Difficult time for Angel di Maria: Louis van Gaal

Angel di Maria checked by Crystal Palace's Marouane Chamakh during Saturday’s match

After a dazzling run of form in the first few weeks, Angel di Maria has struggled to find his groove in the English Premier League, and coach Louis van Gaal was forced to acknowledge the writing on the wall, in an interview given to MUTV on Saturday.

The Dutchman admitted that Di Maria was ineffectual in the match against Crystal Palace, but made sure to add that this was mainly because it was not his type of game being played.

"For him it was more difficult because the space is very small, especially when you are a player who likes to dribble. He had to dribble around a lot of players. It was more a passing game.”

To be fair, Di Maria had a part to play in the lead-up to the match-winning goal scored by Juan Mata, but the manager might have been sending his record-signing a message by taking him off in the 71st minute for 18-year-old academy product James Wilson.

Van Gaal appeared to be quite happy with his team’s performance though, saying it was the first time that they had managed to kill a game off after scoring first.

"Despite the fact we killed the game we had a lot of chances, because Rooney could score, Mata could score again and Van Persie could score."

Di Maria absolutely happy at Manchester United

There has been a furore recently about Angel di Maria’s state of mind in his new surroundings, with former club legends questioning whether he had carried the joy in his game to his new club from his Real Madrid days.

It was the player’s wife who was the latest to join this bandwagon, assuring fans on Instagram that he was in fact quite content with his life in England.