Let’s talk about Kai Havertz by Konstantin Mitov
Isn’t it poetic to write a piece on a German player while waiting in Germany for a connecting flight? Well here it is, the elephant in the room – Kai Havertz. Why does he start, what does Arteta see in him, did we disrupt the whole system just to bring him in?
Unfortunately all the facts point to the obvious answer on everyone’s lips, that he shouldn’t be in the side. 3 poor years at Chelsea, and 4 poor performances after a second big money move in England don’t bode well.
His performance against United was shocking really. Missed a sitter, his mistake led to their goal and he dived for a penalty which he didn’t get. And I was really rooting for him, you see the guy lacks confidence and maybe one moment of good play, especially against United, could’ve been liftoff.
That didn’t happen though, but there’s a more worrying thing. His body language is awful. I see him strolling around, when others are busting a gut to cover back, kind of reminding me of Ozil, without the forward output, and Mesut was labelled a luxury player.
There were parts of the game where I felt we were playing with 10 man. Then you see players like Vieira impacting multiple games off the bench, and you wonder when will they get the chance they deserve based on their performances?
And there is Smith-Rowe one of our top goalscorers from two seasons back, who can’t get a minute. I’m concerned with player favouritism, because it’s a real thing. “Train hard” sounds all fine and dandy, until someone else gets picked, because the manager spent 65 millions on him, and he has to justify why he did it, or he simply likes him more.
It’s how we people work, we surround ourselves with people we like and they influence the decisions we make. If it was down to output there’s hardly a player who doesn’t beat Havertz, because his on-field performances have been not only terrible but lacking desire.
You see when Jesus came on, we suddenly had a player who fights for the first ball, uses his body to be a nuisance, and long balls forward started making more sense. Even if he hadn’t scored a goal, his control, his presence, his ability to take a defender one on one, it raised our level.
A few people have raised the point of “playing him into form”, and trying to lift his confidence by backing him and starting him every time, but the manager is playing a very dangerous game. We’re under huge pressure to win football matches.
I like that Declan Rice understands it. I read an interview of his where he said how he thought going 5 points behind City was already too much. Under Pep they’ve failed to win the title in only his first year and when Liverpool just blitzed the league by winning all the games, until it didn’t matter anymore.
Sadly we could’ve done it last year too, but it wasn’t to be. That said, nobody has beaten City in a race, and our record against them is terrible, so we can’t afford passengers in games, those 2 dropped points against Fulham still hurt. City were average at best against them and pumped them 5:1.
I think it would also benefit Havertz to be taken out of the firing lines. We don’t need to rush him into the side. Grealish didn’t play every game when City bought him. He was trained, nurtured and eased in. And for the first time in forever we do have options, especially in midfield.
When you are under pressure and low on confidence, being put on the spot to deliver, can easily backfire and do more harm than good. We play Everton away next, a poor team, but one that somehow always causes us trouble at their ground. It’s easy to fall in the same trap as we did with Fulham and think we’re “too good” and we’ll beat them with Havertz in the team.
I think the international break is actually a welcome sight for once, as Arteta can reflect on the opening 4 games and work out a way to start putting more convincing performances. I just hope he puts the team’s interest first. We must win games like this no matter what.
Konstantin