World Cup winner Angel Di Maria has pinpointed a key moment that soured his relationship with former Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal at Old Trafford.
The 38-year-old Argentine winger spent only one season at the Premier League club after his blockbuster transfer from La Liga outfit Real Madrid in 2014.
Angel Di Maria was a marquee signing for Louis van Gaal’s first season as Manchester United manager after David Moyes had been sacked by the Red Devils.
However, the former Real Madrid star struggled to live up to the high expectations of the then-British record transfer fee of £59.7m that United had paid for him.
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Angel Di Maria was left deeply frustrated with Louis van Gaal’s approach to him at Man Utd
Angel Di Maria admitted that his relationship with Louis van Gaal did not start off on the wrong foot after being a key Manchester United first-team player for him.
However, Van Gaal expected the 2022 World Cup winner to play in different roles outside of his preferred position as a winger, including playing down the middle.
Di Maria’s debut season at Old Trafford was also disrupted by injuries, as well as his struggles of adapting to life in England after he left the Spanish capital.
Speaking to BBC Sport, the former Paris Saint-Germain winger claimed that he became “fed up” with Van Gaal bombarding him with consistent negativity.
“Like I said, I started really well,” he said.
“Everything was perfect. But then, suddenly, we started having lots of meetings about all the things I was doing wrong on the pitch,” he said.
“He never showed me what I was doing well, just the negatives, over and over. Eventually, I got fed up.”
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Angel Di Maria says a 2015 incident impacted him off the field amid his fractured Man Utd relationship with Louis van Gaal
Di Maria was at home when his house in Cheshire was the target of an attempted burglary and the former Argentina international said the event impacted him.
“Life there was very different,” he added.
“It gets dark really early and then the cold started. Everything kept snowballing. There was also the break-in at my house.
“When all of that happens, when you are not playing, when things aren’t going well for you, when you have problems inside the club, it ends up affecting you a lot. It made me hate being there.”
Di Maria continued: “I got robbed in Paris too and still stayed for another two or three years, because life there was good.
“In Manchester, everything just snowballed. I wanted to prioritise my family and that is why I left.”
Di Maria found the back of the net four times and registered 11 assists in 32 matches for the Red Devils before Man Utd offloaded him to PSG in 2015.
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