My choice to lead the line on Saturday- but not likely to be Sir Alex's.
If reports are to be believed then Danny Welbeck could well find himself relegated to a place on the bench for Saturday’s game against Liverpool at Old Trafford.
After the Chelsea game last week Sir Alex noted:
“To be honest, I think I should have played Chicharito from the start,” said Ferguson. “When he came on he had them on toast. He really put pressure on them with his movement and positional play. Danny Welbeck is a terrific player and he is going to be a top player, but when Chicharito came on it was a different game.”
That may seem like a fair assessment and who are we to argue with Sir Alex, after all Chicharito did get the all important equaliser and there’s no denying the Chelsea back four looked visibly rattled by him and his runs. Let’s not forget though, that according to Sir Alex Danny Welbeck should have earned a first half penalty and sending off and then did actually earn a vital penalty to bring the game back to 3-2.
Welbeck is unlucky in the fact that on another day, he could have been receiving all the plaudits for causing Chelsea’s implosion but it now seems is destined to lose his place.
I know I’m something of a lone voice but I genuinely think the Reds boss should stick with Longsight’s finest and in a way, Saturday’s game only reiterated the reasoning I have behind that thought.
Chicharito has often been compared to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and this is a comparison I wholeheartedly agree with, the point is Ole was, despite being one of the most prolific strikers United have ever seen, was often more effective coming off the bench than he was starting. In 1999 I remember being at Old Trafford in 1998 when Dwight Yorke made his home debut, the Reds won 4-1 against Charlton with the former Villa man and Ole grabbing two goals apiece. It seemed that this as to be United’s new striking partnership. Fergie had other ideas though and realising the chemistry between Andy Cole and Yorke worked better and that Ole was the team’s most effective substitute he made the two future Blackburn players his preferred pair.
When I think of Welbeck and Chicharito in some ways it reminds me of the Cole/Ole argument, Chicharito is no doubt the better finisher of the two and more likely to grab you a goal, but Welbeck is arguably more likely to help others gets goal than his Mexican counterpart.
In fact this season, they’re stats are practically identical, with Chicharito having scored eight and assisted with one goal, in 20 games, while Welbeck has six goals and two assists in 18 games, its difficult to call which player is more effective overall using just stats, so it’s much better to give an opinion based on watching the actual games- something which may seem alien to many football fans and ‘writers’ nowadays.
As someone who grew up watching football before you could even find out who got the assist for a goal unless you actually went to the game or spoke to someone who did, I’ve always preferred formulating my opinions on players based on watching them, rather than googling info on them.
Whenever I’ve seen Welbeck start alongside Rooney this season, on the whole I feel the entire forward six have looked more like a complete unit. Whether thats Rooney, Welbeck, Nani Young Anderson Cleverley, or Rooney Welbeck, Valencia, Nani, Giggs and Carrick, or whatever, there seems to be slightly better team play. When Chicharito starts, there is still a good understanding amongst the front six, but there seems to be more of a case of everyone getting the ball to the Mexican who will then try and score rather than, everyone working an opening for whoever.
This doesn’t mean that United are necessarily worse off with Chicharito upfront, after all what does it matter who’s scoring, as long as someone is. I just feel that the Reds seem a better attacking ‘unit’ this season with Welbeck playing just in front of Rooney, the Mancunian doesn’t always look for the run towards goal, he is often willing to try and bring in others and although his hold-up play needs work, on the whole it just edges the Mexicans.
The other point to my argument for feeling it’s better to start with Welbeck is the fact that Chicharito is more effective coming off the bench than Welbeck is, whenever the Mexican comes off the bench he seems much more likely to score than his English team mate does when he’s brought on as sub.
Of course you could point out that I’ve just argued Welbeck is a better player for enabling others to score so it would make sense that coming off the bench the England striker would be a better bet for helping Rooney or whoever grab a goal. I don’t think Welbeck is nearly as effective on the whole as a substitute though in fact he hasn’t got either of his two assists for United when coming off the bench and he’s only scored one goal. Chicharito on the other hand has scored twice coming off the bench and has an assist- hardly a hugely impressive difference I’ll admit but at least it goes some way to backing up my theory. Just.
There’s also the question of form, which many people, including Sir Alex will no doubt point to the fact that Chicharito now has two goals in his last two games, while Welbeck has none. Yet in the game against Chelsea, Welbeck as I’ve already stated was an effective contributor and in his previous start- against Liverpool at Anfield he was a lone striker who had so few chances that when he finally did get half a sniff of goal he wasted it with others in a far better position.
There’s also the argument of resting Welbeck, how it might be good for him , well I’m sorry but asking a 22 year-old to play two games six days apart is like asking Luis Suarez to have two controversial incidents in the same week- not a problem.
Although, I know I’ll be in the minority and who am I to argue with Sir Alex, but in all honesty I’d prefer to see the young Mancunian start over the little Mexican this Saturday, although I’ll hardly be gutted to see Chicharito’s name on the team sheet.
Who would you prefer? Feel free to comment suggest and abuse below:
Play all three!!
we are manchester united fans from mexico, we enjoyed to watch chicharito every week i hope we can see him playing this weekend.
Agree a lot with your points on Welbeck, and a good article overall… but I think Chicharito is effective regardless of whether he starts or comes off the bench.
Also, he still has a knack for scoring hugely important goals (granted Welbeck is also capable of this) – let’s not forget Chicharito’s crucial opening goal in the first few minutes of the game against Chelsea last season.
Sell Chicharito, he deserves to play every game, just as Welbeck’s, so sell him and everybody will be happy..
IMHO Chicharito makes the game more interesting. The defense is always on it’s toes, and play harder and more intense. Those are the kind of games I like to see. Welbeck has good movement in the center, and he would probably be a good center, but keeps making mistakes when it comes to striking. Yes, he’s gotten 6 goals in, but he’s missed too many to count. Chicharito only has 8 goals, but he hasn’t played that much this season. I say, play Chicharito all game, and rest Welbeck this week. Let us remember that we still have Berba….he’s a first class player as well.
(1)we wouldn’t be having this argument if welbeck was not a good striker.(2) point of correction, welbeck is the one who makes man united mo interesting and not chicha. Welbeck has got better ball control, better passing, better speed than the mexican forward and i believe he is capable of becoming the most dangerous striker in the EPL
Welbeck only seems faster than Hernandez because he’s constantly running around the pitch without any real purpose. When Hernandez is on a run, he has a real purpose and his pacing is insane. Did you see his first goal against Bolton? I doubt Welbeck could have out-maneuvered the defense like that.
welbeck ins not bettere than chicharazo u dont know shizznet…..
United have vast talent in welbeck and hernandez. i think its the best variety a team can have. chicha is a striker by nature. thats what he is made of and its logical to say he rarely does anything else apart from scoring goals. welbeck is a jack-of-all trades, creater, defence splitter, scorer, but when it comes to scoring alone, chicha is a better choice. with chicha you dont even need to find him with the ball, you just need to make sure he’s in the box before knocking the ball in. thats all the likes of nani, valencia, wazza have to do and hernandez will get the job done. with welbeck a little more creativity is required to find him free, something that’s gonna be really tough considering our opponents. however i agree chicha does better from the bench and i would like to see him get in when the defence is tiring, around 60th minute
Well I guess we can all agree that we have two young and talented strikers that has us pondering who should play, and that’s a good problem to have. As much as I agree that Welbeck contributes in the passing game, lets not forget that we need a finisher to score the goals. Chicharito when fit is one of europes best finishers and now that he’s back in form it would be a waste not to use him. We already have players that can generate plays; Valencia, Scholes, Giggs, Young, Carrick, Park, Nani, and best of all Rooney. Yet none have the pouching ability as chicharito. He’s our X factor and the fact the he happens to score crucial goals at crucial times makes him indispensable. I think as long as Chicha is healthy he should be spearheading the attack.
scoring crucial goals? Who doesn’t score crucial goals? give the young lad a little bit of some respect. Chicha was given time to prove himself and thats why he has some support why can’t you do the same for danny boy? Do you think chicha could do what danny boy did against barca in pre session
First of all nobody is disrespecting Welbeck, as I said in my comment, he’s talented striker with great qualities. Second of all, when I say crucial goals, I mean goals that win you games and rescue points. In 2011 champions league, his goals against Valencia, Marseille, and Chelsea gave us the victory to go into the next round. He’s also scored last minute goals against Liverpool, Everton, Swansea, Newcastle, and Chelsea this season to rescue points, just as he did last year. That my friend is the definition of crucial.
Herdandez is one of the best finishers in the world, not just in the PL. In a few years time he might even get to Van Basten’s level.
But he’s young and when you look at what happened to Fowler and Owen when they seemed to burn out in their late 20s I can see why Fergie is reluctant to play him week in week out.
Wellbeck is doing really well, but he’s still a kid. What potential!
Make no mistake, the Herdandez-Wellbeck partnership is going to be something else in a couple of years time when they’ve both matured.
Hi everyone.
I cannot believe the arguments exposed in this article “Of course you could point out that I’ve just argued Welbeck is a better player for enabling others to score so it would make sense that coming off the bench the England striker would be a better bet for helping Rooney or whoever grab a goal” this assertion is indeed incorrect to the fact that Welbeck has less goals and assists. Similarly, if you watch closely the matches (as the writer of this article states) you will find the following facts. I will recall how many decisive was Javier for United. He made the equaliser against Liverpool on October the result was 1-1; he scored the winner against Everton and Swansea, the score was(1-0)in both matches; he scored the opener against the Ravens; and finally scores the equaliser against Chelsea last week. This sums up to 9 crucial and decisive points in the race for the EPL championship! if you do not agree simply look the points of United and City.
So basically over the basis that Welbeck helps the others to pick goals you want to leave your most decisive goal scorer in the bench. Hernandez is the second most valuable player upfront behind Rooney despite of having two wicked injuries that had hampered his chances as a regular starter.
Games are won with goals, and Chicharito is the man that is most capable of contributing with them at United and the remember the fact that the movements of Hernandez form big pockets that are usually capitalised by Wayne. This may not be an assist, but the way he plays contributes directly to a better funtioning of Rooney, Nani, Valencia.
I believe Fergie has a big problem having Hernandez, Welbeck and out of favour Bervatov. This is a good problem, I am sure that Welbeck will be the man of the future, but for decisive matches and decisive goal scoring Chicharito is the present and you cannot leave this mate on the bench.
I think it needs to be bear in mind that if you are comparing this season, you are comparing an in-form Welbeck with 2(+1 minor) injuries experienced, off-form Chicharito.
Also, excusing Welbeck for not scoring because he was a lone striker (Liverpool game) does not really carry, as this is where Chicharito still scores. Striker’s main job is to score, and, simplified, I think the one scoring should stay on (when it was Welbeck, then him, now that power is shifting to Hernandez, then him)
I do think Welbeck is better overall player, and team contributor, but in most games a fit Chicharito scores more, and Ferguson knows that in the end of the day if you score more than the opponent – you win.
Both players will have a great future, and you never know, maybe a 4-4-2 with Chicharito AND Welbeck might become more common in future… 😉