To break the deadlock in the Arsenal 2-0 win over Wolves, Saka teased with a sumptuous cross, and Havertz was on hand to head home.
Although Saka ended up scoring a banger in the second half for Arsenal’s 2-0 win, there was something special about Havertz’s goal.
For a long time, Arsenal has lacked a physical presence, i.e. someone who’s aerially capable of manipulating overhead crosses and leading the attack. Well, the Gunners now have that, with Havertz as the striker. As much as we want him to score a lot of goals, trying to set him up in a 1 v 1 situation with the goalie is not how to get the best out of the German forward.
Maximising his aerial threat is what gets the most out of him. Havertz needs more crosses played into the box, particularly from the right-hand side. Saka does his best, but he is often double-marked and can only dribble himself out of danger. Ben White, while overlapping, also matches that fine standard, but it is not a reliable method of chance creation.
This season, we need Odegaard to do more from RHS; we need him to try the Saka-esque half-space crosses more often, which could end up just being the assists the German hitman needs to be on the scoresheet.
The days of dribbling through opponents’ defences before finding a shot should be long gone. Yes, it can still be done, but with the physical presence of Havertz now in opposition boxes, Arsenal now just needs to hit their crosses into the box, and their No. 9, who is a great aerial target, would do the rest.
Interestingly, Havertz, after the Wolves game, hinted that they train in a lot of situations (like the one for his goal), so that gives us hope that we could just end up seeing the best of him in attack. I believe he has the potential to score 20+ goals; what do you think?
Havertz ‘we train a lot for this situation’
Expect double figures with this type of Arsenal goal this season. pic.twitter.com/YdJMuLVn4Q
— Tactx (@Tactx_) August 18, 2024
That says it all doesn’t it?
Daniel O
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Has Havertz got the potential to be that 20+ goals a season striker? Who knows? Only time will tell – and that could be a problem for Arsenal because if in the end he doesn’t, who will?
City has such a striker of course (he did it again yesterday) so Arsenal is gambling against City’s certainty (or at least as near as you can get) with a “possible”.
Yes, goals will come from elsewhere in the Arsenal team of course, but this shouldn’t be an either/or calculation – it’s having both a proven striker and the other goals from the team. Seems sensible to me although with less than two weeks left now it’s becoming more unlikely that Arsenal would be able to negotiate/sign someone in that time. If so, then it’s down to young Havertz – and probably a lot of crossed fingers.
The main problem for Havertz is that he’s easily bullied. He’s not physical as the writer implies. In the second half of wolf match he was totally out muscled by their defenders. He should work on his physical ability if he wants to take on defenders or scoring aerial balls.