Of course he needs to improve, like any other young player he has flaws in his game. What is your point? He played very well, along side Cardozo (the man of the match) Maxi is a useful player for several positions, but he hasn't the speed needed for the right wing. He plays very well as a right back in Uruguayan NT. That's where he should play for us (in my opinion). We could try Nelson in the right wing, but I would prefer for us to buy a new player for that position. Where was that hint? Rodriguez stated several times he wanted to stay. What I saw on the news was his agent crying out loud warning Benfica for half of europe being interested in Rodriguez and that we should be quick to buy him for 5 million. Riiiiight... if he's worth it, we will pay it. If not, he can leave at the end of the season and he will have half of europe to chose from (For the record: I would buy him, but would try to make it cheaper) Maniche was put aside from the rest of the team because he had signed a contract with Porto six months before his contract with us was expired. Yeah, really funny. I don't know Pelé's story, was he from our academy? We should give more chances to our young anyway.
My point is that, imo, Di Maria's best game wasn't as good as Rodriguez worst, and he seems to be Rodriguez subsitute. Ok, let's buy a right winger and use Maxi at the back, I think that's an alternative, I don't trust Nelson though, he was superb in the first half of his first season but since then... I would pay more than 5 million for him, our best player so far, and still young. I said he hinted because in football world when he and his agent say there are lots of clubs interested in him and that he is only going to think about his future in the end of the year, (when we no longer have preference to sign him) normally it means he's crossing his fingers hoping he will make a big move. Of course he also said he was loving to play for Benfica, he doesn't want to create problems that can take him out of the team, he won't say he feels he can do much better than us (for now). We got Pele from Salgueiros when their first team was extinct, he came with another player and Salgueiros even tried to sue us claiming the kids were under contract but nothing happened. Anyway Pele couldn't adapt and we let him go to Guimaraes.