Some Arsenal fans are unsure whether Kai Havertz makes an impact on the team or is just a passenger. However, ex-England women’s football player Karen Carney just revealed how vital Kai Havertz is to Mikel Arteta’s strategy.
Carney says that Arsenal’s manager is a defensive coach and that despite Havertz’s troubles in front of goal, he performs a good job defensively, which benefits Arsenal as a team.
Listening to Carney talk, I understand why Arteta has overlooked complaints about his fielding of Havertz. Notably, in the 3-1 victory over Liverpool, he attempted 12 aerial and 12 ground duels. He may not have won all of his duels, but he showed intent.
Speaking to Premier League Productions, the former England international said, “I think Mikel Arteta is a defensive coach. I think Kai Havertz gets a lot of criticism as an attacking player for his output, but he does an incredible role defensively for the team, cutting off that side of the pitch. I think he was brilliant as well out of possession.”
It is fair to acknowledge Havertz’s contributions to Arsenal’s defensive side of the game. Even so, he must find a way to be more influential in the attack. For how technically gifted he is, he undoubtedly has more to offer; he simply needs to put in the effort and be prepared to learn. Mikel Arteta knows how to get the best out of players, and maybe he’ll do the same with Havertz.
Daniel O
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Arteta, as we all know, bought him to replace Xhaka. He hasn’t done that and Arteta is trying Everything to prove himself right, in acquiring Haverz. Not the best buy we have ever bought, at all.
What Kai Havertz said he to The Athletic, August 2021
“More or less, I’m a midfield player but I like to go into the box”..
*****______
On signing Havertz in the summer. Arteta said:
“Talent has a price and at Arsenal we are always interested in young people with experience.
“I’m not talking about players from other clubs, but in the case of Kai, he has already shown a lot, including a Champions League.
“He is a talented, versatile player and only 24 years old,”.
Arteta likes versatile players. He even tried to play Partey as an inverted Rightback etc.
I think Arteta saw him as a multi faceted hybrid of Xhaka and also a towering Giroud. Use him in two different positions when needed, but may be mostly as a midfielder.
I’m seeing where you’re coming from
Didn’t Arteta also say he has no idea where he fits in when Havertz was first signed?
I found that a bit concerning to spend that amount and not have certainty about their position.
Hopefully Havertz will come good, it benefits Arsenal, but so far he has been underwhelming to average on a whole this season.
Citing Partey as a RB is not a good example to reference. Dropping a proven top DM to RB to shoehorn Havertz in at midfield to try and prove something?
It was a disaster, completely unbalanced the team, and Arteta binned that setup with good reason.
Correct again.
This is reaching. We are doomed If we are buying forward players because of their defensive skills. I think this is just giving excuses for the expensive purchase that wasn’t needed. We could have got another tall forward for a lot less if the defensive skill was the main requirement that MA was looking for in his forward players.
Interesting that the two players dubbed as “chelsea rejects” etc etc were vying for the MOTM award against liverpool.
Poor old Havertz seems to have been cast as a Xhaka replacement one minute, then a centre forward the next and finally as a defender!!!
Next he’ll be criticised for not replacing Raya and Ramsdale!!
Meanwhile, Jorginho was too old last week and now we need to sign him up for another season – funny old game 😂😂
It would be a sad state if Havertz was indeed brought in for his defense.
1. To replace a midfielder, we bring in an attacking player to play out of position for his defensive abilities?
Or
Just bring in a well rounded midfielder, a B2B player that can defend and help in the buildup.
Maybe I’m too old school and traditional, but we have a LB who is not a LB and can’t defend, a striker who struggles scoring ,is not a striker but a winger, and now Havertz; playing in midfield because of his defensive abilities?
If Havertz was a good purchase, there would be no need to explain what he does or anything else.
Rice doesn’t need an explanation, neither does Saliba, Saka, Trossard, Martinelli or Odegaard.
100% correct.
Durand, the only people who need an explanation, or insist on making one, for the signing of Havertz, are those who, seemingly, need a scapegoat!!
I’ve watched Havertz improve game after game and it seems that MA has as well.
The fact that he is our top earner and cost us a lot of money, seems to cloud fans view of him.
As I say, the two chelsea “rejects” were very important players against pool and MA is still to get the best out of Havertz, but it’s coming.
As a season ticket holder you really get to see the whole picture. I mostly get to see what the tv producers put together as most JA contributors do. Nothing quite like being there to actually see what’s going on week after week
It’s common to read people saying Jesus is a winger, but the truth is that’s only an opinion that his skillset is better suited to a role on the wing – the vast majority of his career has been spent playing as a central striker. I looked into the numbers previously but don’t have them to hand – he played on the wing a handful of times for city, but he overwhelmingly played up front for them, and he was signed as a striker. I think he said once he’d be willing to play on the wing for city if it meant he’d play more, but that didn’t actually happen too often because city already had wingers.
Now this is laughable.
We are almost done with the season and no one seems to have understood why we signed Havertz, i hope Arteta does.
I just hope he does well in any of those positions he is being tried for the sake of the team because there is nothing else we can do about it.
You are missing the point. Arteta bought Havertz as a wild card. As klopp said, we are unpredictable and the opponents can’t plan a way to stop him if they don’t know where he will be from the start of the game.
What was it MA said?
Not sure what his best position is (or words to that effect)?
He’s playing better now, than at any time at chelsea and, hopefully, he will continue to improve under MA.
As Havertz has played in every game (I believe) and we are just behind city and pool, surely there is a message somewhere in those results?
it is clear why we bought Havertz
we beat Liverpool on the weekend, and Man C before that, the two best teams in the PL and probably the world precisely because of the tactics Havertz enabled
wake up
we did it, we beat them
and we beat them by stifling their creative midfield from giving anything for their world class attack to work with
face it hater
we did it, and Havertz was absolutely integral to that in a way that Xhaka never was and neither the fantasy ’30 goal striker’
sometimes there are other ways to defeating your opponent, and holding Liverpool and Man C to xG of 0.37 and 0.46 respectively, for each their all time lowest, proved very effective
Arteta has identified the way, recruited for it and delivered it
but i suppose a little too complex for some
if he was about half the price I would be much happier.
two years time will be a bargain
e.g. Rice was never £105m two years ago, neither was Caicedo, Fernandez, Holjund, et al
rampant inflation
the liverpool game (one tame shot on target, xG 0.37) and Man C before that (xG 0.48), the lowest either have ever had shows that Havertz has brought something no-one else has to any other team, and now Arsenal can compete with and beat the best, last season Man C thrashed us three times, this season 1 win, 1 draw, 0 lost – Havertz is a massive part of that
big game player?
we have been crying out for one
last season we were found out when playing the elite teams in PL
Man C thrashed us 3 times, at no point did it feel like we were any real prospect of winning
if you want to be the best then you need to beat the best – Havertz was brought in to do that, and Havertz has been integral to achieving a monumental turn around in performance and results against the best of the best
apologies now haters, tail between the legs time
in the PL this season we beat Man C with xG 0.48 (Man C worst ever attacking output), and Liverpool on the weekend with xG 0.37 (again their worst ever)
and it is wholly down to Arteta’s strategy and Havertz delivery
you can see the same in the Charity Shield against Man C, we were able to defeat them by neutralising their strengths
taking them on at their own game last year proved to be suicide
stupidity is doing the same over and over again
instead Arteta chose a different way, identified Havertz to be part of it, and we are seeing with own eyes now
haters will probably still bang on about Ivan Toney, we would have been blown apart