Hello lads, Sunderland fan here. Just wondering your opinions on your striking options next year and where you see young Danny Welbeck fitting in? Despite SAF reiterating time and time again that Welbeck will be at Utd next season I can't help feeling we have a sneaky chance of picking him up on loan again. With Rooney and Hernandez the first choice, Berbatov apparently going nowhere and even Owen (despite the fact he's past it) being given another year do you really think SAF will keep Welbeck at OT if it is going to hinder his development? Looking at Welbecks progress last season I think it's obvious he will improve with regular starts, and I just get the feeling SAF might decide to send him out on loan again. Just wondering what your thoughts were?
I would say our options are very strong. We have 4 very different 1st team strikers in Rooney, Hernandez, Berbatov and Owen so we have options for pretty much every situation. Then we have young stars Welbeck, Macheda, King, Keane and Cofie so as I said on another thread about our midfield things look pretty good for the future.
I think welbeck will be 4th choice ahead of Owen. Wouldn't surprise me if the only reason we kept Owen on was to help mentor Chicharito. I know Welbeck has played as a winger at Man Utd, so he could possibly get games there as well.
There's a lot of talk about formations but basically we play the following: 4 across the back 2 DM/box-to-box - Carrick/Fletcher (Anderson/Park/Giggs/Gibson/Jones/new signing) 1 AM/deep striker - Rooney (new signing/Anderson/Giggs/Young/Berbatov/Park) 2 WM/wing-forwards - Nani/Valencia (Young/Park/Giggs/Rooney/Welbeck/Obertan) 1 out-and-out centre forward - Hernandez (Berbatov/Rooney/Owen/Welbeck/Macheda) Welbeck is pretty low down the pecking order for both roles he can fill - a shame because I'd like to see him continue his development
