What went wrong: Kai Havertz
Why has it not happened yet for the highly-rated Chelsea attacker?
Welcome back to Marginal Pains.
Today in our latest series, we’re taking a look at what has gone wrong for Kai Havertz so far at Chelsea.
Obviously, it’s still very early days for the 21-year-old at his new club, but there’s no denying that he hasn’t had half the impact Chelsea fans would have ̶h̶o̶p̶e̶d̶ expected.
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Can the ‘commentators curse’ strike in the world of newsletters? I’m not sure, but if there was an example of it happening, then this past two weeks would be it.
This is because only recently, we at Marginal Pains tipped Chelsea as legitimate title contenders with plenty of evidence to validate our claims.
But since then? They’ve suffered to back to back defeats at the hands of Everton and Wolves.
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Obviously, they got back to winning ways on Monday night with an impressive 3-0 victory over West Ham. Furthermore, those defeats against two good sides in the form of the Toffees or Nuno Espírito Santo’s men aren’t exactly shameful losses.
However, for sides pursuing the title, they are two matches in which you’d be pushing for a minimum of four points.
We’re not going to U-turn on our prediction for now, but there’s no denying that these were two damaging defeats for the Blues who now sit fifth in the table going into Christmas.
One of the subplots from Monday night’s victory over West Ham was the relegation of Kai Havertz to the substitutes bench. He came on for the final ten minutes of the match but managed just eight touches of the ball in a fairly insignificant cameo appearance.
That pretty much sums up the bulk of Havertz’s career so far in West London, and there’s already growing questions asking why he hasn’t been able to produce anywhere near his best football at Stamford Bridge so far.
One school of thought has put it down to the Chelsea curse, you know, the one where the Blues buy really good established players, or up and coming prospects and then somehow turn them into fairly mediocre disappointments. Andriy Shevchenko, Hernán Crespo, Fernando Torres, Ross Barkley, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Tiémoué Bakayoko… it really is an extensive list.
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But another more reasonable explanation could come down to the way in which the German international has been used at Chelsea so far.
In his press conference on Friday, Frank Lampard was asked whether he thought Chelsea’s current 4-3-3 formation was one of the issues behind Havertz’s false start at the club, particularly given that he’s been played predominantly as a No.8 within it.
In response, the Chelsea boss said: “It (the formation) does suit him. Before getting Covid he was playing very well as the right-sided No.8 but consistency is sometimes a good thing and that’s what I want to get for him. He had no pre-season, then got Covid and all eyes are on him because of the price tag but we need huge perspective here.”
“Not saying it will take a long, long time but he does need time to settle in. For Chelsea fans and us, we must give him time.”
Havertz arrived at Stamford Bridge with a big reputation, and understandably so. In Germany, he was considered a versatile player who could not only scores goals but also create them.
His technical skill was noticeably better than primed teammates six or seven years older and he was revered for his ability to regularly get into dangerous areas in and around the penalty area.
He finished the last campaign with 21 goal contributions (Bundesliga and UEFA club competition) - 15 goals, six assists. However, so far this season, he’s managed just five with two goals and three assists. That drop in output hasn’t just been in terms of goals and assists, but frankly, in almost all facets of his attacking game.
The most notable drop comes in terms of touches made inside the opposition’s penalty area.
Not only has there been a stark drop in his attacking influence for Chelsea compared to last season, but the 21-year-old is also being relied upon to do more defensive work than he was last year, going from roughly 5.06 defensive actions per 90 to 10.42 this season.
Lampard is right to point out that Havertz can play as a right-sided No.8, and the above does at least highlight that he is willing to contribute to both sides of the game for the Blues.
Yet, there’s no denying that he seemed to be producing his best work for Bayer Leverkusen last season in more advanced attacking roles, either on the right in a 4-2-3-1 or as a CAM.
In fact, he played pretty much as a centre-forward in the closing stages of the season for Peter Bosz’s men and ended the Bundesliga season with seven goals in nine league matches. Additionally, you’d argue that the below shot map from the last campaign resembles that of a penalty box assassin, which makes the decision to use him almost exclusively as a No.8 a little counterintuitive.
Lampard has so many attacking options at present that he’s constantly facing an ongoing dilemma in terms of where to play them all.
Yet, with the busy festive period now in full swing, perhaps Havertz should be trialled in a more advanced role in order to help rediscover the scintillating attacking form he produced earlier this year in Germany.
A failure to do so may result in a continued stop-start first season at Chelsea, which then heaps more pressure and scrutiny on the 21-year-old. This consequently could result in him quickly finding himself being added with that long aforementioned list of Blues transfer tragedies.
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