\u00c1ngel Di Mar\u00eda still remembers the first weeks at Manchester United with a trace of wistfulness. \u201cIt all started off well,\u201d he says, and the early numbers underline that claim. \u201cI scored goals and set up others in several matches,\u201d he adds, describing a rapid adaptation in which he directly contributed to six Premier League goals in his first five games, scoring three and creating three.<\/p>\n
The winger, so skinny he is nicknamed El Fideo (the Noodle), produced one of his best displays that September at Leicester City\u2019s King Power Stadium, scooping a lob over Kasper Schmeichel before setting up Ander Herrera to put United 3\u20131 ahead. The match ended in a shocking 5\u20133 defeat after four unanswered goals against the Red Devils.<\/p>\n
That collapse fed doubts about the narrow 4-4-2 system and how it affected the squad. Van Gaal began to alter formations and personnel, a process that affected Di Mar\u00eda directly. \u201cAll of a sudden, Van Gaal started moving me to different positions\u2014positions I\u2019d never played before and didn\u2019t feel comfortable in,\u201d he says. The player describes blunt criticism from the coach: \u201cHe\u2019d point out everything I did wrong during the game but never the good things.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m the type to take risks all the time, but he didn\u2019t see it that way; he never understood that I was a forward. And that\u2019s where the whole conflict with him began. Then I froze up, and he started benching me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 2014\u201315 figures reflect a fragmented season: 27 appearances, 20 starts, 1,639 minutes, three goals and 10 assists. Injuries and a red card against Arsenal compounded his difficulties.<\/p>\n
Off the field, Di Mar\u00eda says the situation worsened for his family. \u201cMy family wasn\u2019t comfortable either,\u201d Di Mar\u00eda adds, \u201cI wasn\u2019t happy in the city. The weather didn\u2019t help much either. And with the fight with him, things just snowballed.\u201d The final blow came when three men attempted to break into his Cheshire mansion while he, his wife and young daughter were at dinner. The alarm drove the intruders away, but the episode left a lasting mark on the player and his family.<\/p>\n
As the World Cup winner has noted, the campaign began brightly before a sequence of tactical changes, personal strain and a frightening home invasion altered the course of his season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Di Mar\u00eda remembers a bright start at Manchester United, then tactical shifts and a terrified family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12643,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,969],"tags":[1081,1304],"class_list":["post-12644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","tag-adaptation","tag-benching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12644\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}