Van Gaal reveals the formation Man Utd will pla

Di Maria, a £59.7m buy from Real Madrid last summer, has failed to join United’s pre-season tour and Louis van Gaal admits he has “no idea” of the whereabouts of the Argentine.

Meanwhile, United’s problems do not end there, as the Daily Mail reports that the club’s decision to play hardball with keeper David de Gea over his desire to move to Real Madrid, has left the Spanish native distracted.

“Everybody can make mistakes, but when a goalkeeper makes a mistake it is mostly a goal and that’s the difference”.

During United’s 2-0 defeat by Paris St-Germain at Wednesday night’s worldwide Champions Cup game in Chicago, De Gea was substituted at half time.

However, Sky sources also understand United are actively pursuing a replacement for Di Maria and Van Gaal could yet add further to his attacking options with Barcelona forward Pedro among the players he is monitoring. On a similar theme, it was great to see another youngster, Sean Goss, finally get some minutes on the pitch after observing the three previous matches.

“But I have to say I have seen a lot of very good things from my team”. There have been suggestions at times that the clubs are a distance apart in negotiations and even some talk that Di Maria is not satisfied with the money offered by Paris. The Dutchman showed he has an eye for goal, too, capitalising on a defensive error to score his maiden United goal in San Jose.

Interestingly, they have also asked PSG about the availability of their Brazilian star Lucas Moura, though the French club have given their 22-year-old winger a new long-term deal.

“Maybe now, the sequence is a bit different, but I’m not superstitious”.

The most pressing concern centres on goalkeeper David de Gea, whose unconvincing performance against PSG hinted at the 24-year-old’s lack of focus in the wake of his failure to secure a summer move to Real. Last year I was forced to use, for example, Tyler Blackett and Jesse Lingard in the first Premier League match.