Chelsea: Maybe Kai Havertz just isn’t that guy and that’s okay
By Travis Tyler
Kai Havertz is a young, extremely promising footballer. What he did at Bayer Leverkusen wasn’t a fluke, just like it wasn’t a fluke that Chelsea dropped the cash they did for him even though he really wasn’t a needed transfer. And, if nothing else, he will go down as the player that scored the winning goal for Chelsea’s second Champions League win.
That out of the way, maybe he’s just not that guy. Havertz regularly plays up top for Chelsea but very rarely looks like a striker. For all the talk of fluidity when he starts up top over Romelu Lukaku, there is still a distinct lack of chances created with Havertz up top or with Lukaku up top. Havertz is the kind of player who seems like he should be the centerpiece of a side, but the likes of Mason Mount and Reece James regularly outshine him. So maybe, just maybe, Kai Havertz isn’t that guy.
The first part of that is the main thrust here. Havertz started up top frequently last season after Thomas Tuchel arrived. For whatever reason, Tuchel didn’t favor Tammy Abraham at all and preferred to keep Timo Werner off to the side of the striker rather than in the striker’s spot. When Lukaku arrived, many thought that would be the end of Havertz up top. But since Lukaku’s injury, the Belgian has struggled for minutes and Havertz has continued in that role.
The most common argument for this is that Chelsea plays more fluidly with Havertz up top. That Lukaku is too static or doesn’t press enough. But the fact of the matter remains the same. No matter how fluid the attack is, Chelsea isn’t creating more chances with Havertz than with Lukaku. The games aren’t completely turning on their heads when Havertz comes off. Everything is stuck in a state of sameness.
Lukaku doesn’t escape criticism in the same way Havertz does either. That’s where the whole fluidity argument stems from. But realistically, what has Havertz been doing that has been keeping Lukaku out of the side? He drifts through games with the occasional flash and rarely with a poor moment, but for all his alleged fluidity he has largely remained a passenger this season.
It all seems strikingly similar to Abraham’s situation last season. Abraham, despite being the club’s highest goal scorer from the day Tuchel came in pretty much until the end of the season, didn’t seem to “fit” Tuchel’s tactics. Werner didn’t either, at least as a striker, which is how Havertz ended up there. Now, Lukaku is in that same boat which is made all the stranger given the fact that Tuchel seemingly had a strong say in Lukaku’s arrival at Chelsea.
Maybe Tuchel sees Havertz in the same mold as Roberto Firmino, but that works at Liverpool because Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane are fantastic attackers that can work off him. Mount and Christian Pulisic can go through patches of form like that, but not consistently enough to justify a Firmino like experiment.
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And maybe, at the end of the day, it’s okay that Havertz just isn’t that guy. Arguably, his greatest period of success at Bayer came playing off a striker as either a 10 or wide forward with license to roam. Maybe that is where he’ll end up at Chelsea too. But not before Tuchel gets over whatever hurdle he has with Lukaku. The Blues need a striker that scores goals. Right now, that just isn’t Havertz and it’s not clear why he continues to be trusted in the role given he hasn’t really given any reasons to stay there lately.