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Louis van Gaal has admitted Angel Di Maria is suffering from a shortage of confidence after he substituted the former Real Madrid winger at half-time against Sunderland.

Di Maria was replaced with Adnan Januzaj at half-time with the game goalless. United went on to win 2-0 thanks to two goals from Wayne Rooney.

Van Gaal revealed afterwards his decision to sub Di Maria was tactical and insisted his job now is to boost the 27-year-old's confidence in a bid to get the best out of his £59.7m signing.

Van Gaal said:"He is going forwards but I want to win as a manager.

"I have to observe and analyse and I have to take the steps that are necessary and I always thought in theory that I could change Angel for Januzaj and then we were in the second half better so I cannot say it was a bad decision.

"The difficulty is that the players have to adapt to the Premier League.

"I have explained already the rhythm of the game is so high, much higher than in other countries and he has to adapt to the culture so we have to give him time and lift his confidence again, that's also important.

"He is also a human being like me and you and you can make mistakes but he is a top sportsman. So he shall overcome this period."