Javier Hernandez took the football world by storm during his debut season in Europe last year. Finding the net 20 times in all competitions he seamlessly fitted into the Manchester United side successfully displacing Dimitar Berbatov to become Wayne Rooney’s established strike partner.  A lot of plaudits have quite rightly come his way and most if not all are richly deserved though we have to wait the best part of 9 years for Jamie Redknapp’s “Deal of the Decade” statement to come to fruition! While most positive talk of Chicharito is invariably accompanied by his price tag  (£6m plus add on’s is an absolute bargain) I want to focus on the impact the young Mexican could end up making on the centre forward position itself rather than his stunning start at what I hope is a very long career at the Theatre of Dreams.

Why? Because this type of goal poacher has all but disappeared from the modern game. Looking back at a golden age of the goal poacher – the 1980’s, Rush, Aldridge, Cottee, Clive Allen and Lineker reigned supreme over our domestic game (and in Lineker’s case La Liga as well) while one of the finest ever exponents of the art – Romario took the well trodden road from South America to Europe as part of a wonderful career laden with goals scored at the very peak of the game.

The 1990’s gave us some textbook poachers with Romario then at Barcelona combining to devastating effect with Hristo Stoichkov. At home we saw Andrew Cole, Ian Wright, Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen and Alan Shearer and my personal favourite Ole Gunnar Solskjaer plus the emergence of Raul and Filipo Inzaghi in Europe.  The goal poacher lives to score goals above all else, they may do nothing for almost the entire game (Romario often languorously strolled around the pitch looking disinterested in proceedings) but in an instant they come alive and settle or salvage the contest. The goal poacher does not rely on the possession of the team, how well they are personally playing, they do not engage in a war of attrition with their markers, they do not track back or drop deep and they don’t leave defenders “knowing they’ve been in a game”.

The goal poacher is quite the opposite; they operate in paroxysms of lacerating impact. They rely on stealth and instead of letting defenders “know they are there” they channel their energies on leaving defenders worried about where they are. A justifiable fear as it turns out since the poacher is typically lurking with intent off the shoulder ready to punish a single mistake or snaffle a half chance. Quick of mind and of feet the goal poacher is like a ninja quietly deadly having done the damage before others are even aware of the impending threat.

The poacher has an ineffable quality (The French would probably call it ‘I don’t know what’) that navigates them to the right place at the right time, finding space where none seemed available and they are blessed with an abundance of composure to unerringly find the onion bag with a minimum of fuss – with any available body part! Defenders may seem like they have the measure of one but in an instant the striker will have them bamboozled leaving even the best defenders wondering what went wrong.  Remember Robbie Fowler’s six minute hat-trick? Remember Paul Parker manfully containing Romario at Old Trafford for the entire 90 minutes minus just 25 seconds when the great man escaped to insouciantly finish past Schmeichel with a casual brilliance as if it was the easiest thing in the world? Remember Lineker in Mexico ’86? What about Clive Allen’s 49 goal season?  Now ask yourself where these players have gone?

Since the turn of the century the once cherished goal poacher has been slowly dying out of the game with teams preferring superior all round footballers in their place. This is in line with the paradigm shift away from the old 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 formations which typically included the classic combination of a goal poacher and a supplier, think Sheringham-Shearer, Beardsley-Cole, Bebeto-Romario to name but a few.  With top sides now adopting a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 it means that teams prefer play makers to make up the 3 attacking positions in a 4-2-3-1 leaving space only for a mobile, strong, lone front man to bring the formation together.

Similarly the 4-3-3 has seen wide players making up 2 of the front 3 and the need for the striker to again be strong, mobile and able to interchange positions.  A parallel development is that we see less and less of traditional wingers hugging the touchline these days as players fit into the interchangeable wide positions in the flexible 4-3-3 formation.  So now we have the new kings of the forward positions in Drogba, Torres (yes naysayers he will come good!), Van Persie, Rooney and Aguero – different yes but unified by being expansive footballers equally capable of unleashing a vicious shot from 20 yards as converting a regulation tap in from 2 or 3.

This change left little room for the goal poacher and these type of players were in danger of becoming extinct like our old friend the sweeper (where have all the Libero’s gone by the way?). I remain convinced that although injuries blighted their careers both Fowler and Owen were affected by this shift.  What about Ruud van Nistelrooy? Well RvN has had a tremendous career but I argue that he is the exception rather than the norm and what about his equivalents? Crespo?  Undoubtedly a top player but shipped out at Chelsea as Drogba won the day. Raul? He had to adapt his game making way to Ronaldo in the one available centre forward position in Real’s 4-2-3-1 and slotted in alongside Figo and Zidane just behind the great Brazilian.

But thank the lord for now we have Javier Hernandez, a recrudescence for the genuine bona fide goal poacher.  The young man is proving his worth at his club and boasting an International scoring record that even Lionel Messi would be proud of. Hernandez lives to score goals, keeps it simple outside the box and for every moment he is on the field he is waiting for an opportunity to benefit from friend or foe. Like all the great goal scorers he can be anonymous for large parts of the game but cannot be left unattended for a single second of it. And like all the great goal scorers he is a real fans favourite – speak to any United fan about Hernandez and they find it impossible to mention him without smiling. Let’s face it we all love a goal poacher!

Chicharito combines searing pace, intelligent movement and that rare and precious ability to find the net from all angles and positions. He also displays the hallmark of the true goal poacher by nipping in front of defenders at the near post rather than wait at the back post like most contemporary strikers favour. His ability to extemporise in the box was showcased with that remarkable header against Stoke last season. His equaliser at Anfield and winner at Goodison were typical of a man always in the right place at the right time but it is his double at Bolton earlier this season that was most demonstrative of what his game is all about.

His first where he sent the highly rated Cahill facing in one direction and then another before arriving at the near post for a typically clinical finish demonstrated his ability to manoeuvre defenders and find space in the area. His second was a perfect example of how goal poachers seem to be a magnet to a loose ball in the box. A misplaced cross shot from Carrick was moving in the general vicinity of 3 United players but it was Hernandez who latched on to it quicker than Vanessa Feltz on a Cadbury’s Creme Egg before dispatching it into the net.

Is Hernandez a one off?  Or is he leading the charge to herald in a new era of prominence for the goal poacher?

 @Us_Monster