Di Maria Shows that he is a HUGE addition for PSG but BLANC remains a Problem

Angel Di Maria is my guy. He's my kind of player and he is someone who would always have a place in my team. The man just understands what it means to take the game to an opponent. He is direct, skillful and always ready to try the audacious during a match. Van Gaal made a real bad move letting him go and not fighting to keep him and work with him. With the way United are now, they could do with Di Maria. Now, PSG will benefit from his abilities and should win Ligue 1 by at least twenty points, but before you crown them as champions-elect...remember who still remains their manager.









Malmo were always going to get served by PSG. We knew this as soon as the draw was made; they stood no chance. This was really about the performance and how PSG looked, with the all eyes on the big new signing. Angel brought it home, with a great display of dribbling, passing, good football and the kind of goal that only few players of his ilk can score. There is then some hope that PSG fans will have that this is the final piece to take PSG further and perhaps even lift the trophy. They already have one of the best teams in the world, but Di Maria even in a team as good as PSG will take them up a level. When he is on his game, being a winger, he can pretty much decide a match, just like he did in 2014 for Madrid against Atletico in the Final during Extra-Time.


But the man on the touchline with a lollipop....

Based purely on the talents that PSG have, they will always get past the group stage and most likely into the quarters. What stops them from getting into that final four is tactics. The quarters is when you really have to bring more to the table than just pure talent and the players you have. That is when you will most likely face a team that finished top of their own group, and who have an elite manager that has studied you and has worked out your weaknesses and how to exploit it. This is what Champions League football is about. It's really about the manager, because the teams are so evenly matched, the only thing that can swing it one way are the tactics and strategy. Please, don't mention Enrique or Di Matteo, they are anomalies in this notion.








If Blanc can get his tactics right, and actually introduce some different strategies for PSG based on their opponents, then they can easily win the Champions League. It's up to Blanc to get the best out of Ibra, to make Pastore and Lucas rip up defenses with their immense talents and to make the best use out of Di Maria, just like Ancelotti did for Madrid. If Di Maria is used the right way, and can be in a position where he can really cause damage to the opposition, then that could be the key to Champions League glory for the Parisien club.

Di Maria is a player who can put incredible crosses into the box as well as weave through tackles and score on his own. If he is being marked tight or double-teamed, that is where he will need to deliver balls into the box, and this is where the training sessions come in. Strikers have to understand the winger, because it dictates what kinds of runs they make. Someone like Di Maria likes to deliver outswingers that curve towards and away from the keeper with speed, which means Ibra and Cavani have to time their runs in such a manner that they can either get a toe onto the ball or a diving header. The regular cross at head height plays into the hands of the defender, whilst it is Hell trying to defend the kinds of crosses Di Maria likes to execute.

The world of football now has become about wingers, and we are witnessing the greatest ever players in that position that we've ever seen. You talk of Bale, Robben, Cristiano/Penaldo, and with Douglas Costa and Griezmann now rising up; Di Maria is most definitely in that exclusive club. It's all down to Blanc making the right tactical moves when they meet Bayern, Barcelona or Madrid to employ the Argentine weapon to devastating effect.