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Playing with Danny Welbeck, I always knew that he would work himself into the ground for the team. He was the kind of player you want on your side. He gave everything.
Perhaps if he had been less willing to do all that running and pressing he would have scored more goals in his career, which was why I was pleased for him for the hat-trick he scored against Galatasaray. Danny has always been capable of that. His movement and his finishing on Wednesday night were brilliant.
The question has always been whether he can do that on a regular basis. For Danny, being a striker has always been about much more than just scoring goals. He works very hard at linking the play. His mentality is not that a striker’s job begins and ends with scoring goals.
Five things we learnt at Arsenal v Galatasaray
In that way he is different from Andy Cole and Ruud van Nistelrooy, two more of the great strikers I played with at Manchester United. Those two were obsessed with scoring goals and judged themselves, perhaps harshly, on how many they scored. I don’t think Danny is like that. He believes the role is bigger than that. He will put a shift in. He wins the ball back. He is the kind of player you have to play alongside to appreciate what he brings. And his pace is something else. In fact, he is probably quicker than Coley or Ruud were in their heyday.
