How Everton and West Ham can change their styles of play to free Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernandez.
Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernandez were supposed to be among the best bargains of the Premier League summer transfer window. But as it turns out, Everton and West Ham are wishing they’d kept the receipt.
Everton got Rooney back from Manchester United on a free transfer, of sorts, after he’d left Old Trafford as the Red Devils’ all-time leading goalscorer. Meanwhile, the Hammers paid a modest £16 million to bring former United striker Hernandez back to England from Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen.
Those deals should rate as steals for both clubs. Instead, Rooney has been swamped in a sea of mediocrity at Everton, while Hernandez has failed to fire for the Hammers.
The numbers don’t lie, nor do they make for encouraging reading for fans of the Toffees and West Ham. Rooney has just four Premier League goals, one of which came in Sunday’s 5-2 home defeat to Arsenal, per WhoScored.com. Significantly, Rooney doesn’t have a single assist to his credit, despite being one of the most creative players in the league.
Meanwhile, the same source also reveals how Hernandez has scored just three times since joining the Hammers. The number shouldn’t be so low for a natural finisher who comes alive in the box.
Ironically, the solution to both Rooney and Hernandez’s struggles is the same. They both need a change of style.
The change in question has to see Everton and West Ham move from going long, in favor of a possession-based game. Keeping the ball on the deck more often is the key to both clubs playing to the strengths of their veteran star forwards.
Rooney and Hernandez have both chafed under managers who have preached a direct style of play this season. Take Rooney and now-former Everton manager Ronald Koeman, hardly a match made in soccer heaven.
Koeman, despite his history, is a manager who teaches his teams to go long. He was a cultured, ball-playing center-back at PSV Eindhoven and Barcelona and also managed Ajax, a club dedicated to possession and style.
Yet direct has been his way in the Premier League. Koeman’s Southampton sides were direct, whether it was launching the ball up to target man Graziano Pelle or playing it long into the channels for winger Sadio Mane.
It’s been the same at Everton, where Koeman had the Toffees play balls over the top for the pace of Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Long passes often bypassed the midfield area, wasting Rooney’s technique and craft in the process.
Instead, Everton need to play between the lines. The next manager has to encourage the same one- and two-touch style Rooney’s best game is all about.
It shouldn’t be a tough ask since the Everton squad is loaded with technically gifted players who can operate the same way. Skilful types such as fellow No. 10 Gylfi Sigurdsson, along with attacking midfielders such as Tom Davies and Ross Barkley, can all dovetail well with Rooney’s clever touches and quality distribution.
Some, including ex-Toffees striker Tony Cottee, believe the Everton squad has too many of the same players, per Alex Varney of TalkSport: “They have ended up with lots of number 10s. They have got Barkley to come back, they have got Rooney, they have got Sigurdsson, and they are not scoring goals.”
The only way to let a creative forward like Rooney flourish is to surround him with similarly technically gifted players. Does having too many No. 10s harm table-toppers Manchester City? Not even close.
David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne combine brilliantly, as does Leroy Sane. Everton need only look back at how Arsenal dismantled them with Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil thriving behind center-forward Alexandre Lacazette.
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The Toffees can create a similar dynamic with Rooney and Sigurdsson rotating positions behind the pace of Sandro Ramirez, a striker criminally overlooked by Koeman.
It’s how things once worked so well for Rooney at United. His creative freedom wasn’t shackled by sharing the spaces between the midfield and forward lines with Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Carlos Tevez.
Instead, they all combined to produce a free-flowing brand of passing soccer that made Cristiano Ronaldo a star.
Everton haven’t got too many No. 10s. They just didn’t have a manager progressive enough to encourage the kind of possession-heavy, attractive style of play needed to let Rooney thrive.
Fortunately for Rooney, Thomas Tuchel is in the frame for the Everton job and is open to taking over, according to Sky Sports News. The German who was in charge at Borussia Dortmund last season adheres to a game based on bossing possession and letting similar creative types work together.
Hernandez could also use a possession-based style to get him back on track in front of goal. It hasn’t worked with the Hammers because Bilic’s other strikers are built to play direct.
Marko Arnautovic and Andy Carroll are both target men who thrive on long punts forward and crosses into the box. West Ham’s midfield, specifically winger Michail Antonio, can play to suit Carroll and Arnautovic, but Hernandez needs a different kind of service.
What Chicharito needs is passes played on the deck and slid down the sides to exploit defensive gaps. Those passes would take advantage of the Mexico international’s deceptive pace and sudden instincts in and around the box.
It’s no coincidence Hernandez has played his best for the Hammers when intelligent forward Andre Ayew has operated behind him. Ayew’s movement and deft touches suit Hernandez and his ability to spin in behind.
Letting Ayew and Manuel Lazini act as a dual-creative prong behind Hernandez would soon see 16th-placed West Ham get out of trouble.
Hernandez isn’t built to play with his back to goal and Rooney is better with the ball at his feet, rather than chasing it, so Everton and West Ham need to stop going direct.