Manchester United’s Ángel di María has admitted the chance to work with manager Louis van Gaal was a principle reason for moving to Old Trafford.

The Argentina midfielder left Real Madrid last month to sign for United for a British record fee of £59.7m and scored on his home debut in the 4-0 win over Queens Park Rangers on Sunday. Now Di María has acknowledged that the presence of former Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach Van Gaal was a major factor in his decision to leave Spain.

“Van Gaal was really important for me in order to come here,” Di María told Perform. “[He] was one of the first [people] who spoke about bringing me here. The coach always has the last word about the players he wants. I am really grateful to him because, thanks [to] him, I am now playing for United.

“I keep trying to improve every day and for that reason I wanted to come here to United. I needed to change my life. I will try my best to play the right way. I will try my best every match and show my arrival at Old Trafford was worthy.”

United spent almost £150m on new players including Di María, Daley Blind and Marcos Rojo in the summer transfer window as they attempt to improve on last season’s seventh place finish. Now Di María expects them to build on their first win of the season against QPR and backed his compatriot Rojo to settle in quickly to life in the Premier League.

“Manchester United are trying to grow,” he said. “We already know we didn’t start the Premier [League] in the right way [but] those things always happen in football. Marcos Rojo [has] shown at the World Cup [that] he is capable. He did really well there and he deserved to come here. Hopefully he will be able to improve every day as he did at the World Cup and he will bring a lot of good things to United.”