Danny Welbeck says it’s not just the media who have praised Albion’s performances this season.
Ahead of today’s FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United, the striker has revealed that even opponents have praised the way we play under Roberto De Zerbi.
“We get a lot of plaudits from all over the country. After games we have [opposition] players coming up to us saying ‘You guys are bopping it’, all that sort of stuff. We do get a lot of good feedback,” said Welbeck.
“It’s great but the manager wants us to keep us pushing and get to the next level. He was happy but not overly happy with the last 10-15 minutes of the Chelsea game last week. That keeps everybody on their toes — if we want to get to the next level once we go 2-1 up we still want to control the game.”
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Welbeck’s Wembley experience – he won the FA Cup with Arsenal in 2017 – will be important today but he also says some of his teammates have a role to play.
“Winning the FA Cup was a highlight, but it also gives you that hunger to do it again and to lift more trophies. If you have the opportunity I think you should go for it at full pelt. We have players who have won trophies and the latest is Alexis [Mac Allister] who has won the World Cup, so to have players like that in the team is massive. It might be something small, but it might be key advice that you can pass on and which goes a long way.”
Welbeck has plenty of respect for today’s opponents and says Albion must prepare for a ‘really tough match’ but added that preparation has been the same as it would be for any game.
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“I think United have definitely improved a lot this season,” he said. “They’ve been a lot more consistent with their performances and they’ve got some great players, and players who are really hitting form so they’re a dangerous team. We have to prepare in the same way we always do and make sure we’re ready for a really tough match.
“We’ve obviously got to respect whoever we’re playing but it’s more about what we want to do with the ball. Sometimes we’re going into a game and we’ve got three ways of playing which we’ve worked on during the week. We’ve always got a way around it because we’re always ready.
“There’s always difficult matches coming up so it’s important to see it as another game rather than looking at the occasion, because we really do prepare well for every single game.
“It’s great for the club to be involved in these occasions and hopefully this is just the start, that this is something that we can build on and keep on improving as a team and as a club.”