Share

Tweet

Share

Share

Email

Comments

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal clearly uses form as a his major indicator in his team selections. And this is obviously a great way of motivating his highly performing team right now. There is a feel good factor around the team and they are working for each other.

But this is of course a results industry and a quick look at the Premier League assists table will tell you that Manchester United star Angel di Maria is second only to Cesc Fabregas on the list, with 10 assists so far this season (Cesc has a whopping 16). And this is even more impressive when you consider that the Argentine has been injured for around two months of the season and also benched for the last few weeks.

The man who currently has his place, Ashley Young, has just one assist to his name.

There are of course many elements that make a player valuable to a team. Young’s commitment, positional understanding and work rate have kept him in the side. But, while he tracks back and helps out his defenders brilliantly, his stats show that he still isn’t in the same league as Di Maria when it comes to the business end of the pitch. The game against Villa provided another patent example of this with Di Maria providing an assist within a minute of coming off the bench.

With Di Maria suspended recently, Louis van Gaal almost stumbled on this eleven by chance. And there is a big argument to stick with a winning formula.

But we believe that Manchester United should unleash Di Maria on Manchester City this weekend. He can be expensive, in terms of giving the ball away, but he can also turn the game in an instant.

Apart form anything, Di Maria needs a chance to show what he can do between now and the end of the season because it will give the coaching staff a better idea as to what to do with him once the season is over.

Manchester United fans: should Louis change a winning formula to include Angel?