From his professional debut in 2006 until this April, Javier Hernandez was a classic poacher, a type of player that was starting to go out of style before he showed up. They don’t start much for top teams anymore, and instead are now luxury players who come off the bench. The emergence of better options at his position, combined with a general lack of form, led to Hernandez getting marginalized by Manchester United last season, then made a backup behind some “break only in case of emergency” glass for Real Madrid. Gone are the days of Pippo Inzaghi and Robbie Fowler being superstars; strikers need to bring something else to the table to be first-choice players for top teams.
Chicharito’s redemption will pay dividends for Real Madrid, Mexico and himself
Three weeks ago, Javier Hernandez was hoping a top-half Premier League team would deem him worthy of a good wage. Now, he looks even better than he did at his previous peak.
Karim Benzema understands this, or at least his coaches made him understand it. He came to Madrid as a poacher, too, with the skills to develop into a great all-around center forward. It took him a while to get there. When his finishing went awry and Gonzalo Higuain started playing more often, there were rumors Benzema would be sold. Since then, he’s developed into the most unselfish and hard-working striker Madrid could ever hope to pair with Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale, and he’s so good at doing the dirty work for those two stars that, up until very recently, they’ve looked terrible whenever he’s been absent.
Then something out of the ordinary happened on April 22, when Real Madrid took on Atlético Madrid in the second leg of their Champions League quarterfinal -- Chicharito started looking a lot like Benzema. Was he as complete? No, clearly not. His finishing was poor, too, up until he scored the winner. But he worked harder off the ball than we’re used to seeing from him, looking to create space for his teammates, hold up the ball and pressure defenders more than just sitting on the back shoulder of the last defender. Almost magically, Chicharito has transformed into a balanced, modern striker, something that very few people ever thought he’d become.
Hernandez's next three games were even better than the Atléti match. He scored twice away to Celta Vigo, set up a goal against Almeria and notched another assist in Saturday's win over Sevilla. With each passing game, he's looked more and more Benzema-like, just as interested in helping his teammates score as scoring goals himself. It certainly helps that Benzema provided a perfect template for what Chicharito needed to become.
Carlo Ancelotti could drop Chicharito on Tuesday and go back to a 4-4-2 formation with Ronaldo and Bale up top, but why would he? Hernandez is in excellent form; Isco is not. Changing formations or playing Bale as a false nine to accommodate Isco doesn't make a lot of sense, especially since this would theoretically lead to James Rodriguez being pushed onto the wing when he's been playing as the most advanced midifelder and is arguably Madrid's most in-form player. Chicharito's played well enough since Benzema went down that Ancelotti's best option is to stick with him, not shuffle his formation to get all of Isco, Bale and James into the team.
This is a situation that would have been unthinkable just three weeks ago, when Madrid probably weren’t giving any consideration to making Chicharito’s move permanent, and when the biggest team seriously linked to a move for him was Southampton. Now, he looks like a player that has options. Madrid might opt to sign him permanently, knowing that he’s unlikely to complain about being a backup, and that he’d be cheaper than similarly talented options. Manchester United might give him a chance to win a place next year, since they won’t be signing Falcao and Robin van Persie appears to be permanently injury-riddled. And even if neither of those things happens, someone bigger than Southampton will certainly be interested in paying a significant fee to give Hernandez a chance to be their first-choice striker.
Mexico boss Miguel Herrera will be thrilled to see Hernandez’s game develop as well. He’s consistently been faced with the difficult choice of playing Hernandez with an unsuitable partner, pairing him with a similarly specific and limited type of playmaking second striker or benching him. If the Chicharito of the last three weeks is here to stay, Herrera won’t consider benching him at all, and can play him with more potential partners, or without a partner at all if he chooses to stray from his normal 3-5-2 formation.
It's not obvious how all of this happened. Maybe Chicharito had a serious desire to become a more well-rounded player, or he's picked up a lot in training with Madrid, or Ancelotti's given him some better tactical instructions. Most likely, it's some combination of the three. But the result is a player who can play a significant role in helping Real Madrid to a Champions League defense right now, who can be Mexico's best player at the Gold Cup, and who will have numerous excellent career options in the summer. In just three weeks, Hernandez has transformed his image completely.
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