Monday, 22nd September, 2014
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger is of the opinion that Danny Welbeck has lost a bit of his scoring instinct as a result of playing wide at Manchester United for the last two seasons.
The English international, who joined the Gunners from the Red Devils this summer, was often deployed on the flanks during his time at Old Trafford.
However, Wenger has been playing Welbeck in a more central role at Arsenal and the forward repaid his faith by scoring as well as assisting in his new employers’ 3-0 win over Aston Villa on Saturday.
And the Frenchman, who feels Welbeck has “interesting potential”, backed the 23-year-old to succeed at the Emirates Stadium.
“He’s a good finisher but he’s played wide for Manchester United in the last two or three years and has lost a little bit of instinct to score”, Wenger explained to his club’s official site.
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“It’s a bit animalistic to score. You need to be in the middle and you always need to wait for your chance to get the ball. On the flank you have less of that responsibility.
“When you play wide you have to cross the ball for somebody else to score. Playing in the middle, somebody has to go on the flank and cross the ball for you to score, so it’s a different job.
“He has an interesting potential. He has a good mentality, good physical potential and good technical potential. He contributes to our team play because he doesn’t lose the ball up front and those are important qualities.
“To get that [scoring] instinct, it’s not selfish. I like a striker who gives the ball when he has to give the ball and scores when he can score. The fact that he can provide and score, like he did against Villa, is very important.”
Welbeck, whose contract with Arsenal runs until 2019, scored 29 goals in 142 appearances in all competitions for Manchester United.
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