Former Argentina international Angel Di Maria has revealed what really ‘bothered’ him about Louis van Gaal following a disappointing spell at Manchester United.
When it comes to former Manchester United players, Angel Di Maria has a worse reputation than most.
Although Di Maria arrived at United in 2014 as a superstar after his performances for Benfica, Real Madrid and Argentina.
Unfortunately, the Argentine forward never settled at Old Trafford, where he spent one disappointing season at the club before joining Paris Saint-Germain and rediscovering his form.
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Louis van Gaal ‘bothered’ Angel Di Maria
Louis van Gaal signed Di Maria, although the pair didn’t quite see eye-to-eye during their time together at United.
Di Maria has been reflecting on his time at United, insisting it started well for the first two months, with goals and assists.
The former United winger has accused Van Gaal of giving him the cold shoulder after playing him out of position and never highlighting the positives he brought to the team.
Van Gaal would make Di Maria rewatch all of his mistakes, and there was only so much of that he could take before he ‘lost it’.
“Everything started well, I started scoring goals, assists in every match, and we had almost two months where everything was going well,” Di Maria told Sports Illustrated.
“From one moment to the next, he started to change my position a lot.
“Looking for strange positions to play me in where I hadn’t played, positions where I didn’t feel comfortable, and he always told me everything bad I did in a match, never the good things.
“Almost every day I had a talk, every day he made me watch videos of mistakes.
“It was one of the things that bothered me the most and it started to get to me the most because I’m one to take risks all the time.
“Obviously I’m going to lose it, maybe in 10 attempts, five passes I will lose it, but those five passes could end in a goal-scoring situation, but he didn’t see it that way.
“He never understood that I’m a forward, he never understood that defenders are there to recover the ball if I lose it.
“That’s where the conflict started and things weren’t working out.
“I froze, I lost it, and he decided to start putting me on the bench and I was never a starter again.”
- ⚡️ NEWS IN BRIEF
- Angel Di Maria and Louis van Gaal clashed at Manchester United
- Van Gaal forced Di Maria to rewatch all of his mistakes
- Di Maria ‘lost it’ as well as his place in the team
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Angel Di Maria record at Man Utd
Di Maria cost United £59.7m following a transfer from Real Madrid.
He went on to make 32 appearances across all competitions.
In those games, Di Maria scored four goals and registered 11 assists.
It didn’t help Di Maria that his family were the victims of an attempted burglary at their Cheshire home while they were eating dinner.
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