Chelsea made Kai Havertz the most expensive signing in the club’s history in the summer window of the 2020/21 season. The negotiation and eventual acquisition of the signing took nothing less than three months. He was 21 years old at the time and had just had a superb season with Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen. He had scored 12 league goals and six league assists, creating 15 big chances. The German was hot cake at the time, but that hype almost completely disappeared as soon as he kicked a ball for the Blues.
Havertz had a very poor first game, noticeably poor, even despite the fact that it was his first game and not much was expected from him anyway. He went on to have a poor season. That league season, he scored four goals, missing nine big chances, with a big chance conversion rate of 25%. He played 58% of his games that season as an attacking midfielder. In the 2021/22 season, he played exactly 58% of his games as a center forward for Chelsea. There’s an ongoing debate as to where his best position is, but that’s a difficult question to answer, made easier when you consider his skillset.
Havertz has a tidy touch and very good technical ability. He’s very good at receiving the ball in tight areas, especially in advanced areas of the pitch. He’s also superb at running into space left by the opposition defenders, which is why he’s very good at arriving at the right time in the box to score goals. This suggests the team is best served with him as a central attacking midfielder. Yes, he’s good at getting on the end of high-quality chances, which is what many center forwards are good at, but a few things suggest he won’t be phenomenal at the central attacker role.
One: Havertz not good at occupying centerbacks. Many modern pundits and fans have led some people to believe that it’s no longer cool to be an actual center forward. They call them “traditional No.9s”. The narrative is that archetypal athletes in this instance are limited and should contribute more like midfielders, rather than what the game actually needs from them. Havertz dropped deep often when he played last season and many Chelsea fans loved it. In fact, they used this fact to bash Romelu Lukaku often.
The problem is that what many people incorrectly label “just standing there” is actually center forwards occupying the centerbacks. This is important because CBs find it easier to defend against players that are often far from them and are comfortably in their field of vision. They don’t want strikers close to them, because it means they have to watch him AND the ball.
This means that a center forward – or anyone that plays in that position – that drops deep a lot to “get involved” in play, is not occupying the centerbacks, and that is not good. Staying close to centerbacks limits their movements, and by doing that you’re doing more for your team than dropping deep, as a kind of false-nine. Yes, Pep Guardiola played a lot of games in the 2018/19 season without a “traditional No.9”, but what many failed to point out, or don’t realize, is that the absence of that striker in and of itself, is not what made them good.
Manchester City players are excellent at retaining the ball and much better at it than CFC players. This is incredibly important to how they play and how they create chances. There are few teams in world football, if any, that keep the ball as well as Manchester City. They also have a lot of shot creators and shot takers. Most teams need someone to pin their opposition centerbacks, as this helps in isolating fullbacks.
Two: Havertz’s ability to arrive in the box is drastically reduced when he’s the most advanced man. Centerbacks are trained to keep an eye on the most advanced players, as they would be the most likely to hurt their teams. There’s more attention on Havertz when he’s at center forward.
Other reasons include, but are not limited to, Havertz’s lack of ability to win enough ground duels to contend with opponents and his less than stellar big chance conversion rate. The former Brighton & Hove Albion boss would likely play ‘KH’ as an attacking midfielder in a three-centerback or two-centerback formation. Havertz can occupy the area directly around the top of the 18-yard box, otherwise known Zone 14. He can receive the ball there, hold it up and serve as a board for his teammates. He can also occasionally run in behind the opposition back line to latch onto some superb chances.