Last week, Manchester United beat Aston Villa 3-0 on the back of a brace from Danny Welbeck. That makes five in all competitions for the 24 year old thus far this season, including a vital Champions League goal. Yet, even has his club has struggled, Welbeck himself has had to fight for regular playing time (granted, injuries haven’t helped). He’s notched only six starts this season, primarily stepping in when Robin van Persie is out with injury.
So publicly disagreeing with his manager may not have been the brightest move for Welbeck. If you’re looking for opportunities to progress, improve, and flourish in your chosen field, be it sport or rocket science, publicly contradicting the boss is usually not the way to go about it. But that’s just what Welbeck has done.
Earlier this week, David Moyes spoke Welbeck’s need for extra training time, saying that, about a month ago, he told the attacker to stay late for finishing practice. The United manager compared Welbeck to teammate Wayne Rooney, saying “Wayne’s out there practising his finishing each day, whether it’s taking free-kicks, shooting from tight angles or bending them in, whatever it may be Wayne’s practising. I said: ‘Danny, you need to be out there every day finishing, even if it’s 15 minutes at the end.’ ”
Welbeck, however, insists he doesn’t need to be told to put in the extra time: “I have been doing that ever since I have been at United. Obviously I have been injured this season so maybe the manager has not seen me on the training pitch as much.”
Yet, despite last week’s win, the situation at Manchester United remains precarious, with the Red Devils currently eighth in the table. If Welbeck wants the opportunity to regularly start up top, perhaps it’s best if he simply puts his head down and gets in those extra minutes of training -- and makes absolutely certain that Moyes sees his decidation.
