Angel di Maria would be Manchester United's perfect January signing – But how can they get him?

Angel di Maria

Having endured a disastrous summer transfer window (to put it mildly) and a less-than-perfect start to Premier League life under David Moyes, there are signs of cohesion and stability at the Manchester club as they sit 8th, but in a close cluster of teams competing for second in the next few games.

Despite that, there’s little doubt that Ed Woodward and David Moyes must act over the January transfer window. Money won’t be an issue for the Red Devils as much as finding the right talent will, and while there’s a number of players who will fall across the defending champions’ radar, their biggest target should be that of Angel Di Maria.

Linked with a move to United over the summer (via The Daily Mirror), Di Maria would provide United with that extra attacking element that they haven’t quite found from Marouane Fellaini or either of their wide men. He wouldn’t solve their problem in central midfield given his customary position out on the wide flank, but the 25-year-old would offer the Red Devils great creativity and trickery moving forward and allow Moyes to be creative with his formations if he chooses.

Despite playing just three full games in La Liga this year, Di Maria has shown to be an extremely creative players on the ball—making more goal-scoring chances than any other Madrid player with 22. His natural tendency is to play the ball early up field to the likes of Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo, which does limit the number of take-ons that the 25-year-old both attempts and completes per game, but it also restricts his overall number of turnovers.

This season’s shot accuracy of 61 percent will no doubt be encouraging for United fans to see also, despite the fact that Di Maria has only scored one domestic goal for Madrid this year.

In the Champions League, Di Maria has proven to be one of the best attacking players, with his two goals and four assists ranking him amongst several elite players so far in the competition.

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Di Maria also isn’t afraid to try and win the ball back out on the right or left flank either, which is perhaps one of the more underrated aspects of his game. The winger has won 88 percent of his tackles attempted this season—a percentage higher than any other Manchester United wide man.

These defensive attributes would allow Moyes to not only play Di Maria in advanced positions down the field but also give him great confidence playing the 25-year-old as a regulation winger in a 4-3-2-1 or 4-3-1-2 formation if need be.

Manchester United are clearly crying out for some extra creativity to join the likes of Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie in attack this year. They’ve seemingly found something in the middle of the field in Adnan Januzaj; adding in Di Maria as well would only make them stronger.

The Red Devils are struggling to create as many goal-scoring chances as they did last year, especially out wide, which is an area Di Maria would be of huge assistance in.

There are some doubts as to whether Carlo Ancelotti would be willing to see Di Maria at all in the near future, but especially not in the wake of Mesut Ozil’s departure, and those concerns are certainly valid.

However, it must also be noted that Di Maria’s presence in Madrid’s starting side will come under fire if Gareth Bale continues to fire like he did on the weekend, as Los Blancos scored seven goals (and it should have been more) with Di Maria not in the starting team.

Throw in some lingering debt problems for Madrid and this transfer isn’t that hard to imagine after all.