Danny Welbeck is dat guy that Brighton need
Brighton & Hove Albion finally have a new striker and his name is Danny Welbeck. The England international has signed a one year contract following his release from Watford to bolster Graham Potter’s attacking options – something that was much needed given that the Seagulls looked set to otherwise tackle the opening four months of the Premier League season with only two senior centre forwards.
And yet the arrival of Welbeck at the Amex has divided opinion among supporters. Most fans have spent the summer saying the Albion need to find a proven top flight striker and when the club do just that, he is suddenly not good enough or too injury prone.
Which is bonkers, frankly. Yes, Danny Welbeck has had his fair share of fitness problems over the past few years but in terms of quality, value for money and complementing the current pool of strikers available to Potter, he is just about as good a centre forward as Brighton could have hoped to sign.
The Albion were in a bit of a difficult position, striker wise this summer. They either had to spend big on a marquee signing who would expect to come into the club and usurp Maupay as number one, or they had to find a centre forward good enough for the Premier League but who would also be happy playing second or even third fiddle behind Le Petit French Shithouse and Connolly.
Going down the first route always seemed unlikely. Not only would it take a serious financial investment from Tony Bloom at a time in which the Albion’s revenue is taking a hit because of Covid-19, but it would also stifle the development of Maupay and Connolly.
Maupay hit 10 goals in his debut Premier League campaign, a good return for a young striker stepping up from the Championship. His career so far suggests that he kicks on in his second season at a club, something that appears to be happening again if his four goals in five games so far in 2020-21 is anything to by. Maupay is already more than a third of a way towards his 2019-20 total.
Brighton clearly have high hopes for Connolly too. What the Albion needed then was a striker who would sign knowing that they would not be guaranteed to start every week.
Which is one of the reasons that Danny Welbeck looks perfect for Brighton. On a one season deal, he is a risk free investment. Should things not work out, we just cut our losses and release him at the end of the season from what will presumably be a contract which is heavily weighted towards appearance bonuses rather than an astronomical weekly wage.
At 6’1 and with the ability to hold the ball up, he offers something different to Maupay and Connolly. From having two centre forwards in Maupay and Connolly who were similar in build and playing style, Potter now has more of a target man to add variety to his attack. Welbeck could be a more mobile, younger version of Glenn Murray. The exact sort of striker we have been crying out for.
The major gripe that those Welbeck naysayers have is his injury record. And whilst it is true that he hasn’t played that much football over the past two seasons, he was actually involved in every single one of Watford’s games post-lockdown, starting five and being a used substitute on four occasions. Welbeck being a complete crock is a bit of a myth.
He does not need to be fully fit for this move to be a success, either. Since allowing Glenn Murray to join Watford on loan, the Albion have left themselves far too light in the striker department.
Potter needed another body just in case injury or suspension should befall Maupay or Connolly. If that were the case, the Albion boss would have found himself turning to Andi Zeqiri, a 21-year-old who has so far only scored goals in the Swiss second tier. It would be asking a lot for a player from a farmer’s league like that to instantly step up to the English top flight.
In terms of third choice strikers to provide back up, you could not make a better signing than Welbeck. In Brighton’s three seasons as a Premier League club, their third choice strikers have been Tomer Hemed in 2017-18, Jurgen Locadia in 2018-19 and Glenn Murray in 2019-20.
Those players contributed two, two and one Premier League goal respectively. For Welbeck to be an improvement on the three centre forwards who have gone before him, he simply has to score three goals this season.
He managed that last time out from 18 appearances for a Watford side who create nowhere near the number of chances that Brighton under Potter manage.
If Welbeck features in just half of the Albion’s 17 remaining Premier League matches, you would back a finisher of his quality to net more than three goals.
This is all assuming that Welbeck never regains full fitness too. What if the Albion’s medical team can get him back to 100 percent? Brighton have suddenly picked up a proven Premier League centre forward and a man with 16 goals for England in 42 appearances for a transfer outlay of nothing.
As much as we like Maupay, watch back Brighton’s 1-1 draw at Crystal Palace and the chances that he squandered.
Now imagine Welbeck going in one-on-one with Vicente Guaita and going for goal rather than cutting back. Or him collecting the low cross that Maupay controlled and trickled straight at Guaita. The result at Selhurst might have been very different with a finisher of Welbeck’s quality available to Potter.
So far, we have concluded that Danny Welbeck signing for Brighton is a good deal if he is fully fit or half fit. But what if he spends the entire season in the treatment room?
Even then, it is a worthwhile transfer. We wrote back in July about how the Albion’s signing of Adam Lallana offered so much more to the club than what happened on the pitch over the course of 90 minutes every weekend.
Lallana brought with him the experience of being an England regular and winning the Premier League and the Champions League. He is a leader who has plenty to pass onto a Brighton squad that has one of the youngest average ages in the top flight.
Welbeck is the same. His international record speaks for itself, he has been to three major tournaments with the Three Lions, worked under Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger and his list of honours reads one Premier League title, two League Cups and one FA Cup.
He has been praised for his work rate throughout his career and is sure to lead by example on the training ground, where what he can pass onto two young strikers like Maupay and Connolly will be invaluable.
Connolly in particular will benefit hugely from working with Welbeck. The young Irishman has scored most of his goals so far when cutting in from the left like Thierry Henry.
Despite Welbeck’s physique marking him out as a target man, the most successful spells of his career have come when he has been used on the left of a front three. Connolly needs to become the proverbial sponge this season and soak up as much as he can from Welbeck.
There is an element of luck that Brighton have managed to secure Welbeck’s services. He was only released by Watford 13 days ago, so whilst Dan Ashworth can come out and say in an interview that Welbeck’s signing marks the end of a good summer for the Albion, the club could hardly claim that it was a well-thought out plan or that they knew when the 2019-20 season ended in July with the Hornet’s relegation that three months later, they would be able to sign Welbeck on a free.
It might be a fortunate piece of transfer business but it is one that looks very shrewd. Danny Welbeck is dat guy that Brighton need.
