Adam Dennehey WAFU manager
He was called one of the best buys to come out of the 2010 World Cup. Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez was a steal, when Manchester United bought him for about £6 million from Guadalajara, just before making a splash in the tournament.
Chicharito seemingly came out of nowhere, scoring two goals and gaining a man of the match nod for Mexico.
At the conclusion of the 2010/2011 season, Chicharito seemed to have proved most people right. He ended the season with 13 goals in 27 Premier League appearances. He added on an additional four goals in the Champions League to boot to end the season with a tally of 20 goals.
But there was an important factor that may have added to Chicharito’s influence on the season; the absence of Wayne Rooney
As we all remember this was the season where it seemed like Rooney’s future at the club could be in doubt. Rooney didn’t net his first open play goal until January 1st. It left the door open for players such as Chicharito and Dimitar Berbatov for that matter to excel.
However, Rooney came back, Berbatov spent more time on the bench, and it appeared that maybe Chicharito and Rooney didn’t play exceptionally well together and were not the ideal partnership for United up top.
Now, at the conclusion of a somewhat regressing 2011/2012 campaign for Chicharito who struggled with injuries at the start of the season, it’s clear United fans want desperately to see him and Rooney be an unstoppable goal scoring force in Europe.
In the 2011/2012 season, Chicharito went down to 10 goals in 28 games in the Premier League and even worse, he did not score a single goal in United’s (admittedly and unfortunately short) Champions League run.
Now, it cannot be denied that Chicharito is an outstanding player. He is tenacious in front of the goal and has laser point precision inside of the penalty area with the ball at his feet, and in the air.
However, there are flaws that are certainly holding him back. A big problem Chicharito seems to have is to stay onside! Obviously the reasoning behind it is his incredible speed, and his forward thinking to where the next play is going to be.
Many goal-scoring opportunities are lost as the offside flag goes up. I think that the key to getting back on track for Chicharito is going to be for him to keep himself onside. His speed will get him past the defenders in a dead sprint, and he has the skillset to finish off his chances in a one-on-one with a keeper.
My prediction: Chicharito will have a slow start to the season, but at around Boxing Day, he’ll pick up his games and have a strong second half of the season. He’ll end the season with 8 premier league goals although I hope he’ll score much more than that!
By Jennifer Calhoun @Calhouner
The offside problem of Chicharito is not totally his. He's a player who thrives on the borderline of being offside and is always putting a lot of pressure on defenders. The reverse side of the coin is that defenders will always try to play him offside as well. In such a situation it is imperative for his partners to know exactly where he is and to time their passes at the right time. We are talking about split decision actions/passes and if Chicha has made his move and the ball is late he is automatically offside. Such perfect synchronisation requires a lot of practice and understanding but the problem is that Chicha was injured for quite a while last season and never got enough playtime to fine tune his play with the rest of the team. Chicha is all about timely accurate service and if this is not there he'll be seen to be struggling again when the blame is not totally his.
You're right about his offside being a frustratingly common occurence last season but my view is that only part his fault – the other side of that coin is that United seemed to be slow feeding him. Michael Carrick for example, has some great traits but he's no Messi when it comes to the incisive, early pass. I'd love to see some footage from those games and see how often it was the delayed pass that caused the offside, rather than Chicarito's fault. I think he's a real magician.
Do you even watch Man Utd play? Or do you just look at statistics and make your “opinion” based on them? You think his biggest flaw is being offside?
First of all, Hernandez started scoring more when his partnership with Rooney started to gel, not without Rooney! Have you forgotten that the main reason we reached the champions league final that season was because of Rooneys and Chica partnership, which was Rooney playing behind Hernandez and rooney playing it through to him!
If anything Chicaritos main weakness is that when he gets the ball out wide or too deep, he doesnt really know what to do with it!
And how on earth did you work out that he's going to score 8 goals? Is it those statistis again that you've been looking at! I mean Andy Johnson will probably score more than 8 league goals next season! And Chicas a lot better at finishing tan he is!
The bottom line is clear: Utd's midfield is devoid of any creativity or foresight. Will Kagawa will improve the situation? May be to some extent but if we don't have a top proven creator ( Scholes is not a factor anymore because he's retired . Period.). Utd's other , may be actually the bigger problem is in defence. Last season Utd went empty-handed because our defence was shambolic. Evans, Evra, Ferdinand, Rafael et el are not just good enough. SAF should stop wishful thinking and also, stop to hoodwink the loyal fans by pretending to bid for the Mouras, Van Persies and Sneijders of this world and in the end buying Powells and Kagawas. He should try get a few decent defenders and may be a strong midfielder like Parker. Sadly, with age and unchecked power, SAF seems to have lost sight of reality. Last season must be a wake-up call and if Utd do not be careful, they will be the next Liverpool and Arsenal. Prety soon. Man City and Chelsea will rule for a long time. Sadly, again, it's the money but we also spent a lot albiet unwisely on the likes of Young et el.
I must admit that I agree that the problem isn't Chicarito being offside it is financial.
Man Utd are a Club in huge debt, with more money spent on interest charges than players. Compare that to Chelski or Shitty.
The money we have spent on De Gea, Jones, Anderson, Young and Berbatov is enough to buy first class players but for me Jones, Young, Anderson and Berbatov are not yet United players, and Berbatov will exit.
The loss of Morrison and Pogba suggests all is not well in the reserves either.
Until the Club is stabilized financially we will slip down he pecking order as surely as Leeds, Liverpool and Arsenal have done.
We are bleeding transfer money to Banks, and that is the tragedy of Man Utd, not who is offside.
I agree with this story.
I support Chicharito
I'm an Man UTD fan,I love Chicharito
Thank you for information sharing