When Kai Havertz first broke through at Bayer Leverkusen, the consensus was that we were witnessing the rapid development of one of the best attacking midfielders in the world.
But Havertz was never all that creative.
Embed from Getty ImagesHis height and frame were as important to his play as his intelligence and spatial awareness. He used all of those traits to attract attention of defenders, and eventually escape them before scoring goals. That was the hallmark of how he played as a ’10’, including the bundles of goals he put into the back of the net. The German scored 29 league goals across his final two seasons with Leverkusen, eventually attracting the attention of Chelsea.
Embed from Getty ImagesChelsea under utilized his talents and couldn’t identify the best way to use his skillsets, although they did begin that transition of the German into a ‘false 9’.
Since moving to Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, Kai Havertz has firmly cemented himself in that centre-forward role, growing more out of the falseness of the ‘9’, into a genuine striker.
Embed from Getty ImagesThis season, even despite only scoring 3 goals in his 9 matches, has arguably been the German’s best yet. Here is why Kai Havertz continues to thrive this season, and why he’s keeping Viktor Gyökeres out of the team.
KAI HAVERTZ’S FIT FOR ARTETA’S SYSTEM
Embed from Getty ImagesKai Havertz is a holistic striker. He can play with his back to goal. He can press and defend. He can score goals. But perhaps what Mikel Arteta loves most about the German is that he doesn’t need to be the centre of attention. He’s great at combining with his teammates in tight spaces, clever in how he moves around the pitch to support the positioning and movement of others, and actually not all that bothered by scoring goals.
Let’s face it. If Viktor Gyökeres had scored only 3 goals in 9 matches to start the season, people would be calling for him to be dropped again. But for Kai Havertz, everyone knows he’s about so much more than just the goals. He’s just one incredibly efficient cog in an entire system of gears moving in harmony.
Embed from Getty ImagesThis is particularly interesting this season, with Havertz filling the role of a genuine striker rather than that ‘false 9’ we all know him to be.
He’s holding defenders back as much as holding up the play. He’s remaining high and central as much as shifting right and left. He’s finishing off chances as that final man in the move, rather than helping to start them from deeper.
Embed from Getty ImagesIt’s an evolution in the 27-year-old’s game, who can finally be thought of as an actual striker, rather than just a makeshift one.
Nevertheless, what’s impressed most about Havertz’s game so far this season are the types of things we associate with that ‘false 9’. His work rate has been incredible, but it’s the cleverness of his movement that has been most useful in Arsenal’s quest to unlock defenses.
When defenders step up and out of position, Havertz is quick to recognize that, and shifts into those spaces to receive. Here’s an example from the weekend where Virgil Van Dijk steps forward, and Havertz arcs his run into the space.
Against Chelsea’s fragile back-line at the start of the season, Havertz tormented the centre-backs. He constantly found gaps in their defense to receive, particularly on the right-hand-side where he could play in close proximity to Arsenal’s key creators – Bukayo Saka and Martin Ødegaard.
He’s also been great at shifting wide left and right to receive the ball and help with those Arsenal overloads. In the early stages of the season, the combination of Bukayo Saka and Ben White down the right was already enough to drive opposition sides crazy. When Ødegaard and Havertz joined the fun, they were able to create constant headaches for the other team.
Embed from Getty ImagesHis goal this past weekend is a great example of his spatial awareness and intelligence. With Christos Tzolis already in the central channel, Havertz shifted out to the left side in behind the opposition defense, where he became more difficult for the centre-backs to track.
He was then able to pop up at the back-post completely unmarked.
A master of the one-time finish, Havertz has been clinical with these kinds of chances. Like against Coventry, where he seamlessly slotted Calafiori’s low cross into the back of the net with his left-foot wrapping around the ball.
He doesn’t shoot the ball wastefully or take the wrong chances. Instead, he’s clinical in finishing off chances in the penalty area.
That could be from his head, where he’s strong in the air, or with either foot.
Defensively, the German international always puts in a shift. He leads Arsenal’s press from the front, and he’s quick to read loose passes and touches.
You don’t think of him as the quickest player in the world, but he’s quite intense in how he moves around the pitch and really clever about how and when to expend his energy.
So while Kai Havertz might not be the most clinical striker in the league, he’s developed nicely into an automatic starter in Mikel Arteta’s team, even despite tough competition from Viktor Gyökeres. His game-winning goal against Liverpool this weekend was his third of the season, already en route toward his best season at the club in years.
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