}