Di Maria Set For United Debut At Burnley

Angel Di Maria is set to make his Manchester United debut in Saturday’s Barclays Premier League meeting with Burnley, having already impressed manager Louis van Gaal in training.

The Argentinian only completed his £59.7million transfer from Real Madrid on Tuesday, but has been deemed fit enough to take his bow at Turf Moor.

“He has impressed me,” the boss told MUTV’s Stewart Gardner on Friday. “The first training session was with all the boys and he was very impressive. The second was a little bit less so but he has to adapt to the culture and the players with whom he shall play.

“It is the other way around also: the Man United players have to adapt to his way of playing. I believe he is ready to play. He is fit enough. He played a match in Madrid and he is ready to play.”

Asked if Turf Moor will provide a culture shock for Di Maria, a former resident of the Bernabeu, van Gaal said: “A game is a game and a match is a match. He has a lot of hunger to play because he wants to support Manchester United. He said it in the press conference. He is a very modest guy. He wants to work for the team so I am very curious about his first appearance.”

Van Gaal has repeatedly stressed it will take around three months for the players to adapt to his philosophy and the new 3-5-2 formation. Nevertheless, he is continually looking for improvement and hopes his side can up their game on Saturday.

“I hope we can build up more carefully than the last matches because we created a lot of chances in the last match against MK Dons. But we had problems in building-up situations. We also lost the ball in the first phase of our building-up and then we gave the ball away. They had six chances and scored four goals. We had 11 chances and zero goals.

“It is always difficult to play a promoted team in the first five, six and seven weeks as they are very motivated. It is also, more or less, a derby so it shall be very difficult to win there. It is a small pitch, the crowd is on the pitch and they can stimulate the players of Burnley. But we have to win, it is simple.”

Saturday’s match will not be van Gaal’s first match against Burnley or indeed at Turf Moor, given that he once took charge of a friendly against the Clarets for Ajax in 1991. While he doesn’t remember much about the game, which his side won by a slender margin, he has spotted a common theme between then and now.

“It was also a step in the process because I had taken over from Leo Beenhakker and we won the UEFA Cup in my first year. In my second year, we won only the Cup in the Netherlands. That is the year that we played against Burnley and won 1-0.

“It was post-season of course but, okay, it was a narrow escape and I don’t remember nothing about that match. But what I want to say is that it was also a step in the process. In my third year, we won everything with Ajax. We beat Burnley 0-1 and, the year after, we won everything.”