Bernd Leno has revealed that Arsenal’s first team squad called Danny Welbeck on FaceTime before their match with Wolves as they looked to cheer up the England international while he’s in hospital.
The striker underwent surgery on a broken ankle sustained in Thursday’s draw with Sporting Lisbon and is expected to be out for several months.
The Gunners had hoped to secure a win on Sunday for their injured team-mate but had to settle for a 1-1 draw following a disappointingly disjointed performance. Nevertheless, Leno believes there’s a strong togetherness in the dressing room which should serve them well as the season progresses.
“We talked to him before the game in the meeting, we had a FaceTime session with him,” said the German keeper.
“It was very good, we wanted to win for him. We all are sorry for him for his injury, and hope he will have a good recovery and to see him on the pitch because he’s an important player for the team and also in the dressing room.
“He looked very happy and I think he was happy to talk to us because he is still a big part of our team and we will support him to have a good time when he is injured.
“I think that [togetherness] is a big quality of the manager because he always wants to have a team not just one player, one player, one player [individuals] and I think this meeting was very motivating for us and for every player to play for Danny because everybody likes him.”
Arsenal’s squad will now disperse for the Interlull before reconvening ahead of the game with Bournemouth on Sunday 25 November. As for Danny, the club is yet to put a timeline on his return, we can only wish him a speedy recovery.
Better to do it afterwards or some other time.
Feeling sad for Danny is understandable (or thinking ‘if it can happen to him…’) and not what you want to think about right before a match. Likely to end up with a muted performance on the pitch.
And if we had won after the conversation with Danny, people would have said, what a wonderful, wholesome idea by the team.
Speaking with Danny has nothing to do with giving a muted performance on a pitch
So the muted performance on the pitch has no connection? I’d prefer the players to be upbeat and aggressive (as in recent matches) rather than have a chance of feeling sad. It would have still been a great wholesome idea if it had been after the match or midweek in the international break.
If you can give me a better reason for how we played, please go ahead.
Without really knowing the players at individual level and also as a group, it’s very difficult to make a judgement about how that facetime call affected their game.
Some people rise in the face of adversity while others retreat to their shells. Whoever authorised that call must’ve thought it’d benefit the group.
More likely they misjudged it. It’s called ‘priming’ in psychology, what you see before a match/decision etc affects the decision. If you see positive motivational stuff then you are likely to rise due to this.
I’ll let the performance on the pitch guide you to the effect it had.
So Leicester were supposed to send their players to the moon not to get affected the last two weeks ?
“we wanted to win for him”
Abidal who had liver cancer tackled that issue saying that once he made a video for his mates. Afterwards Messi said to him to never do that again, because they were so sad to see him that way before a game. It makes sense.
Messi came out of that episode sounding like a horrible human being.
“… following a disappointingly disjointed performance.”
Pun not intended I’m sure but still, maybe not the best phrasing given the nature of the injury.
Although the internationals feel like an unnecessary break from the real game, this one may have come just at the right time for us. Hopefully a chance to restart after a little head-clearing can see us start another winning streak, one that can give poor Danny something to smile about.
Let’s finish the year strong!