Gerardo Martino, the Argentina manager, has agreed with Louis van Gaal that Ángel di María is suffering a dip in form for Manchester United.
Di María is expected to feature in Argentina’s friendly with Portugal at Old Trafford on Tuesday. The forward has failed to score since 5 October and was replaced in United’s previous outing, the 1-0 win over Crystal Palace.
Asked about this disappointing form of United’s £59.7m summer British record transfer signing, Martino said: “I have to say that Ángel is one of the very top players in world football. His start was exceptional and the fact that generally when players go to a new club and have to get used to a new league, a new team, a different style of football and different team-mates, I think the form that he is showing now is possibly more typical of a player going to a new club than the very first few games when he burst onto the scene and did so well.”
Di María has largely been deployed by Van Gaal on the left-side of midfield in his starting XI though Martino does not believe this is a factor.
“With regards to his position, I would say that Ángel is the type of player who can play a number of different roles expertly,” he said. “You only have to look a few seasons back when he played on the right side for Real Madrid and in the season just gone, he featured more on the inside-left in a slighter freer role. Obviously, in the World Cup, he did very well when he played wide left so really, in terms of positioning, he can adapt to anywhere where the manager asks him to play.”
After the victory over Palace, Van Gaal said: “He has played in a very small space and he is a dribbler. But sometimes you cannot dribble, you have to make it a pass game and Di María is not a player who wants to give a pass every time he gets the ball. Therefore he lost the ball a lot of times and that was not good for the balance of the team.”
Lionel Messi should feature at Old Trafford when Cristiano Ronaldo is also due to play for Portugal. Despite the latter being the reigning Ballon d’Or winner, Martino believes Messi should again be voted the world’s best player for the fifth time in his career.
Martino, who was also Messi’s club coach at Barcelona last season, said: “You can’t take out of the deciding process I am Argentinian, my heart lies with Messi. I cannot separate sentiment from my objective decision. Whatever season Messi had on footballing grounds, I would still vote for him.”
Martino believes the forward is still at the peak of his powers. “I don’t see any change with Messi. He is still the marvellous player he always has been,” said the manager before outlining where Messi will operate against Portugal.
“In respect of the position, I tried him in one game for Barça on the right and it didn’t work out but in the two games he played for us against Brazil and Croatia he played on the right for the 25 minutes which was the best spell in our game and against Croatia he was the best player for 90 minutes. He fits in the role very naturally, it allows him to get a lot of time on the ball. That position is a starting point, it allows him to cope in, find space and make runs.”
