There was a noticeable change in Javier Hernandez once he left the Premier League.
He hit the ground running for Manchester United after making the move from Guadalajara in 2010. In his debut season in the Premier League, he bagged an impressive 13 goals in 27 matches, with almost half of those appearances coming from the bench.
In his last full season with the Red Devils before going on loan to Real Madrid, he was less than impressive. He finished with a return of four goals in 24 matches, starting only six times in the league.
However, since settling at Bayer Leverkusen in 2015, the Mexican forward has had a real resurgence. In 40 appearances in all competitions last campaign he found the net 26 times. His fine form saw him win the Bundesliga player of the month accolade three times in a row and he’s shown no signs of slowing down this season, starting off with five goals in his first six games.
Considering just how well he’s been playing of late, the question remains, what the hell went wrong at Old Trafford? United legend Rio Ferdinand offered his theory to BT Sport:
“I think at Manchester United he always felt there was someone else in front of him,” Ferdinand says. “There was a Wayne Rooney, a Robin van Persie – there were strikers that he felt were always going to be number one no matter what he did. So that is a heavy weight on the shoulders of confidence for a player.”
Ferdinand sees a lot of similarities between Chicharito’s case and that of another South American striker who flourished after leaving Manchester – Diego Forlan. The Uruguayan striker scored just 10 league goals over the course of four seasons for United. He went on to find the net 54 times for Villarreal in La Liga over three seasons directly after escaping England.
“I think you saw that before with Diego Forlan at Man United. Everyone knew he was a quality player but he had Ruud van Nistelrooy in front of him. So when he got the opportunity the confidence wasn’t always there.
“Yeah, Chicharito scored goals, he put up good numbers, 15-20 goals a season, but as a starter for Man United maybe he didn’t have the impact always. I think that was largely down to not having the confidence supremely from the manager.”
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