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Kai Havertz arrived in England as a mystery wrapped in an enigma. His technical quality was obvious enough; but Chelsea simply did not know where to put him or how to use him. Arsenal sold Granit Xhaka last summer and responded by signing Declan Rice and Kai Havertz. Arteta pointed to Havertz’s versatility upon his signing and started him as a centre-forward for the Community Shield match against Manchester City in August.
‘Kai is a player of top quality. He has great versatility and is an intelligent player. He will bring a huge amount of extra strength to our midfield and variety to our play.’ While Arteta mentioned Havertz’s versatility, the words ‘he will bring a huge amount of extra strength to our midfield’ suggest he was seen principally as a midfielder who could play upfront when required.
Gabriel Jesus’ knee has expedited the need for Havertz to play upfront and, for now, the German has made that role his own having spent more of the first half of the season in the fabled ‘left eight’ position. When Arteta talks about a player’s versatility, he isn’t just talking about assigned positions, he is talking about players being flexible in game and moving intelligently according to where the spaces are.
In a recent interview with Sky Sports, Mikel Arteta pointed to this quality in Havertz when asked for the player’s best attribute. ‘His football intelligence, how he reads the spaces, the timing of how he uses those spaces, how he moves in relation to his opponent.’ That is the key to how Havertz has excelled as a centre-forward in the current Arsenal system.
While Chelsea failed to work out whether Havertz was an 8, a 9 or a 10 (a problem Arsenal seemed to have simply inherited in the opening weeks of the season), Arteta’s answer has been for him to fulfil all those roles depending on the phase of the game.
One of the most basic coaching principles for any team is that they want the pitch to be as long and wide as possible when…
Source link : https://arseblog.com/2024/05/the-spirit-in-the-kai/
Author : Tim Stillman
Publish date : 2024-05-02 12:00:17
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