Mecanim problems, how do i make player idle in direction hes moving?

Hey, i'm new to unity and to using mecanim. I am simply trying to have my player move in 8 directions from a top down perspective. i have set up a 2d freeform blend tree with all 8 directions of a running animation, i also have an idle animation.

i cannot figure out, (and there isnt much material online to help as i have been searching for an answer for 2 days now), how to keep the player facing the direction he moves in, he moves in all 8 directions perfect but as soon as you release the keys he snaps back to facing upwards, which i assume is the start position for the idle animation.

i have tried to make 8 different direction idle animations and it works, he would stay facing the direction of travel, but this is very hard and complicated to rig up 8 directions and 8 idle animations, it got real messy fast ,is there a way to use this blend tree i have and make him idle in the direction he is travelling. bear in mind im new and just pointing me to a tutorial of vague content doesn't help, majority of tutorials i have watched so far don't mention this or are about something i don't want.

Sorry if this is simple, we all have to start somewhere.

Here is the blend tree i am using;