8 Incredible Angel Di Maria Stats Fans Should Be Talking About
Angel Di Maria has had an excellent start to his Manchester United career. In his four appearances so far, he has scored twice and provided two assists.
He has also added an unquantifiable, edge-of-the-seat excitement to watching United. Every time he gets the ball in a dangerous area, it feels like something great could happen.
That is partly because it very often does. Here are eight statistics that demonstrate in numbers why watching Angel Di Maria wearing United's number seven shirt is proving to be so very entertaining.
All statistics, except where specified, per WhoScored.com
The Most Key Passes in Europe's Top 5 Leagues in 2014
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This might be very slightly cheating, as it is dated just over two weeks ago, but by 11 September 2014, Angel Di Maria had provided the most key passes in Europe's Top Five leagues this calendar year.
"Most key passes in Europe’s top 5 leagues in 2014: Ángel Di María 63, Lionel Messi 62, Kevin De Bruyne 60, Eden Hazard / Samir Nasri 55
— WhoScored.com (@WhoScored) September 11, 2014"
Given that he is running virtually neck and neck with Lionel Messi, the lead is likely to be exchanged between now and year's end, but it demonstrates just how crucial Di Maria's input is to his teams.
Real Madrid's loss is United's gain.
More Assists Than Anyone in Europe's Top 5 Leagues Last Season
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Unsurprisingly, given his spectacular number of key passes, Di Maria provided the highest number of assists in Europe's Top Five leagues last season. Cesc Fabregas and Steven Gerrard were tied with a number of players in second place with 13, but Di Maria significantly outpaced them with 17.
No one at United has achieved this number of assists in the past five years, with Nani's 14 in the 2010/11 campaign coming the closest.
Scored or Assisted 20 Per Cent of Madrid's League Goals Last Season
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This statistic comes courtesy of Squawka's Twitter account:
"Ángel Di María was directly involved in 20% Real Madrid's La Liga goals last season (21/104) / (4 goals, 17 assists). pic.twitter.com/c0Jp93fTdh
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) August 26, 2014"
It would be understandable for Real Madrid fans and players to be less than delighted about losing a player who had a direct hand in 20 per cent of their goals last season.
The balance was, of course, heavily weighted toward assists, which is understandable in a Real Madrid side blessed with an abundance of goalscorers. It will be intriguing to see how his balance of goals and assists plays out at United this season.
Either way, it is likely that a good number of United's goals will have an Angel-ic look about them this season.
Double Figures of Assists in Every Season with Real Madrid
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As we have seen, last season was particularly impressive for Di Maria on the assists front.
However, it has been far from unusual for him to put up excellent numbers of assists at Madrid.
In 2012/13 he only managed 10 assists in La Liga and the Champions League combined. He did, however, add seven league goals to that tally—his most in a league season.
Combining the league and Champions League, Di Maria managed 12 assists in 2010/11, 16 in 2011/12, the aforementioned 10 in 2012/13 and a spectacular 22 in 2013/14.
Most Key Passes at United This Season
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Di Maria has started his United career as he finished his time at Madrid: in fine creative form. He has already provided 11 key passes at an average of 2.8 per game.
In terms of totals, Robin van Persie is next in the United pecking order with six, which demonstrates neatly just how productive Di Maria has been.
Discounting Marouane Fellaini's average of two key passes per game—because it is based in his two key passes in one game—the next best average at United is Ander Herrera with 1.3 per game.
Di Maria is currently United's most important creative player. In truth, this has been straightforward to intuit from simply watching United, but the data most certainly backs that intuition.
Provided a Goal or an Assist Every 1.7 League and Champions League Appearances
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Since arriving at Real Madrid, Angel Di Maria has played 158 club games in the league or Champions League (including his four at United). During that time, he has scored 30 goals and provided 62 assists, meaning he has provided an average of a goal or an assist every 1.7 appearances.
Of those 158 games, 123 have been as part of the starting XI, meaning his average could be interpreted as a goal or assist every 1.33 starts. Either way, it is clear that he is a player with a distinct end product.
Created a Chance Every 26 Minutes in Last Season's La Liga Campaign
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David Dubas-Fisher, writing in the Manchester Evening News tell us: "Last season in La Liga, Di Maria created a goalscoring chance for his team mates once every 26 minutes."
Statistics like this are the reason why that edge-of-the-seat excitement is so present when Di Maria has the ball. Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie and Radamel Falcao will be happy Di Maria is now providing chances for them rather than Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale.
Outstanding Number of Accurate Crosses Last League Season
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Di Maria's high number of chances created and assists last season are partly because of his excellent cross provision.
Much was made of United's over-reliance on crosses during David Moyes' reign. However, Di Maria's average of 2.1 accurate crosses per league game last season is much better than anyone at United managed, per Opta (h/t WhoScored.com).
Rooney was United's best provider of crosses in the league last season, with 1.2 on average per game. Di Maria was not far off doubling that.
He has not quite got into his crossing rhythm at United so far, providing only three crosses that found a United target in his first four games, per Squawka, but better seems likely to come.
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