As has been so often the case down the years when England slump to a disappointing result, a Manchester United player unfairly gets singled out for blame.
After the fall out of Roy Hodgson’s side’s 1-1 draw in Podgorica against Montenegro, some England ‘supporters’ decided to lay the blame fully on Danny Welbeck for the team dropping two points.
Why? Good question. Well these ‘supporters’ believed that had Welbeck done his job properly on the line in clearing the ball away to safety then Dejan Damjanavoic wouldn’t have been able to follow on to fire his blocked-header into the back of the net.
Those same individuals also believe that the forward did deserve a yellow card for diving when he went down in the area and that if his crossing on the night would have been better England would have had the game won at half-time.
It should be pointed out to these so-called fans that Welbeck was probably England’s star-man last night. He is often labelled as a striker, but he isn’t a striker and is more of a forward, a talented one at that who can play up-front and out-wide and someone who is a great team-player and is far more talented than most in the media give him credit for.
Some of his play particularly in the first-half was exceptional and quietly he is emerging as a player who can create attacks rather than be your typical forward who will just be on the end of moves waiting to finish the ball inside the area.
In the second-half Welbeck tracked back even more than in the first-half but barley got on the ball in attacking-areas where he can hurt teams. He is getting better and better at running with the ball and the only area that probably needs working on in his game is his ruthlessness – which will come to the boil nicely in the next couple of years when he’s even more confident in his ability and his physique will have fully developed.
It can be very easy to point the blame at individuals after a disappointing result. Credit should go to Montenegro who in the second-half put in the kind of performance that suggests they will qualify for a major tournament sooner rather than later. They never allowed England to build on a great performance in the first half and deserved a share of the spoils.
That being said had Welbeck’s penalty-appeal resulted in England being given a spot-kick just before the break, you would have to think that at 2-0 up England wouldn’t have let the game slip and they would have left the former Yugoslav republic with not just the 3 points but without any of their fans frustrated.
Would Welbeck’s critics be slating him if that had been the case? Of course they wouldn’t they would be all over social-networks praising England’s creator of the match-clinching goal. Maybe we shouldn’t be surprised, after all you can’t win with ABU’s?
By Adam Dennehey @ADennehey87
I am a united fan and would like to play devils advocate on this one……liverpool control public opinion in football….and the moronic sheep who support other clubs follow whatever the scousers say…so yes any united player will get unfair critisizm….however i would add in wellbecks case it isnt actually his critics that is his problem…more his supporters….and i dont just mean our fans………its the over hype thats making him a target…..commentaters constantly mentioning his work rate…..articles galore about his virtues as a player……when what he actually produces doesnt match the hype….i have never in 37 years known a player as hyped as wellbeck….or as constantly praised by commentaters…..or by his fellow players and manager…even as a united fan i find it confusing…….rooney said he was our player of the season last year after scoring 12 goals and playing every game……….chica scored that many last year hardly playing and was supposedly a flop last year….something doesnt tally up…its the same this year…2 goals….evras scored 4…….and yet the constant love in continues…where people are bigging him up…as a united fan i find it annoying so its little wonder this over hyping is winding other fans up………wellbecks a fair player…not united class……..however if people keep over hyping him and making him out to be better than he is he will become a target for opposition fans……….its time we all stopped talking about wellbeck…let him continue and see if he improves……however the spot light definatly needs to be directed away from him…………and articles like this and people like collymore and townsend talking exclusively about him for 90 minutes during a game mentioning his impressive work rate certainly wont help…….
Danny I can respect that view. Of course my article can over-hype Danny but he's a player I've rated for a while and will defend time-and-time-again when people criticize him unfairly. Don't get me wrong when he has a bad game – Newcastle away – I will be the first to point this out but the problem Danny has is that people think he's a striker and he could be United's version of Drogba.
Danny could well grow into a striker but he's a forward who can work the channels on the wing and be an option up front. He does need to add more goals to his game and in time he'll get the goals that the majority of his performances should be meriting.
Rooney was obviously building Welbeck up as a young player if he said he was our player of the season last year, which no doubt was said to boost Welbeck's confidence in and amongst the squad. Of course last year's player of the year was Valencia who hasn't had a great season this year to say the least.