With the 'beautiful game’ evolving, so has the role of each player on the field. A full-back in the modern era does not have the same role that a full-back had in the past. Even the role of a goalkeeper is changing, thanks to a certain Manuel Neuer.
One of the most evolved roles has been that of a forward/striker. Most teams play a 'False 9’ – a forward dropping back – thus allowing the wider players to move inside the box and cause havoc in the opposition defence. Following the advent of this new role/position, the classic ‘fox in the box’ has all but disappeared.
Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez is one of the few classic strikers left in modern football. Since his time in Club Deportivo Guadalajara, he has been a constant threat in the 18-yard box, scoring goals by outfoxing the defenders.
What Went Wrong at Manchester United?
When the 27-year-old signed for Manchester United before the 2010/11 season, all the Red Devils fans were thrilled with the possibility of finally having a striker who was regularly troubling defenders in the box, some even thought of him as a modern version of the menacing Ruud van Nistelrooy.
The way Chicharito started his career at Man United certainly did create hope for every fan of the start of another era of relentless goalscoring, this time from their newly-revealed striker. In his first three seasons at Old Trafford, Chicharito scored 33 goals in 77 English Premier League appearances. 35 of the 77 appearances that Chicharito made were off the bench.
So, nearly half of the times that Chicharito played for United, he came off the bench. Why would a talented player like Chicharito be continuously benched despite showing great promise and skill each time he steps onto the field?
One of the main reasons that Chicharito never got to feature much in the first team was due to a lot of competition for the strikers’ spot in his time at United.
In his first season in 2010/11, Chicharito had to fight the likes of Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov and Michael Owen. Rooney and Berbatov were the regular starters up front, however, the young Mexican striker gave glimpses of what he was capable of by netting in 13 times in the league.
The following season Berbatov did not feature as much as he did the previous season. This might have seemed like a golden opportunity for the Mexican striker to feature more for the Red Devils. However, it was Danny Welbeck who partnered Rooney up front during the 2011/12. Despite featuring in fewer matches than Welbeck, Chicharito scored a goal more than the English striker.
In the following two seasons – Chicharito's last two full seasons at United – Robin van Persie, Rooney and Welbeck kept the Mexican out of action. In the three seasons that Hernandez played under Sir Alex Ferguson, he returned with at least 10 goals each season.
Another reason for Chicharito not being able to flourish as much could be the different systems he played in under different managers – at Man United, Real Madrid and now at Bayer Leverkusen.
What Changed At Bayer Leverkusen?
After the sale of Josip Drmic and Heung-min Son at the start of the 2015/16 season, Leverkusen needed to acquire the services of a quality striker as their loyal servant Stefan Kiessling was not getting any younger. This led Leverkusen to pursue Hernandez until the very end, all along assuring the Mexican of a regular starting place in the squad.
The 27-year-old striker has been thriving in the Leverkusen system under Roger Schmidt. Schmidt employs a counter-pressing tactic with his Leverkusen team, encouraging his players to win the ball back in the attacking half of the pitch.
This tactic helps Chicharito more than anyone else on the pitch as he is always on the prowl, waiting for an incisive pass from his teammates, going shoulder-to-shoulder with the defenders and, more often than not, getting the better of an unsuspecting defender to go clean through on goal.
Although the 32-year-old Kiessling has slowed down in the past couple of seasons, he has been extremely influential in Chicharito's rise this season as his movement in the attacking third draws defenders away and creates space for the Mexican to work around.
More than anything else, the main reason for Chicharito's great run of form is the simple fact that he gets to start more matches than remain on the bench, like he did at Real Madrid and Manchester United. With two more months to go in the season, he has already started more games at Bayer than he did at United in a season.
Known primarily as a super-sub within the Man United fan community, he is well on his way to becoming a hero at Bayer after having scored 23 goals from 30 games in all competitions (as of date). Chicharito is the third highest goalscorer in the Bundesliga with 14 goals, only behind Robert Lewandowski, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Thomas Muller.
When comparing Chicharito's rate of scoring at Man United and Leverkusen, we see that the Mexican striker's rate of scoring at the German club is two times better than what his rate was at United. Scoring 59 goals in 157 matches, Hernandez scored one goal every 2.6 matches.
On the other hand, Hernandez's rate of scoring at Leverkusen is one goal in every 1.3 games. In the EPL, Chicharito scored a goal every 130 minutes while in the Bundesliga, he has scored a goal every 112 minutes.
Chicharito never won any League Player-of-the-Month awards at Man United, but, at Leverkusen, the striker was named the Player-of-the-Month three times for the months of November 2015, December 2015, and January 2016.
Goals are a consequence of regular playing time: Hernandez
In an interview with the Orlando Sentinel, Chicharito's response to what caused his turn of form at Leverkusen was that a player needed to play more in order to regain confidence, more than just a positive mindset.
“I don’t know because I don’t have a written statement or something that can tell you what you need to do to be a fantastic player or to keep that confidence. Sometimes it’s just that you are playing a lot. What I was missing in the last two or three years, it was like I was playing sometimes and then returning to the bench.
“But now that I am playing most of the game or almost all of my games here in my club, that’s what I need, the rhythm, that confidence. Because people sometimes think the confidence is with goals, but I don’t think like that. I think confidence is to play day-by-day to get rhythm. The goals is a consequence,” Chicharito said.
When Leverkusen travel to Villareal to play the first leg of the Round of 16 tie of the Europa League on Thursday, Chicharito will be looking to carry on what he has been doing all season and help his side qualify for the next round of the tournament. If Man United win against Liverpool, then there is a possibility of a reunion on the cards for Chicharito.
What Hernandez tells about needing to play more rather than play occasionally, despite having a good mindset, is key to a player's form on the field. Maybe Louis van Gaal, David Moyes, and Sir Alex, to an extent, should have taken the gamble of persisting with Chicharito as a regular starter and bore the fruits of patience.
