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Welbeck slams his Man United goal return

Danny Welbeck played second fiddle to Robin van Persie as Manchester United's central attacker © PA Photos

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Manchester United striker Danny Welbeck admits his goal tally last season was insufficient, insisting he must become more prolific to be recognised as one of the league's top marksmen.

Welbeck, 23, only scored two goals for United over the last year, a significant drop after netting 12 the season before.

Despite rarely being played in his favoured central role due to the form of Robin van Persie, Welbeck, who has been called up for England's upcoming friendlies against Republic of Ireland and Brazil, will increase his expectations under David Moyes.

"This season has been the most number of matches I have played and my performances have been a lot more consistent but the goals return has not been good at all," Welbeck told MUTV.

"I do feel if I can get a better goals return I will be flying. I want to be up front and scoring goals. If I am playing on the wings I still want to score more goals but preferably I will be up front and scoring goals there."

Meanwhile, United defender Nemanja Vidic has attributed the success of his time at Old Trafford to the influence of departing manager Sir Alex Ferguson.

"It was a real pleasure to play for the manager," he stated. "It's always difficult to talk about him as he was my manager. Now I can express myself and have to say he's a great person who always cares about his players and he's always driving them forward. He believes in them and that's why the players always like to play for him. It's a pleasure to play for this club and for this manager.

"I'm definitely proud to play for this club with these players and to play for the manager as well. I've had a great seven years with the club where we've had so much success and we did so again this year so I'm very pleased.

"I think we've had 20 players who have scored goals this season which is amazing. It shows how good the spirit is within the team and how hard we pushed to win this title. Obviously, with all the good work on the training ground, we've managed that.

"You saw the players at the parade jumping and singing the songs and we had a good time sharing the title with the fans - they deserve it as they support us all year. It's been a great comeback after last year and we deserved to win this title."

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