Arsenal have been linked with just about every single top striker since the transfer window opened from Alexander Isak, Gyokeres, Osimhen, Zirkzee, etc, and we are being told that it would cost us up to 120million to sign them this summer.
In the search for the perfect clinical hitman, this is what we are looking for…..
•Arsenal need a striker who can score goals and assist
•Arsenal requires a striker who can tuck both wings
•Arsenal need a centre forward
•Arsenal need a man capable of playing 40 games each season
The fact is that Kai Havertz is just that man!
The German international has proven he’s skilled enough on the ball to play the inverted striker role, and he gets more touches in both wing areas.
So, was paying Chelsea £65 million for this versatile forward expensive or cheap?
Given his struggles to make an impact at Stamford Bridge, most Gooners were understandably perplexed when we signed him, with some even criticising him before he donned the Arsenal jersey. I recall that most of us wanted him to be nowhere near our attack. Now, we can’t talk about our attack without bringing him up.
If it hadn’t been for Kai Havertz in the PL run-in, we wouldn’t have pushed the PL title fight to the last day of the season; we would have been swept away long before, since we lacked an effective No. 9 like him.
One thing is clear: we are not desperate to sign another 100million striker because we already have King Kai Havertz.
Sam P
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Viktor Gyokeres is a striker who can score goals and assist better than what we have at the moment. He is a sharp striker and he’s not a selfish player.
Kai Havertz is two wasteful in front of goal, same as Gabriel Jesus.
I doubt it he can perform the same in epl. Too expensive and too risky. Darwin Nunez was scoring for fun in Portugal. He’s more wasteful than Havertz in front of goal last season. Havertz should retain his place in the team because he was doing great towards the end of last season. Gabriel Jesus is still one of the best forward in epl when he’s fit, to rotate with him. He have a good prospects from the academy as a backup too. Should be given em more minutes otherwise they will look for other options and leave..
@MalayBushBoy
You can’t compare Nunez with Gyorkeres. They are two different players. Ronaldo started out in the Portuguese league as well. We saw how well he turned out once he came to the EPL. Just sayin…
you absolutely can compare Nunez and Gyorkeres
what you can’t do is compare either to Ronaldo
@Arsenal1886
I didn’t compare anyone to Ronaldo. I simply made the point that he also came from the Portuguese league, yet hit the ground running in the EPL. Nunez and Gyorkeres are 2different types of strikers. Plus Gyorkeres has played in English football, albeit in the Championship and at Under 23 level with Brighton…Just saying
Gyorkeres in the Championship for Coventry/Swansea scored just 41 goals in 124 games over 3 seasons
could even must one PL appearance for Brighton
fair to say Nunez did not hit the ground running in the PL
umm…Just saying
Everybody must not be like Nunez
There is no aguement Havertz isn’t what Arsenal needs in front as a CF he is simply an option. Havertz would be good in Odegards role because he can link play well. He is better as a goal scoring attacking midfielder. Arsenal in history have always had proper 9 in Wenger days ie NAnelka, THenrry, VParsey, SAdebayi, We saw what spending good money on player can do last season with the purchase of DRice. No good CF would come cheap.
Kia is not a striker. When will that sink in into our brain as a football and Arsenal fan. If we don’t want to believe that, we should just look at his performance in the on going European competition.
He will definitely score one to two goals in odd games here and there but he can’t do the job of a striker. Morata, Lukaku and Niklas Fuilkrug had proven that.
Your own football brain seems to think differently from coaches that sees havertz as a striker, including arteta and flick…… Very sure they have better football brain than you…… Don’t you agree?
There is no aguement Havertz isn’t what Arsenal needs in front as a CF he is simply an option. Havertz would be good in Odegards role because he can link play well. He is better as a goal scoring attacking midfielder.
Arsenal in history have always had proper 9 in Wenger days ie NAnelka, THenrry, VParsey, SAdebayi, We saw what spending good money on player can do last season with the purchase of DRice. No good CF would come cheap.
So how come we didn’t win title if we already have the man ?
We didn’t win the league because Havertz was languishing in the midfield role,half of the season..
Our goalscoring output exploded with him in the Striker’s role..
Call it coincidence,if you like..
Exploded ?
13 League goals.?
To be a top striker you need to be a striker in the first place ,Kai isnt .
I Personally believe if we had spent his transfer on a clinical centre forward we might have actually won the league.
Good player to have off the bench but for me I would love to see a proper forward Bought in .
You could also argue that we would have won it if we played Havertz up top from game week 1. If we use his stats at cf for us and multiple it over 38 games he would have like 34 goal involvement from 38 games. And unlike the hypothetically player we have seen him do it first hand when he got moved to cf !!
One thing for sure another powerful midfielder is a more important addition to the existing squad, having the big German to fall back on to lead the line, only reinforce my point.
I saw a poll recently that said 90% of German fans(not sure how many were polled) wanted havertz dropped to the bench. He was poor at the start of the season and came through in the second half of the season.
on displays so far England fans might say the same about Bellingham, Rice and Saka…why stop there
Bellingham et al are clearly fantastic players and form blip [simultaneously] in the Euros is nothing to judge them by
it is strange though how so may top names have been so ordinary so far, throw in Mbappe, and large parts of French and Belgium teams, and Netherlands have poor too!
I’ve not seen those polls about those players or countries fans calling for them to be dropped that it made the papers. Only havertz. I agree that many big name players are not impacting the way they should. Havertz can certainly divide opinions. I think he’s had many good games for us as a club but he’s also had many bad games for us. Like every player he needs to be pushed, needs competition for his place in the team which you hope will only make him push on to be a better player.
Iirc, that poll was when Hansi Flick was in charge of the German national team, where he had an abysmal record as their manager.
A team that desires to win top honors cannot rely on the striking abilities of a a Kai Havertz alone. We need a Gyokeres in that Arsenal squad. His experience playing in the tough English Championship will be a plus for him.
I believe Arsenalcan negotiate a good transfer price for the p
Gyokeres experience in the Championship is exactly why Arsenal should not buy him – 41 goals, 113 games, 3 seasons – a big sample size (vs 1 season in Portugal) that tells us Gyokeres is not the clinical goal machine that Arsenal are after, rarely do Championship strikers translate to more goals in the Premier League
I do agree Arsenal needs to be adding more centre forward goal scoring depth to the squad this window, however not this guy at this price tag, just too big a risk given the likes of Nunez and our own Vieira etc
Gyokeres looks terrific in Liga Portugal. So does many strikes before him ( Jackson Martinez, Bas Dost, Haris Seferovic, Darwin Nunez) but they rarely translate their form into the new league. I reckon ligue 1, eredivisie, and efl championship are way more competitive than Liga Portugal. Cristiano Ronaldo was a special case. Very special talent with great professionalism and astute mentality. Gyokeres might be the best of the lot(for a cf) because of the attributes he has got in his locker but to ask for 100m after just one great season is totally a ripped off. Serhou Guirassy would be a more sensible buy. A proven goal scorer in very competitive league. He’s a versatile team player and could be available for 5 times less. I just don’t want them to waste the talent they’ve already got from the academy (Mika Biereth, Obi Martin,). Arteta have not given much chance to the academy player compare to some other top teams. Just my humble opinion..
If Arteta make that mistake the next will be his 6th year trophyless and the last as Arsenal manager.
Havertz is not the difference between us winning the trophy or not. Where was he against Aston Villa and Bayern Munich?
His form as a CF was good but not that explosive like we are FORCED to agree.
Zola won player of the season even though he was signed mid season in the new league, new culture, new language.
A great player does not need exhausting online PR, his work will always speak for him. The fact that after one season we are still getting regular pieces selling Havertz greatness shows he is not all that good.
Has he added something to the team? Yes absolutely. But he is no Aubameyang to carry the team entire season on his shoulders. He is not on that level.
C’mon HH, his stats in 2024 have been world class.
He won’t need to settle in this time around so expect even more productivity. I do!
I don’t think his stats in 2024 are world class. If we had a world class player in our team we would have beaten the worst Bayern side in years.
He is a relaxed player whose body language shows he is not interested in pushing himself to reach that next level of world class.
He benefits more when the coach finds right tactics for him as well as the support he receives from the players surrounding him. With the world class player the opposite would have been true.
I didnt consider Alexis Sanchez a world class player and he was leagues ahead of Havertz when he was playing for us.
We need Havertz to continue where he left off if we are to have any chance of glory but to put the forward line on his shoulders will be a misjudgement and frankly unfair to him because he is not that capable. We need a world class striker with Havertz support alongside him.
Havertz as a lone striker will be figured out before mid season, and when that happen (which I am certain it will) what is going to be plan B?
Perfect assessment. Nothing to add..
One of the reasons he did so well up front was because it was unexpected for opposition managers. After a full preseason other teams will find ways to nullify him, and as he isn’t a natural ST or finisher he most likely isn’t adaptable enough to get out on top of the opposition across 38 games. He’s a great option to have in a few positions, but he isn’t the 9 we need to win the league. Even the Germany fans can see through his game and want a more clinical option.
World class🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣. You actually made me choke on my Champaign 🥂.
Wow you can afford champagne,there’s me drinking cider .
Wow you can afford cider,there’s me drinking coke.
.
I like it ,good one 😂
“…….. And the last as arsenal manager” , says who ? 😸😸 Can’t stop laughing
Even if Havertz score 20+ league goal next season, a lot of fans will still not be happy with him and will always try to find his flaws until the club buy a Haland type of st. He’s been too much underappreciated by the fans but I bet the players is very happy to play around him. He’s clever and a very efficient player. You won’t find many players that can play that role better than him. Every teams got their own playing style. We should have our own identity and shouldn’t be copying others. Real Madrid won the league and championship league without any main out of our striker last season. We should find a way to getting out the best of Martinielli and Saka. It’s better to spread the goals and making us more unpredictable.
So why haven’t we won the title with our similar setup to Madrid? We even had a record number of goals scored but still came up short.
Why?
We haven’t won the title because of a certain man called Pep Guardiola, ever had of him?
Yes! Guardiola and Man City are the reason Arsenal didn’t win the title 2 seasons in a row. We didn’t lose the league because of Kai. Kai wasn’t an Arsenal player when we lost the title 2 seasons ago.
I’m not saying Arsenal shouldn’t get a better striker, but you guys should quit pointing accusing fingers at Kai Havertz, that’s childish.
@MalayBushBoy
We don’t have our own identity. Arteta is copying Pep’s style of play to the letter. With the exception of tactical rotations. Just sayin
And Pep is copying the late Johan Cruyff’s style.
@Herr Drier
Exactly. Johan”The G.O.A.T.” Cruyff was the guy who instilled that style of play in Pep. The style developed by Rinus Michels” Mr Total Football”…Jus sayin
Correct NY 👍
Yeah.. kind of but the approach is more direct I think and of course, tactical rotations and thinkering too much sometimes 😅. High pressing is the thing now..
The earlier you embrace Kai and the rest of our current options, the better. The fact they didn’t win us the title last season does not mean they can’t next season onwards. Take heart my friends and laud the club later!
King Kai was only on a stretch. He is not built like the real cf we need. If we get a natural 9 with the way Odegard and crew are playing and creating chances, we will surely win it.
If we are going to sell Nketiah why not give Biereth his chance ?
“Why didn’t we win if we had Havertz this season?”
Several answers :
1. He wasn’t played as a CF all season, only the last strech of games. And before anybody says “but it was Arteta who put Havertz in the midfield, because he was bought by Arteta as a replacement for Xhaka, and it failed and he was moved as a striker…..” Havertz’s first game tells you what he was bought as, a striker. Then, due to several reasons, first Gabriel not playing for some games, zinchenko injury and fitness, Partey’s makeshift RB role, caused Rice to play number 6, which caused Havertz to play as 8. And yes it was not efficient. Rice is not partey or Jorginho, he lacks creativity from the deep. He is a interception and positioning machine, not a regista, so we suffered going forward with Rice as 6, just recap all the december games. When Jorgi came to 6, Havertz could finally play as CF, it wasn’t a result of failed experiment on Havertz playing as number 8, but on a failed experiment on Rice as number 6. Alas, everybody missed that it seems.
2. And big problem we faced last season wasn’t scoring goals, it was instability in CDM and LB positions. It’s not as glamorous a reason as not scoring enough goals, but every sensible football audience with a little more knowledge than a 3rd grader (who thinks striker is the only position of value in football) will know, where we missed last seasons. Injury to timber, and Partey’s inconsistency cost ud the title.
3. “Where was he against Villa and Bayern?”
We played Rice as a 6 against villa, that’s the reason we didn’t play well. Infact it wasn’t Havertz who missed shiyload of chances in the first half against villa, it was Jesus. And people here rate Haaland so much it surprises me, he basically scores most against weaker teams, against the defensively astute teams, he is absolutely invisible throughout the game. So if Havertz does the same and scores 30plus goals a season, albeit against weaker teams, wouldn’t it suffice to you naysayers? That’s exactly what Haaland was brought for, to farm goals from the weaker teams, not to score against bigger and defensively good teams. And Havertz can fill that really well.
Well said, mate.. 👍🏼
While Havertz has shown potential to win a few headers and find space effectively, his inconsistency in goalscoring positions has been noticeable. This lack of natural scoring ability has even led to scrutiny from German fans following his performances at the Euros.
He is not and never will be the top striker we need to take us to the next level. Squad player at best.
Havertz is a problem IMO. He had a solid second half of the season. But he is not a prolific finisher and play him anywhere else than as a nr 9, and he becomes a liability IMO.
What is the chance, if we buy a top-notch striker, that Arteta will bench Havertz? He cost us an arm and leg which might lead Arteta to try Havertz in midfield which would not and has not really worked. Out on the wings, he is also hardly threatening.
Probably the safest option, if you want to keep playing Havertz, is to improve on wide players and leave Havertz as nr 9. Saka needs a lot more rotation so an excellent right wing player could help, and it looks like Martineli has been found out so the same for the left wing.
Where do you get this notion the “Trying” Havertz in midfield was Arteta trying to shoehorn Havertz into the team rather than positional instability in several roles in the number 6 and LB? Has Arteta mentioned that? Havertz was played in midfield only because we didn’t have a stable CDM player, and though Rice is better as an eight, safe and secure as a 6, he isn’t Jorginho or Partey who have the ability to break the lines with their forward passes.
Another reason Havertz was played in midfield is he is the only one among our forwards who can find space into the box from the midfield.
But it wasn’t efficient because Rice as a hybrid number 6 didn’t work, he is a defensive number 6, and we need a hybrid player who can defensively be good as well as controlling the tempo of the game with passing.
We do need attacking reinforcements though. With Nketiah mostly leaving, Jesus injury situation not yet clear and Saka being overloaded, we do need an attacking player capable of playing RW and false no.9.
Semih Kilicsoy!!💪🏼 This boy would be a massive star with the right nutrients and guidance. Ambidextrous player with a rocket shot and can cover all the front line. He’s a joyful to watch. He has all the packages to be a fearsome forward. Powerful and super explosive!