“Ging, gang, goolie, goolie, goolie, watcha, ging gang goo…”
I was having a debate the other night with a group of United fans who play at the local five a side pitch I occasionally work at, they called me over to their table to ask me my thoughts on Danny Welbeck. Now anyone who’s ever read my site, spoken to me, or sat in my vicinity at Old Trafford will know that my love for Longsight’s finest is enough to make my girlfriend a little bit uneasy.
I joined the group of Reds and listed my reasons for being a founder member of the ‘I Love Welbeck’ fan club, someone who is actually amazed we’re still having the debate as to whether he’s United class.
When faced with a few doubters, my response went along the lines: “Look at his performances against Madrid, not just the goal but his play in both legs, he was mint. I remember being at a press conference a few weeks ago when someone asked Sir Alex -is Welbeck’s lack of goals a concern, are you worried it’ll affect his confidence? The United boss was at first incredulous and even laughed at the idea of Welbeck’s confidence being affected, noting that if anything he often needs grounding a little before adding his attitude is excellent and it’s great having his personality at the club. Ferguson was also dismissive of the question a little stating he didn’t see the reporters point, United are winning, Welbeck’s contributing to those wins, so why is there any doubt about his worth to the side?”
The final point for me is the key, Welbeck is playing an important part in United’s success, so what’s the problem? Goals. Seems to be the answer but there’s more to a player than just scoring, look at Robin Van Persie. Despite being responsible for yesterday’s goal at the Stadium of Light the United striker has now scored just once in ten games, a paltry return and one that would earn Welbeck even more stick if he’d actually been played upfront as much as RVP is.
Yet does anyone question Van Persie’s contribution even when he’s not scoring? Not really, you can see he holds the ball up, creates chances for others, can go past players when he needs to -especially when he comes deep and does a job defensively. All of those aforementioned attributes can be applied to young Daniel, so perhaps it’s time we looked at him n the same way we do our Dutchman. The teams winning, he’s contributing to those wins, is that not enough?
I did rather say he is winger not a STRIKER..play chico now that rvp is not scorinG
Did you notice that Man Utd’s players are poor passers of the ball to Van Persie? Even when they the ball was miles away from him, for him to do anything effective.
Danny’s been the victim of a cowardice that persists at many, if not all regions, of a football fanbase – scapegoating. Put it this way – last season was a humiliation. Who was there to blame?
To start, various players must be excluded on account of not featuring enough. (Clevz, Ando, Vidic, Park etc.)
Then, there’s those who contributed too obviously (Valencia, Carrick, De Gea etc.) for long stretches of the campaign. It seems daft to say any of those names could’ve given MUCH more than they did.
And it’s rather ludicrous to blame your season on inadequate full-backs (even if they’re André Santos-bad – which ours weren’t).
Finally, there’s the legends bracket. The untouchables. That includes Fergie.
Anyone notice an odd one out? Come on, it’s not hard. Which individual isn’t sheltered by any of the 4 above categories?
Now I’m not a Welbeck fan myself. I actually think he needs to reinvent himself, Dembélé-style. It’s simply not possible for someone with as little output as him to feature in a front-4 on a regular basis. But for all his limits, he has contibuted greatly to our season, as you say. Unfortunately, we have a lot of glory fans among us who simply want all the superstars rated 88 on FIFA. Ignore them. Chelsea have Ba, Mata, Hazard, Oscar, Marin, Moses, Ramires, Lampard and Bertrand. But could any of them have done what Welbeck did against Real?
With RVP in the field you expect a goal, but same can’t be said of Welbeck. He waste chances and doesn’t create chances for others. He lacks the killer instinct of strikers. Allow his talents to speak for him like it does Chico, RVP and Wazza. Two goals all season isn’t a good return for a striker. Besides he’s more effective on the wing. You don’t have to big him up all the times, let the talent speak for em selves
listen, I’m a Welbeck fan too, but the argument you make teeters on a flimsy premise. Young Daniel is still learning his trade, and right now pretty much every aspect of RVP’s game is superior to Welbeck’s. That’s not a criticism, just an honest judgement of the quality of RVP. The difference between Welbeck and all 3 of our other forwards is not the goal tally, but the number of misses. Welbeck out wide still gets into multiple goalscoring chances each game, and this season those chances have primarily remained exactly that- chances. Missed chances. Often-times they have been missed where it would have been easier to score. The poverty of Welbeck’s finishing this season has been so profound that he seems like a clumsy centre-half in front of goal. The likelihood is that things will suddenly start to click for him and he will become a regular goalscorer independent of where he is deployed, but for now if anybody tries to defend Welbeck’s poor goal return using his position as an excuse, I will have to wholeheartedly disagree.
I’m a Welbeck fan and he has many attributes which makes him a real asset to Man Utd. However he is not a natural goalscorer. In fact he slips a lot and scuffs many of his shots when he has the opportunity in front of goal. I see him do some great work to get the opportunity, but then many times he is unable to convert the chance.
We wouldn’t have accepted such a poor goal return from RVP, even if we where in the same position in the Premiership table. We do cut Welbeck slack because he plays out wide in many games and does a job for the team. We also lay of him (well most fans anyway) because he is a young homegrown player with real potential.
I have always argued that Welbeck will get better and stronger every season he plays. I do think he is going to be a really top player when he reaches 25-26. As for RVP, the guy has been class and has been what we needed because his goals have been decisive. The mark of a top player is how important his goals are and RVP has been the best in the Premiership because of the amount of points he has won us.
One thing I cannot stand is some fans lowering their expectations of Manchester United players just so they don’t appear to be spoilt or “fifa fans”. You are all complete tossers. If a goalkeeper only keeps 2 clean sheets in a season you would think he is terrible. And fair enough. When a forward player for the best club in England is only scoring 2 goals in nearly 40 games and he’s still getting played over other better scoring players then there is something seriously wrong. What will it take for people to stop selling united short and accepting players that aren’t good enough to wear the shirt. Good, but not good enough. Fernando Torres has had his name destroyed by his poor goal scoring form and this is a player that used to bang in plenty of goals and for a worse team. Danny welbeck has one goal in the league, that’s the same as scholes (a true united player) Fletcher and Powell and they haven’t had a fraction of the apps or chances welbeck has had. Then there’s rafael, Evans and evra, all have scored more than welbeck, all are defenders. Now even with his one in twenty odd goalscoring ratio, I could accept all this winey “he’s been played on the wing” rubbish if he’d got plenty of assists but he hasn’t got many of them either. So is that all you need to be a Manchester United player now? You just have to be able to run? A striker that doesn’t score or a winger that doesn’t provide has absolutely no business being at Old Trafford. United don’t owe him anything. The only reason that he is being forced in all the time by ferguson is because of our inability to raise anymore first class academy players. We haven’t brought any class through since 92 and he knows it. 20 years and not a player. Welbeck and cleverley aren’t fit to lace the class of 92s boots, anyone who says otherwise and thinks they should be starters for Manchester United is selling the club short. And the funny thing is you are probably a cockney.