Mourinho: Chicharito Would Score 20 Goals For Us

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho believes Javier Hernandez would score 20 goals a season if he was playing in the current Reds team.

The popular Mexican was sold to Bayer Leverkusen in 2015 and has always had the knack of being able to find the net, even when coming off the bench in games.

Although Chicharito may have been at the stage of his career where he craved regular starts, when leaving Old Trafford, the 28-year-old is the sort of penalty-box predator who could have thrived given the amount of dominance United are enjoying in most matches this term.

"We have some players that are not really in love with the ball, you know," said the boss. "They are good players and they are creative players. They can create but, naturally, they are not the kind of guy that is a killer. 

"I give you a simple example: in the way we play at Old Trafford, in the way we dominate opponents, in the way we play in their box, I think Chicharito would have 20 goals easily, even coming from the bench for the last 10 or 20 minutes. He’d have 20 goals. 

"He’s a guy that, naturally, when the ball rebounds here or there, boom, goal. The goalkeeper saves, he goes there - tap-in, goal. A cross is coming, he anticipates at the first [near] post - header, goal. And not even coming from the bench, we have this kind of player that scores 10 or 15 goals and gives you 10 or 15 more points. We play well most of the time - not always, obviously - we create but don’t score enough goals for the way we play."

The boss was again quizzed on the summer transfer market, even though there is still much to play for this season and asked if he would buy an experienced striker.

"I cannot buy a striker more experienced than Zlatan [Ibrahimovic], right?" he replied. "We have Marcus [Rashford], we believe in Marcus, that’s no doubt. Are we going to buy a striker? Maybe.

"I think Zlatan’s number of goals is a good number for every striker. I think all the others, and I’m not just speaking about the strikers but the attacking players. The attacking player with freedom has to always reach a certain number of goals that, added between them, gives a lot of victories and points. No-one reached that target.

"One thing's for sure, Marcus is having amazing experience on the pitch this season, playing in every competition - Europe, the Premier League, the cups, Wembley, finals. He’s having an amazing experience which, after the hurricane that he was last season when he arrived, it’s giving him a hell of an experience.

"He’s such a good boy and such a good professional, I think this is a fantastic learning experience for him. Even with not scoring goals, next season he will. Next season will be a good season for him."