213: Javier Hernandez, Manchester United, Topps Match Attax Trading Card Game, Barclays Premier League 2010/11 Collector Binder

Today Mat Jolin-Beech takes a look at the trials and tribulations of pre-season and how it can make us all dream that this year will be different than the last. Today’s subject more than delivered on his early promise at Manchester United with 59 goals in 157 appearances for the Red Devils and a key role in two Premier League wins. Over to Mat.

Pre-season is a time most players hate. You always get former pros, new into punditry (or Lee Dixon) coming onto the radio in early August saying how much they miss playing. The camaraderie, the banter, the ridiculous practical jokes, or weekend away benders that end up in a dentist chair…yet, they all state they do not miss the running.

The gruelling work to build up a base level of fitness to last the season of 38 league games and however many cup games you’re fortunate enough to get through (up to sixty for the best teams). The bleep test and interval running sessions so hard they make you sick - just ask Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min. You’ll always get some sadist case who loves he pain, the lactic build up, the exhaustion, and the gallons of sweat lost in hot and tropical climes. James Milner has, for the last seven years, won Liverpool’s pre-season fitness award apparently and strikes me as the type of guy who’d thrive on it.

Then you get to the games themselves. A chance to build on last year’s successes or promise or the opportunity to forget what has gone before, to start fresh and to learn what the new gaffer is trying to achieve. The games fall into two categories. Those against a President’s Select XI, or League A Allstars, or some second tier outfit from Australia or those where the European big hitters face off in the Kuhmo Tyres trophy or Bangkok Century Cup. It’s the time for players to stake their claims for the forthcoming season showing how much they’ve improved over the summer in terms of fitness, technique and understanding of the game.

Some players thrive and put a marker down that they are indispensable. Other are sluggish, unable to get over the hangover of the previous year, international tournaments, or other, ‘extra-curricular’ activities. Then, there are those who look like world beaters, superstars just waiting for the season to get underway. But, when the whistle goes, that form melts away and they look like the pub-team part timers out of their depth and way out of their league. Enter one pre-season Pirlo: Andreas Pereira. Fulham’s new £12m man looked the mutt’s for Manchester United every pre-season, with wonder goals dealt with like pocket change but come the season, he’d leave his goalscoring touch, passing range and general ability to play football behind.


However, there are those who make memories. The FA Community Shield, which was, once upon a time the Charity Shield and the first game of the season, throws up one such memory for me. United vs Chelsea. 2010 and one new Mexican signing, little heard of by many in Europe, Javier Hernandez. I think he scored with his second touch. The first was to smash the ball carefully and skilfully into his own face. That then ricocheted into the back of the net. At that time, a cult hero was born. What adds to his legend was during a time of crisis (ok, the latest crisis at Old Trafford), he even said he’d come back and play for free. That is not an offer that many fans would want to take up from Andreas Pereira, the real pre-season Pirlo.

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