Sir Alex
Ferguson has admitted Javier
Hernandez's "startling" impact at Manchester United has
ruined Dimitar
Berbatov's season.
Berbatov's superior hold up play will likely see him selected in
the absence of the suspended Wayne Rooney as
a lone striker for Saturday's FA Cup semi-final clash with
Manchester City at Wembley.
But Berbatov has regularly been condemned to the bench despite
the flying start he had to the season which has him leading the
Premier League's goal charts, with 22-year-old newcomer Hernandez
preferred next to Rooney in Ferguson's two-striker system.
Berbatov has continued to perform when selected, such as when
Ferguson hinted at Saturday's tactics by flanking Berbatov with
Nani and Antonio Valencia against Fulham a week earlier, but his
season has certainly been undermined by Hernandez's increasing
involvement, a fact which Ferguson recognised.
"It is unfortunate for Dimitar because he is a fantastic
player,'' said Ferguson of Berbatov's present plight. "But the
reasons are obvious. The emergence of Hernandez in the last couple
of months has been startling. He is improving all the time and is
getting stronger. It is very difficult to leave a player out when
he hits that kind of form. Every manager and every player in the
country has faced that situation in their career when someone
emerges to challenge you. It is the horrible part of being a
footballer.''
Signed from Guadalajara as a virtual unknown prior to the World
Cup, Hernandez scored his 18th goal of the season in Tuesday's
Champions League triumph over Chelsea and has earned comparisons
from his manager, not only with United hero Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
but England striking legend Gary Lineker.
"I really didn't expect Hernandez to have this impact,''
Ferguson said. "As we said to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, we thought his
first season would be about integration. Solskjaer played in a few
reserves games and scored a hat-trick against Leeds. After that
(coach) Jim Ryan came to me and said he is a first-team player. We
made him a sub the following week against Blackburn and he
scored.
"The only advantage for Hernandez was that he'd played in the
World Cup so there was a profile attached to him and he had also
come from a much tougher domestic competition.''
Two goals in South Africa had indicated Hernandez was going to
prove a bargain at £7 million and when he scored a ridiculous goal
on his debut in the Community Shield, where he fired the ball into
the Chelsea net by smacking the ball into his own face, Hernandez
instantly avoided the growing demand for a goal that proved to be
Diego
Forlan's undoing at United.
Although Hernandez had added six more before the turn of the
year, it was his New Year's Day matchwinner at West Brom that
really triggered a transformation. That late effort at the
Hawthorns was the first in a run of 11 goals in 17 games, six of
which he has started on the substitutes' bench.
"Hernandez is fantastic at taking up positions inside the
penalty box,'' Ferguson said. "It is natural. He has the instinct
to move around and his timing is terrific. There have only been a
few top strikers who have had that quality. Ole was one and Gary
Lineker probably never scored a good goal in his life, but he was
always in space. He'd get rebounds off goalkeepers and was always
in really good areas.''
Hernandez's emergence has definitely answered the very public
question marks Rooney raised about United's ability to recruit
high-class players during his much-publicised contract stand-off
last year.
"I don't think he really meant that,'' laughed Ferguson. "I
think he was prompted on that one. He probably thought he could
make me angry.''