Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal willing to give Angel di Maria space and time to rediscover form

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has admitted that British record signing Angel di Maria is struggling at Old Trafford, but is confident that once he goes through the adaptation process he will rediscover his form.

The Argentine put in a man-of-the-match performance for Real Madrid in the final of the Champions League and after a couple of months he was heading to Manchester, to become the Red Devils' marquee signing for a record £59.7m ($92.2m).

The Argentine international had a blistering start to the Premier League with three goals and three assists coming in his first six matches and he was looked upon as the man to lead United back to the top of the English game.

But, it was not to be, as the former Benfica winger has faltered and seen his form dip and the last time he scored a goal in the Premier League was back at the start of October in a game against Everton.

The Dutch manager is aware that a creative player like Di Maria needs space to express himself. Van Gaal is willing to give him that, but believes that the player has a responsibility to process the ideas put by the manager and improve their game and play according to the 'philosophy' the club employs.

"I know as a manager that he is a very creative player and you can see this from the statistics," Louis van Gaal said, as quoted by the Manchester Evening News.

"He needs that space and I give that space, but he needs to do also things with his brain and that is a learning process, not only with Di Maria but for all the players."

"I give a lot of space to all the players because in an attacking way they create more when they are free. That freedom I give and shall give in the future also."

"But when you want to win as a team you have to defend also and also Di Maria has to do that," the Red Devils manager explained.

"Every team has its own philosophy and then you have to play like that philosophy. I think not only Di Maria, I think all the players."

However, Van Gaal understands that a player, who comes from a league in Spain or any other country, will take time to adapt to the intensity and pace of the Premier League and the manager is willing to give the Argentine the space and time needed to rediscover his form.

"When you buy players you need to give them time to adapt to the culture of England, to the rhythm of the Premier League, because that is a big difference between to somewhere like Spain or the Premier League," he concluded.