Chelsea: Havertz signing causes tactical, financial issues

Chelsea should avoid signing Kai Havertz from Bayer Leverkusen because he’s an odd tactical fit and his signing limits the Blues financially.

Over the course of two seasons, Kai Havertz has transformed from a promising talent to one of the best young players in Europe. He has scored 37 goals in all competitions in this time and despite being only 21 years old, he has already become Bayer Leverkusen’s most important player.

On Monday morning, reports broke that Chelsea is in pole position to sign Havertz. No other clubs are prepared to pay the €80 million fee and the player is said to be keen on joining Frank Lampard’s side. In normal circumstances, this would be a no brainer. €80 million represents good value for a player with Havertz’s level of talent, and he fits the profile of player that Chelsea are looking to bring in nowadays. He’s young and hungry for success, a no-brainer, right? There are a multitude of issues with this signing, though.

Firstly, there is the fairly obvious issue which is the Blues can’t defend. This is, therefore, the area they need to spend money first. They have conceded 49 goals in the Premier League this season, which means whatever happens against Liverpool and Wolves, the defence this season will be statistically the worst of the Abramovich era.

Shaky centrebacks and a woeful goalkeeper in Kepa Arrizabalaga mean that Chelsea just cannot keep clean sheets. Some blame here also goes to Frank Lampard because Chelsea had the same defence last season and weren’t so shaky at the back. But the reason for this was that Maurizio Sarri sacrificed attacking intent for defensive control. Chelsea was solid defensively, but lacked any fluidity going forward. This is reflected in the fact that the Blues have already equalled their goal tally from last season, despite losing Eden Hazard—who singlehandedly carried Chelsea’s attack.

The comparison has been made hundreds of times, but Chelsea is very reminiscent of the 2017/18 Liverpool side. Both sides were potent going forward, but shaky defensively. Then, Liverpool spent big on Virgil van Dijk and Alisson and transformed as a side. These are the kind of signings Chelsea needs to make in order to compete.

This issue could be negated, of course, if Abramovich is willing to just spend more money. With Financial Fair Play suspended for the year due to Coronavirus, there is no reason that Chelsea couldn’t sign Havertz as well as fix the defence. So, this alone shouldn’t be enough to turn Chelsea off the German.

The main issue with this signing is a tactical one, though. There is the inevitable fact that signing Havertz will impede Mason Mount and Ruben Loftus Cheek’s playing time. Whilst I find this to be problematic—as I think there’s nothing better than building success around players who have been at Chelsea all their lives—Blues fans would undoubtedly get over this if the team were clicking on the pitch. But Havertz isn’t as clean a fit into Chelsea’s system as many fans want to believe.

This season, Havertz has spent the majority of his playing time as a right forward in a 3-4-2-1 system. This means he plays on the inside right channel, which allows him to cut inside onto his dangerous left foot and have an effect on the game. The issue is that this is almost the exact job that Chelsea signed Hakim Ziyech to do. If Havertz was to play as a No. 10, it is likely that he and Ziyech would get in each other’s way.

The worrying parallel here is what happened with Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann at Barcelona this season. Griezmann is one of the world’s best players, but he plays a similar role to the greatest player of all time. Consequently, he has had an underwhelming season as successive coaches haven’t been able to find a place for him in the side.

Many Chelsea fans have put Havertz alongside Mount playing as a box-to-box midfielder in their projected line-ups for next season. This would help with the spacing issue that there may be with Ziyech, but Havertz has never played this role. When not playing as a right forward this season, he has often been deployed as a false nine. This means he leads the attacks, playing a similar role to Roberto Firmino at Liverpool. He is far more of an attacker than a midfielder. In his breakthrough season at Leverkusen, he scored 17 goals and got three assists, these are not the numbers of someone who should be playing in centre midfield.

I therefore believe Lampard’s plan will be to push Havertz right up the pitch, meaning he will almost be playing as a second striker alongside Timo Werner. This will allow Ziyech the space to drift inside into as well as giving Werner someone to combine with up top. It will be an exceptionally top-heavy side, but it certainly won’t be boring.

In the end, it just seems to be an odd signing. Chelsea has quality in that area with Mount and Loftus-Cheek, has already signed a player who operates in similar positions in Ziyech, and has glaring holes elsewhere in the squad—especially in goal.

Having said all this, no one could blame Chelsea fans for getting excited by the prospect, and if Lampard does manage to fit the pieces in, Chelsea will be a spectacular side next season.