How Kai Havertz Found His BEST Role At Arsenal

Possibly the most difficult player to define in the Arsenal team right now is Kai Havertz. Now, I think everyone is coming to round to just how good he is and how much he helps the team. But in every single game for Arsenal, he is playing different roles to really elevate the side. And with me being the number one Kai Havertz fan out there, I think it's a good time that I get into it and talk about why he is just so different in every single recent game for Arsenal. So let's get into it. Now, I definitely have a bit of an addiction of making Kai Havertz videos. I made so many, but I think he's just a very interesting player. A lot of people didn't know why we signed him. And I think now we can understand why we signed him. But every single game, his different role is being used. And while we definitely struggled with him in the team for large parts of it, obviously not all down to him. I think finally, because the team is playing well, people are starting to really appreciate his role in the team and really appreciate the attack working with him in there. Now, Kai Havertz is one of the Arsenal players that probably doesn't have a set position. When other players come in, you expect them to realistically play in a certain way. Maybe short side, you don't when he can also play out on the wing. But Havertz is definitely the player that really can play anywhere depending on injuries, depending on how the system we're going to play and more importantly, depending on who we're against. Now, I've said this many times. Kai Havertz is not going to be a prolific striker. He's never really got to the XG in his career. And although he did score 17 league goals for Bayer Leverkusen in one season, he's just not going to live up to that sort of expectation in the Premier League or at least for a few years. But I think that's fine. And I don't think he was signed to do that ever for Arsenal. I think to put it bluntly, Arteta really wanted to sign him because maybe he saw this tactical adaptation that he does now, but I think more importantly, it was down to the physicality of the player and maybe sometimes his movement is actually quite good. And off the ball, Kai Havertz is one of them players that is really good at picking up space, finding areas to go into. Off the ball, I'd say he's one of the best players in our squad. It's just on the ball, he struggles a little bit. Now, most of the season, Kai Havertz has obviously been playing in midfield. We've usually had Jesus up front. Obviously, Eddie came in at the start. Now, it seems like it's more likely going to be troughside, but he played in that centre mid role. Now, it was a weird role for him because he's not really playing as a proper centre midfielder. Often, sometimes his role is to go further up the pitch because Arsenal obviously have a lot of pressure. We have the ball quite a lot. And for goal kicks specifically, if David Rye took them or the opposing team took them, he was in the middle trying to win the headers. And sometimes from goal kicks from the opposing team, that would be the furthest he'd go back. He wasn't going to be grinding out, getting all the tackles and physicality in the midfield. Sometimes he would, but it's not really his role. His role is when Arsenal get the ball is to push forward. Usually go and help Jesus, but sometimes even sit further than Jesus. We saw a few games where Jesus came deeper to try and pick up the ball to his good dribbling skills, but Havertz moved on. Now, this was quite good and it sometimes benefited the wingers, I think, a lot. Obviously, getting Havertz into that back post for the headers and also being a dummy, taking players away from Jesus who might have more chances in the box. Now, on paper, this works really well and it didn't really work too well in execution. It did sometimes, but Kai Havertz's positioning sometimes was off play and sometimes it weren't enough pressure in midfield to even get the ball in a quick position for the wingers to actually not be against four or five players. Also, without that Granit Xhaka presence in there, you don't have them people actually spreading the balls out, especially to Martinelli, barely got any service anywhere near the box. So, I can understand why this didn't really work and it still maybe could be used sometimes, but it is a bit difficult. Now, there's two ways that we changed that. The first way is obviously putting Havertz up front, which is a key way of Arsenal's performances recently. This is good against big teams, teams that are going to want the ball a little bit, but don't mind if they're at the Emirates maybe to give it to us. And obviously, teams that are very good on the counter-attack, who have really good players going forward, such as Newcastle and Liverpool, and the big teams you're going to see at the top of their Premier League. Now, obviously, I've done loads of videos about Jorginho's role in this team and Jorginho comes in to make a double pivot with Rice. This gives us a lot more pressure and also allows Rice to go more further forward. However, what it allows is Havertz to actually come a lot deeper and not be the main output going forward. As much as he is striker, he's basically a false nine in this setup. He wants to come into midfield to do interchange with the other players, often creating an overload down the left or right side. Also, because he is actually in striker, his presence is a lot further forward and can be a lot further forward than that midfield role, because you need Jesus if not to come back, whoever's playing up front. Because of that, that's really important. He can actually be on the last defender. He can be having a fight with them, can be doing physicality. Now, I've wanted to do this with him in midfield, but sometimes it's left us a bit light there. But now, if teams want to play a high line against us, they have him trying to run in behind and also players like Sakho, who have a bit more space. And Havertz is actually quite good at running in behind and keeping himself onside, which is something I recommended we did more against Porto, hopefully in the second leg. And up front, I think he gives Havertz a lot more presence. He can still move into left centre mid, come back, win them headers from their goal kicks, and also be providation in there to try and help link up the play. He can also do this on the right side. But overall, it means that his presence is a lot further forward, and I think overall that gets Arsenal a lot further forward in the game. Also, something about Havertz's game, which is incredibly underrated, I've obviously spoke about his off the ball play, but it's his pressing. He is an amazing presser for this team. Odegaard is usually the starting presser, I would say, in Arsenal's main systems right now, even if he does play a bit deeper when Arsenal are trying to pick up the ball and to develop it through. When they don't have the ball, Odegaard is right there on the front line with Havertz. Now, Odegaard and Sakho are brilliant pressers, and they deserve a lot of credit as well, but Havertz is really, really good and obviously helps them too to really get the ball back very intensely. We saw this against Newcastle, where them three really started to press, and slowly it goes throughout the whole team. And pressing might be some of the most important things about football. It's forcing the other team into mistakes, making them lose the ball in their own half and giving the ball to your team very high up the pitch. Obviously, it's very successful in football. You'll know this, but it can be tiring for some players. But fair enough to Kai Havertz. He's barely been injured this season. He's given a lot, and he's played a lot of games for a lot of minutes this season. And despite obviously everyone criticising him, I would give him a lot of credit for still putting in there, still pressing very hard. He works his arse off in games, and sometimes that is enough with the amount of quality that we have to do well. And one of the biggest things that Arsenal have actually been struggling with is Martinelli getting on the ball in really meaningful positions. He really needs to. It's not necessarily the fact that we like him and all his goals and assists are down. He is one of our best finishers. He needs to be having these key shots in the goal, or near it at least. And maybe he's not getting that right now, but he's getting closer to it, and he's creating a lot more in the team. Obviously, a lot of credit has to go to big players like Jorginho and Rice as well. But against Newcastle, you saw, if you look at Havertz's meat heat map, he's literally on that left side helping him for most of the game. He's given Martinelli an extra man there. He's finally actually helping him, more than he was in that left centre mid role ever. Gives a good interchange, and allows Martinelli also to come across, go into midfield, and go on the right side, because Havertz actually covers that space on the left. And he's got a really good interchange with it, and I actually think it works brilliantly at the moment. And I think the key principles here are very similar to his new role anyway, when he does play left centre mid. Obviously, recently we were playing Trosser up front, which is a different ball game. Trosser comes actually a lot deeper, because he kind of plays more like a midfielder as it is, and will often want the other teams to be backed up, because he likes to use his dribbling ability, and his on the ball skills to actually do great passes through. He's also brilliant at over the top through balls, and can really help. And I think obviously because he's not very big in stature, you get Havertz to come back to sort of win them headers, but then Trosser will mostly operate with Havertz in that midfield. So they can build up together, and have that five attack that Arsenal want. It gives it different options as well, with other people backing up onto other players, with Trosser and Havertz basically penning back the other team completely into their own half. This makes us do a very fluid movement. Everyone's moving around together, and they're trying to help each other get the ball into good meaningful positions. And also when you've got Saka in a one-on-one, when you finally create that space with Martinelli, you can cross the ball in. And look, Havertz is still not the most prolific, even in the Arrows' height, but he's going to win headers. He is a six foot three tall guy. He's very tall. So definitely a better option in that. And even from corners, I think he has helped us with the blocking scenarios later on. Havertz is not the most flashy player in the world, and sometimes when he controls it, he does look a bit lost. But he is still a very good player because he works really hard, and that's the start of everything. He understands where he needs to be now, and he's suddenly getting into that rhythm of being, right, I need to come back when these headers go back up front, and starting to make that movement we like to see from strikers, like we saw for his goal against Newcastle. Now, maybe next season, if we go out and sign a striker, go out and sign a midfielder, Havertz doesn't get in this team. But right now, how it is, Havertz is very vital to the way that Arsenal play, and actually help them get a lot of the control, and a lot of the ball. If you can just improve his clinicalness, and his on-the-ball touch, I really think he could be a key player. But I still think he's a very solid player for Arsenal, and he's very important to the tactical system. Let me know what you guys think about Kai Havertz, and let me know what you guys think about Arsenal as a whole. Do you think they will replace Kai Havertz in the summer, or would you like to still see him in the team? Thank you guys for watching. If you enjoyed this video, I'd recommend going over and watching my video yesterday, where I talk about Declan Rice, and why he's really important. Basically, the midfield is just amazing. Thank you guys for watching. I appreciate it, as always.