Kai Havertz has been proving many people wrong since he joined Arsenal.
The Germany international spent three years at Chelsea. He scored the winner in the Champions League final there, but people still view his time at Stamford Bridge as unsuccessful.
When Mikel Arteta signed Havertz for Arsenal, there were a lot of question marks. Both of them came under immense criticism too in the first few months of the 2023/24 season.
However, Havertz has been sensational since the turn of 2024, and he has impressed a lot of people, including Gary Lineker. But, the pundit feels there’s one flaw in his game.
Gary Lineker praises Arsenal’s Kai Havertz but names his one major problem
Arteta’s decision to deploy Havertz up top has proved to be a masterstroke.
The German looks a lot more comfortable as a centre-forward than he does as a left-sided number eight, and his performances for Arsenal up front have been excellent more often than not.
Havertz scored eight goals and provided seven assists when used as a striker in the 2023/24 season. He has five goals and an assist in seven games this term as well.
Those are very impressive numbers, and Havertz’s recent performance against PSG in the Champions League impressed Alan Shearer.
The Newcastle United legend’s good pal Lineker was blown away too, but he has named the one problem he has noticed with Havertz playing up top.
Lineker said on the Rest is Football podcast: “I’ve liked a lot of his performances. The only thing is that he doesn’t, to me, look like the kind of striker that scores 25-30 goals a season.
“But, he has got a lot about him. He does hold the ball up really well, he has got a lovely touch, a deftness to the game and he’s probably learning the role a bit as well, he’s obviously quite late to it. But I was really impressed with him.
“The only thing is, I think he does miss quite a lot of chances, he’s probably not the best finisher. But, even that with the fact that he is in those positions more often could improve, definitely.”
Listen to ‘The Rest Is Football‘ wherever you get your podcasts.
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Havertz is on track to smash his own personal record
Lineker is right, finishing is definitely not Havertz’s strongest attribute.
The Germany international has missed five big chances in the Premier League already this season – only Dominic Solanke and Ollie Watkins have missed more.
That is an area of his game that he has to improve, but Havertz is on track to having his best-ever goalscoring season.
The Arsenal number 29 has scored five goals in nine appearances this term. If he keeps going at the same rate and plays the same number of games as last season, he will score around 30 goals.
That would make this his best goalscoring season – the most he has scored in a single campaign in his senior career is 20 goals. That was when he was at Bayer Leverkusen.
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