Wayne Rooney on Angel Di Maria's struggles: 'I think he will figure it out'

Manchester United's 2-0 win versus Sunderland on Saturday marked yet another match where Angel Di Maria failed to make much of an impact on the match.

In fact, his first-half performance was bad enough that manager Louis van Gaal felt the need to take the 27-year-old Argentine off at the interval. And upon glancing at Di Maria's numbers through 45 minutes on the pitch, it's not hard to see why.

Di Maria, whose move from Real Madrid cost United a British record fee of £59.7 million, last scored a Premier League goal in October. And while scoring is far from his first responsibility, his overall performances have been a far cry for the form he carried into the beginning of the season.

However, despite Di Maria's recent struggles, Wayne Rooney believes that Saturday's performance was just one of those days and is confident his teammate to return to top form.

"It (Saturday) was just one of those days that every footballer has," Rooney told United's official website, according to the Guardian. "He is a great player, he has shown that and you don't lose your talent overnight. Hopefully, he will get back to his best and start giving some great performances for us.

"He has got a lot of experience and I think he will figure it out, we all have to do that sometimes. There is nothing worse than when everyone keeps going on at you. You have to come to it in your own way and I am sure he will be a big player for us between now and the end of the season."

United sit fourth in the Premier League table, 10 points back of league leaders Chelsea and two points ahead of fifth-placed Liverpool.