Kai Havertz: Page 82 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Kai Havertz

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

That's a decent haul for Kai so far actually.

Henry14th

When I saw him running on the outside like he did I wondered what the hell he was doing. Me and my boy were laughing at him making the run…turned out to be a really clever move.

Claudius

Mikel must be in love with this guy. Application, application, application!

Qwiss

I really hope that goal lifts his confidence because he is a real confidence player.

CPM

I just watched the game today, and Kai definitely had a bad miss, but I thought he was our best attacking player. Dynamic running, good hold-up play, excellent pressing. Certainly did more than Trossard, Martinelli, and Ødegaard.

Qwiss

CPM I thought Trossard and Martinelli were both excellent.

Claudius

CPM sounds like a typical Kai game.
On the misses, it’s awful to see but forwards miss. We saw Watkins miss a sitter against us, for example. Haaland missed on goal line against United last year etc. Havertz seems to have an execution issue to get over - not taking shots and then not hitting cleanly. Which is in contrast to his goal.
Hopefully, he gets a shrink/coach because there is another level here
I still have confidence that he’s one of our best players as he has been since last January.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

He was excellent overall.

CPM

Qwiss I thought Trossard was overrun and ineffective. He's a really tidy footballer but his lack of pace really hurts him. It really isn't ideal to have him starting big games.

Qwiss

CPM I thought it was one of his best games recently. He was pressing like a mad man and was beating his man consistently. Passing was sharp. Didn't offer much goal threat but was good in everything else.

Gazza M

he's modern day giroud. this thread will continually yoyo between 'he's average and a terrible signing' to 'he's a great asset to the squad'. that's the player he'll always be.

Qwiss

Gazza M Giroud was always a good player that should have been the 2nd choice to someone else. When we announced his signing we still had van Persie. If we had both at the start of the following season that would have been perfect. I feel like we are in similar territory here with Havertz.

Mirth

Qwiss in a perfect world that's where we'd be with Jesus and Havertz. Two different types of forward that would give teams something different to think about.

Unfortunately Jesus' decline + injury worries have been shocking.

Qwiss

Mirth That was probably the plan but personally I've never been too hot on Jesus and I think even before the injuries and terminal decline he and Havertz have the same big flaw in that they are very streaky. Neither really has the arrogance and hunger for goals I'd want in at least one of our strikers.

Claudius

On Havertz, would be great to sit with Arteta and ask him how he thinks about Havertz in relation to other forwards. I suspect he would have a much more favorable view of Havertz than the average Arsenal fan - because he contributes so much to our ability to control games.

Qwiss

Claudius I suspect he would have a much more favorable view of Havertz than the average Arsenal fan

Of course he does, it'd be pretty weird to be this reliant on him if he didn't.

We have been looking for a goal scorer for quite a while though. Arteta is reportedly still really keen to get Isak and there is his ongoing pursuit of Sesko.

Havertz is very frustrating at times but he's an extremely solid player and he does have goals in him. I just don't think he has any more levels to unlock, I don't think he's going to become a cold blooded killer in front of goal. When you are at 0-0 and things aren't going to plan he's rarely the one to pull something out of the fire and win you the game.

We are at a point now where we have a very good first XI, Havertz included but its not been enough. We need more really high quality and when I look at the squad there are 2 positions in the first XI I think are easier to upgrade than anywhere esle. That centre forward and left wing. Then when I look at depth its fine at LW and non-existent at centre forward. Ideally we'd have signed one last summer and get another this summer but it'll probably be one of the 2 this summer and I'm a lot more comfortable going into next season with Saka, Nwaneri, Martinelli and Trossard for the wings than Haverts and a half a Jesus for CF.

RocktheCasbah

Claudius I actually think Havertz is a bit of a unicorn in terms of his physical prowess, teamwork and adaptability within his role, it's just that he's not a consistent finisher.

As you said last night though, even if we had got a Ollie Watkins, say, it's not like we haven't seen him miss absolute sitters against us.

Claudius

Qwiss We are at a point now where we have a very good first XI, Havertz included but its not been enough. We need more really high quality and when I look at the squad there are 2 positions in the first XI I think are easier to upgrade than anywhere esle. That centre forward and left wing. Then when I look at depth its fine at LW and non-existent at centre forward. Ideally we'd have signed one last summer and get another this summer but it'll probably be one of the 2 this summer and I'm a lot more comfortable going into next season with Saka, Nwaneri, Martinelli and Trossard for the wings than Haverts and a half a Jesus for CF.

This is the one point I disagree with you on. We have now built a squad where the options for constantly improving diminish. For example, there is nobody I would want over Rice, Odegaard, Raya, Saliba, Gabriel in world football right now. Salah is obviously better than Saka, but there aren't too many obviously better alternatives. And the same is true of Havertz. He does all the great linking and control work, so we need to find a forward who doesn't destroy that and also gives us goals. This is a very small set of people, and the market knows this. Which makes it hard to improve. Even Sesko is still below Havertz as an overall player right now. So we are looking at a small set of players like Isak.

It's telling that big clubs spent big on old centre forwrads recently (Kane and Lewandoski). I just don't think the options for improving on Havertz are numerous. What we should do, however, is get the necessary depth beyond Havertz, Trossard and Martinelli - a Gakpo level guy who can also be counted on for 10-15 goals while we pursue the unicorn

Qwiss

RocktheCasbah but it was never a question of Waktins or Havertz, it was having both or just having Havertz. Every flaw that Havertz has is only intensified by the work load and pressure he's currently under. And he's still coping with it but we've seen with some of our other key players what a rest here and there does for them, just look at Declan Rice. Havertz needed a striker signing more than anyone. We are running him into the ground like we did with Saka.

GooneriC

Giroud would have been much more effective in this setup given his prowess in the air and the quality of crosses we could fizz in the box.

RocktheCasbah

GooneriC maybe, but he'd have been much more of a pure "box" striker than Havertz is.

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