JazzG Having the pressure of another striker will do him good, not just from being able to rotate but top players take it as a challenge and elevate themselves.
It's not just the pressure of competition, I think having another striker to take the pressure off do certain players a world of good. Arteta might well play Havertz deeper at times this season. We might see 4-4-1-1 every now and then with the fullbacks pushing up. I think it would work well for all of Havertz, Saka and Nwaneri to play in the hole if they needed to, and Calafiori was practically assembled in a lab for that kind of football.
When Gyökeres arrived at Sporting they had Paulinho up top who was a bit like Havertz, good allround player who was considered a big talent who never quite delivered on his promise, but the bloke was just not a goalscorer and the pressure of that expectation had gotten to him mentally. Their fans wanted him out, but Amorim played him alongside Gyökeres instead for that first season, or had him coming off the bench while he kept Gyökeres on. Paulinho ended up second to only Gyökeres in the top scorer's table in Primeira that year.
He did end up moving the next summer, but he had the best year of his career in 23/24 playing with and alongside Gyökeres. I think if you're not a decisive player yourself you find it much easier to thrive when you have a strike partner who can take a bit of the pressure off. One of many things modern football has forgotten: we talk all the time about how important the partnership is between the two centrebacks, but we've forgotten that it used to be equally important between the two strikers up top.
