Time makes Manchester United’s sale of Angel Di Maria look even worse

It’s been months since Angel Di Maria was sold by Manchester United and the transition looks worse with each passing day

It’s ironic that with all of the discussion about Manchester United’s attacking deficiencies the name Angel Di Maria doesn’t come up very often. It’s ironic that over a half season after his departure from Old Trafford their decision to sell him continues to haunt the Premier League side.

Many questioned the decision to sell Di Maria when it happened and justifiably so. He’d shown during his time at Real Madrid that he is a scintillating attacker who can create chances out of nothing. He is clearly a world-class player and selling a superstar of his ilk is always going to be controversial.

At the time, United fans justified the sale by pointing to Louis van Gaal’s managerial reputation. Simply put, van Gaal had the credibility amongst the fan base and even those inside the club itself, to sell whomever he wanted. He was even able to force Di Maria out of the side with little push back.

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Part of this, was certainly due to Di Maria’s struggles during his time at United. It’s unfair to judge the transaction, even in retrospect, without acknowledging that the year at United was probably Di Maria’s worst as a pro. He only managed to score three Premier League goals in his 27 appearances, but he did manage to notch 10 assists. His Whoscored.com player rating was an even seven which is one of the worst of his career. Keep that number seven in mind, it will come up again later.

Even given his struggles at the club, it was clear to see that his talent was still there. He did suffer from a hamstring injury during the second half of his one season at Old Trafford, but you could still see his explosion and trickery most of the year. In fact, the chief reason he left were the continued “bust-ups” he had with the manager.

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Now that we’ve set the scene for Di Maria’s departure, we can fairly judge how it’s worked out for Manchester United. To be blunt, it’s a deal that looks worse with each passing day for Van Gaal and the other higher-ups at United.

First, there’s the undeniable fact that Di Maria has been an absolute stud for PSG. He has six goals and nine assists in just 15 Ligue One matches this year and posts an outstanding player rating of 8.1. That’s PSG’s best mark, higher than that of the uber talented Zlatan Ibrahimovic. There’s no doubt that he’s shown that his down year at United was a complete fluke. He’s clearly a superstar in world football.

As if that’s not bad enough, the cast of characters that have attempted to replace him at United have been an absolute mess. The trio of Juan Mata, Jesse Lingard and Memphis Depay have provided United some of the worst wide play in the Premier League. The trio has only managed to knock in eight goals during Premier League play despite playing huge minutes for the club.

What’s even more condemning is the fact that none of the three men who were intended to replace Di Maria have managed a Whoscored.com rating of over seven for the season. What that means, is that none of Di Maria’s replacements have managed to play as well as he did during a year that most, including himself, believe to be an abject disaster.

If van Gaal would have stuck with Di Maria and he would’ve had a similarly “awful” year again. It still means that Manchester United would be getting more out of their wing players than they are currently. That’s why this deal continues to look horrific in hindsight.

Now some might contend that only through Di Maria’s sale could United afford to purchase Anthony Martial. That’s absolute hogwash. United is one of the richest clubs in the world and they didn’t need to sell Di Maria to fund any acquisition they may have desired.

Having Di Maria also wouldn’t have stunted Martial’s growth in any way. It’s clear that Martial is best suited as a striker in van Gaal’s formation whereas Di Maria is better deployed out wide. It’s likely that having the Argentine in the starting 11 would have given Martial more freedom to score.

Louis van Gaal has done lots to damage Manchester United, but forcing Angel Di Maria out of the club might end up being the worst of all. With each passing day, the play of the Argentinian superstar continues to make the deal look worse and worse.