That answer is something along the lines of "no, of course he is not." Three league goals and seven assists, and a further goal in the FA Cup are not the kind of numbers United would have hoped that Di Maria would have put up by mid-February, 25 games into the league season.
The longer answer is slightly more complicated, and it would be as ridiculous to damn Di Maria as a "flop" or "waste of money" as it would be to suggest he had been a roaring, unqualified success.
The first consideration is to define the term "value." As I wrote when I last
looked at this topic, back at the beginning of December, "value" is not simply a question of delivering effective performances on the pitch.
That may be the primary consideration, but there are important secondary considerations, which are profoundly unromantic and at odds with what fans care about.
Issues like shirt sales and his appeal to sponsors have to be factored in, in terms of United’s commercial assessment of Di Maria’s value to the club.
For the sake of example, let us say that his acquisition contributed to the sense that—in spite of the slump that has followed Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement—United are still a huge attraction to star players.
For the sake of illustration, we could further speculate—and it is just speculation—that in turn contributed some percentage to Adidas’ decision to break records when negotiating their shirt deal with United.
If that were the case, it would be a consideration in terms of measuring his value that those outside of the club would not be able to quantify.
What can be seen for certain is that shirts with Di Maria and "7" on the back are commonplace among the Old Trafford crowd.
Those secondary considerations inherently effect the "value" of any transfer, even if they do not capture the imagination or serve the team directly.
However, with that important caveat out of the way, what of the matter of value on the pitch?
The dizzying amounts involved in Di Maria’s transfer put him in rarefied company. According to
The Telegraph, only James Rodriguez,
Neymar,
Luis Suarez, Cristiano Ronaldo and
Gareth Bale have commanded a higher transfer fee than Di Maria.
That makes Di Maria the most expensive signing whose destination club was not either
Real Madrid or Barcelona. The expectation, from a footballing perspective, is that he would contribute on a similar level to those players.
So far this season, all of those players have exceeded Di Maria’s combined total for goals and assists. Of course, both Real Madrid and Barcelona are functioning considerably better as attacking forces than Manchester United currently are. There is also the issue of comparing across leagues, which muddies the waters of expectations in terms of goals and assists.
In the Premier League, Di Maria sits joint-fourth in the assist table.
Cesc Fabregas is currently dominating that category as comprehensively as
Chelsea are dominating the league table. His 15 assists almost doubles the joint-second-placed eight of
LeightonBaines and
Gylfi Sigurdsson.
Alexis Sanchez is the player who shares fourth spot with Di Maria, on seven assists, but the
Arsenal man has 12 league goals to his credit.
Di Maria's numbers have been restricted by an injury. The games he missed before his arrival combined with that injury mean he has only played in 17 of United's 25 league games. However, by any reasonable measure, his contribution has been considerably closer to "decent" than it has to "outstanding."
There is plenty of mitigation available to defend Di Maria, hence the earlier assertion that it would be a knee-jerk reaction to damn him as a failure. Firstly, there is the matter of United's lack of distinct attacking identity.
Because of the plethora of systems Louis van Gaal has employed, Di Maria has not had the chance to bed into a team with a clear pattern of play. Learning the way your team-mates play in order to anticipate their movements is all the more challenging when there is little consistency in approach or selection.
Van Gaal's experimentation has impacted directly on the Argentinian, too. He has played on the left and right of a front three, on the left and right of a standard midfield four, on the left and right of a midfield diamond and, of course, as a centre-forward.
There have been glimpses of the player who was in FIFA's team of the year for 2014, who was Man of the Match in the Champions League final and was so sorely missed from Argentina's World Cup Final line-up.
The goal he scored against Leicester seems a dim memory now, but his recent performance against
Burnley was much improved over his recent less-impressive outings (as I covered in more detail
here).
He was hit-and-miss against
Preston North End on Monday evening. Superb with the ball at his feet, running at defenders, his execution was off when it came to the shot or final pass.
At the moment, Di Maria seems symbolic of Van Gaal's Manchester United as a whole. Like Van Gaal, his arrival brought much excitement.
Like the team, his performances have been hit-and-miss, but he has done enough not to be labelled a failure. United may have been unimpressive but are still in the FA Cup and are third in the league. Di Maria may have failed to live up to his hefty transfer fee, but he has made a significant contribution on occasion.
And, like the team as a whole, he deserves patience. Moving from Madrid to Manchester requires a significant cultural adjustment. Moving from Real Madrid to Manchester United—at the moment—has meant moving from Champions League winners to a team looking to rediscover itself.
He is not currently delivering full value—on the pitch—from United's outlay, but he is making United a better team. Van Gaal's men have lacked for pace and dynamism even with Di Maria in the side. Without him it would be—and has been—even worse.
If this is his best season for United, then his transfer can be written off as a disaster. However, while he has not yet delivered value, it is certainly possible that he is building towards doing so.
As the team around him becomes more settled and as Van Gaal finds some fluency in his attacking unit, Di Maria will be a huge asset to United.
Champions League qualification has been the goal this season. So long as El Fideo helps fire United back into competition with Europe's elite, he will have achieved his minimum job requirement.
Next season, the expectations will be different. Hopefully, with a more balanced team around him and a year's Premier League experience under his belt, Di Maria will unequivocally deliver on the promise of his huge transfer fee.
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