Arsenal announced their first signing of the summer, Kai Havertz from Chelsea. While he predominantly played as a number 9 at Chelsea, he excelled at number ten or on the right-hand side in Bundesliga, and there is a school of thought that backs him as an eight, newly invented Xhaka-role at Arsenal.
Let’s have a look at what type of a player Havertz is, his strengths, weaknesses, how he may fit Arsenal, and whether or not the reported transfer fee of £65m is valid.
(Stats from Opta and FBref)
Kai Havertz’ Profile
Age: 24
Height: 193cm
Nationality: Germany
Position: MF/FW
Strong foot: Left
Market value according to Transfermarkt: 47m￡
Havertz’ Career So Far
Havertz was born in Aachen, in West Germany, and spent his youth career in Bayer Leverkusen’s academy.
He is one of the greatest talents ever to have emerged from Leverkusen’s youth academy, and Havertz made a top-team debut at the age of 17. He had been the youngest player to make a top-team debut at Leverkusen until this record was broken by another Leverkusen prodigy, Florian Wirtz.
Of course, as many Arsenal fans know, making a first-team debut at a very young age doesn’t necessarily guarantee success, but Havertz didn’t stop there. In his first season in the top flight, he scored 4 goals and assisted 6. He also became the youngest player ever to play 50 Bundesliga matches(He also holds the same record for 100 Bundesliga games).
He continued to develop and in the 18/19 season, he scored 17 goals and assisted 4 in the Bundesliga. He was voted second only to Marco Reus in this season’s German Player of the Year poll.
He scored 12 goals in the next season too, proving it was not a one-year wonder. At this point, many elite clubs started to show interest, and eventually he ended up moving to Chelsea. This didn’t prove to be a smart move for Havertz and it’s fair to say his performance in England has not lived up to the expectations.
Considering how Chelsea have been over these few years, however, it would be difficult to judge any player’s individual quality, and it should also be pointed out that Havertz had hardly ever been asked to play as a lone striker when he was at Leverkusen.
Experience with youth is key to the recent approaches to the transfer market of Mikel Arteta, and Havertz is no exception. Although he is only 24, he has plenty of experience in big games including scoring the winner in the CL final, and he has also capped 37 times for the German national team in which he scored 13 goals.
Havertz’ style of play
One of the biggest questions Arsenal fans may have is where he will play at Arsenal. He is a very versatile player and he was used as number 9 at Chelsea but at Leverkusen, he played in the number 10/second striker role the most often. He also played a fair amount of games as a right winger.
One of his best attributes is his late runs into the box and last season, only Erling Haaland made more runs into the box. Like Gabriel Jesus, he is not a traditional number nine, but it is not difficult to imagine Havertz scoring goals from Saka’s or Martinelli’s crosses. He does provide a presence in the box, perhaps more than Jesus does.
Thiery Henry mentioned that Havertz reminds him a little of Robin Van Persie, and we can see the similarities. If our new signing is deployed as number 9 at Arsenal, he could be an all-round striker, not staying in one position, dropping down deep, and involved often in passing combinations like Jesus does.
One trait that Jesus doesn’t possess, however, is the height. He is very tall at 193cm and he is ranked in the top 6% in the top 5 leagues for aerial duel win rate(55.8%) as a forward.
He has been described as a mix of Mesut Ozil and Michael Balack, and his technical level is also very high. He is very comfortable operating in tight areas. His pass success rate under pressure is 4th best in the premier league(78.1%, for reference), and his pass success rate inside the box and chance creation have also been among the best in the premier league.
When compared to other forwards. his defensive numbers such as tackles, blocks, and interceptions are above average too. He certainly knows how to get the ball in the high area of the pitch.
Where will Havertz play at Arsenal?
There is speculation that Havertz may play the number 8 Xhaka role next season, and Mikel Arteta himself mentioned that he will “add extra strength to Arsenal’s midfield.”
As summarised above, Havertz’ main strengths are:
-Late run into the box and goals
-Technique that enables him to operate under pressure
-Ariel duels
-Defence in the high area of the pitch
While these attributes make him a very unique player, as is often the case with other versatile players, he too seems to have a Chamberlain/Maitland-Niles problem. He is too versatile to nail down one position as his own. Some of his strengths sometimes cancel out each other it is very difficult to find a position where Havertz can utilise all his strengths.
For example, when played upfront, he can his aerial prowess and link-up play are very useful, but his goal-scoring ability will be negatively impacted because he is more comfortable running into the box rather than positioning himself there from the beginning.
If he is deployed a little deeper, his defensive capabilities may be a hindrance, as even though he is capable of winning the ball in the higher part of the pitch, he does not have much experience of defending in deeper areas. One cannot expect Havertz to do the same amount of defending job as Granit Xhaka did for Arsenal.
He has almost never played as a midfielder at Chelsea and even at Leverkusen, he primarily played as an attacking midfielder. Managers who coached him in the past tended to see him as an attacker rather than a midfielder.
If Mikel Arteta is planning to play Havertz as a midfielder, it will be a new challenge for him. There is no doubt he has the potential to shine in the number 8 role at Arsenal, but it may require a little time and coaching.
Are Arsenal overpaying for Havertz?
According to Fabrizio Romano, Havertz’ transfer fee is £60m+further £5m as add-ons, and some eyebrows have been raised at the reported transfer fee.
It is the second-highest transfer fee Arsenal pay for a player(though it may soon become third), and his performances at Chelsea doesn’t seem to justify the price.
What is interesting, though, is that if Arsenal had signed Havertz in 2020 when he left Leverkusen, the transfer fee probably would not have been questioned.
If 70m£ Chelsea paid for a German wonderkid, it seems also fair that with 3 years of premier league experience, Kai Havertz today would require a similar amount of transfer fee.
One should not forget his performance at Chelsea didn’t live up to the expectation of the “next German prodigy” label, but it was not disastrous either. He has consistently played 40-50 games and scored around 10 goals in England.
He is still very young at 24, too. If he plays well at Arsenal, it is entirely plausible that he may be moved on to a different club at a higher transfer fee in the future. This is not a Willian or Davi Luiz transfer, where there is no resale value.
One may even argue, that buying a player with great potential who underperformed for the past few seasons is actually a good business, similar to Odegaard’s situation.
It feels like the sense of the transfer fee of Havertz being too expensive stems from the fact that it is unclear how and where he would fit into the current setup of Arsenal, rather than his potential and abilities being overrated.
Of course, paying £65m for a super sub or a rotational option does not sound like a wise way to spend your budget. However, when Arsenal signed Ben White for £50m, we probably had the same questions. At the time spending extra 50m£ for a CB when we have William Saliba did not seem to make sense. But eventually Saliba and White built a good partnership and it turned out to be a brilliant signing. There was a big question mark over Aaron Ramsdale was a significant enough upgrade to Bernd Leno who was worth the hefty transfer fee, too.
Whether we overpaid for Havertz or not,will ultimately all depend on how Arteta uses Havertz and if he can get best out of him.
Edu and Arteta have been right in player valuation more often than not recently. Let’s look forward to finding out what plans Arteha has for young Kai. His acquisition at £65m may be a gamble but it seems to be one with calculated risk, which Arsenal can win.
Arsenal fan and football journalist in Japan. Used to live in northern England. Very interested in football data analytics and gardening.
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