James Rodriguez, Luis Suarez, Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale. Only four players in the history of football have commanded a higher transfer fee than Angel di Maria, who joined Manchester United in a £59m move last summer.
The Argentine had seemed to justify the huge fee with a blistering start to life at Old Trafford, scoring three goals in five games and winning the club’s Player of the Month award for September.
However, Di Maria’s form has suffered a sharp dip since the start of 2015 and he has looked anything but a £59m player in recent games.
His performances will be a source of concern for Louis van Gaal and we asked our Twitter followers whether they think Di Maria can turn it around:
@PeoplesPerson_ Needs to improve but he’s still settling & learning the language. We’ll see the best of him next season
— Joe (@JoeTmufc) February 27, 2015
@PeoplesPerson_ I think people are exaggerating his form. He’s putting dangerous balls in, the strikers just aren’t getting into position.
— Hawk Eye (@ConstantRed) February 27, 2015
@PeoplesPerson_ I think he needs a game like QPR at home where he can just run riot. Sunderland are in a similar position to how QPR were.
— Charlie (@Mays136) February 27, 2015
@JoeTmufc @PeoplesPerson_ Definitely. Silly to write off a player with his obvious quality after only 7 months.
— Tricia (@Tr16ia) February 27, 2015
@PeoplesPerson_ its the team- not him. Same with Falcao. None of them will settle unless the team clicks
— Will (@will_thomas7) February 27, 2015
@PeoplesPerson_ I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried. Could go the same way as Veron – he never got going again after a bright start too
— Karan Patel (@karanmufc87) February 27, 2015
@PeoplesPerson_ @JoeTmufc I think that Di Maria is the least of our problems.
— Richard Cann (@RichardCann76) February 27, 2015
@PeoplesPerson_ ‘Form is temporary, class is permanent.’ He’ll turn it around. He just needs to settle.
— Andrew Bradburn (@BadNewsBradburn) February 27, 2015
@ConstantRed @PeoplesPerson_ It can be quite hard judging the performances of individual players when the team as a whole isn’t clicking.
— Kristian vS Hæhre (@vonstrenginho) February 27, 2015
It seems as if the majority of United fans think Di Maria is too good a player not to turn his form around.
He grabbed his eighth assist of the season after setting up Ander Herrera’s strike against Swansea City last weekend but much more will be expected of him as United head into a tough run of fixtures. Di Maria will be looking to get on the scoresheet when United face Sunderland on Saturday.
