Alan Shearer calls out key ‘culprit’ for Arsenal struggles in new ‘dithering’ rant

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Arsenal have struggled in front of goal all season, and Sunday’s defeat to Liverpool was a particularly poor display of finishing.

Arsenal dominated proceedings but could not finish even one of several good opportunities to score, and Kai Havertz, who started upfront, missed a number of big chances despite impressing in a few other aspects of his centre-forward play.

Mikel Arteta has been told by many to sign a striker, with Arsenal scoring just once in their last three games, with all three ending in defeat, and their season is in serious danger of unravelling quickly.

Premier League record goalscorer Alan Shearer certainly knows how to score goals, and he has now slammed Arsenal’s front line for the way they attacked the Liverpool goal on Sunday.

Alan Shearer slams Kai Havertz and Arsenal attackers

Writing in The Athletic, Shearer claimed that Arsenal’s attackers took too long on the ball against Liverpool when they should have been shooting first time, and called out Havertz for his inability to convert his chances.

“If Arsenal had hit first-time shots instead of taking those extra touches, they would have won comfortably because Jurgen Klopp’s team were there for the taking in the first half,” he claimed.

“They gave up so many chances, but Arsenal’s dithering gave their defenders and goalkeeper, expert players in their own right, time to recover and set themselves.

With Liverpool missing Virgil van Dijk, Shearer has now emphasised how big a failure Arsenal not scoring was.

“Arsenal — and Havertz in particular, who was the major culprit — lived to regret it. Most impressive from Liverpool’s perspective, in a match where they were missing Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah, their two best players, was how they hung in, changed things around and then transformed themselves into a different team, but they shouldn’t have been offered that lifeline. Arsenal should have been out of sight.

Does Kai Havertz lack natural goalscoring instincts?

Havertz has been a problem in midfield since his arrival from Chelsea, with his lack of ball progression proving problematic, but upfront, his lack of conviction when shooting has also been called out by Shearer.

“Twice, Havertz wanted an extra touch instead of hitting it first time. Martin Odegaard did something similar when he chose to pass instead of shoot. Hit it, man; just hit it!” Shearer fumed.

Havertz scored just seven goals in 29 league games as a centre-forward for Chelsea last season, and overall has hardly taken any shots for Arsenal. When he finds himself in attacking positions, his tendency to take extra touches has killed the momentum going forward, and he was particularly frustrating in this aspect against Liverpool.

All of Arsenal’s attackers are struggling right now, and if Havertz is to make the centre-forward spot his own, he will need to start shooting quicker and more often, but given his lack of goals in the past, this may be easier said than done.