Why Gary Neville is completely wrong about under fire ‘languid’ Arsenal star

Add as preferred source on Google

Gary Neville recently made some disparaging comments about Arsenal star Kai Havertz.

Kai Havertz led the line for Arsenal against Liverpool on Sunday. 

Whilst the Gunners secured a vital 3-1 win against Jurgen Klopp’s league leaders, the German did not get on the scoresheet himself.

After that match, former Manchester United defender Gary Neville expressed his dismay with the way Havertz operated up front for the north London club. The pundit described the 24-year-old as being too “languid” in his approach to the game, and criticised his perceived lack of movement, saying, “there’s no change of pace into the box, there’s no change of direction, there’s no little darts.”

Mikel Arteta has not often used the former Chelsea man as a striker this season, despite that being where he played the vast majority of his football for the Blues. Instead, he has generally been deployed in a midfield role, which he took some time to adapt to. 

Prior to Neville’s latest comments, Havertz had already come in for plenty of criticism this season, as in the earlier stages of his Arsenal career he looked short on confidence and as though he was struggling to get to grips with Arteta’s tactical demands of him. 

Why Gary Neville was wrong about Kai Havertz

However, against Liverpool, when tasked with spearheading the attack, Havertz was tactically excellent, no matter what Neville may think.

That is not to say that his all-round game was perfect. Certainly, for the chance that ultimately led to Bukayo Saka’s goal, after Havertz’s initial effort was parried his way by Alisson Becker, the 42-cap Germany international ought to have found the back of the net himself. 

It is worth noting, though, that that opportunity only came about because Havertz executed a perfectly-timed run from deep, which caught out the Liverpool rearguard.

It must also be remembered that Arteta clearly did not instruct Havertz to play the centre-forward role in a traditional manner on Sunday. Rather, the £65 million man was tasked with playing as a false-nine, meaning he had to drop deep, drawing the Liverpool centre-backs out and therefore creating space for the likes of Saka and Gabriel Martinelli to exploit. Both of the Arsenal wide men ended up on the scoresheet.

In this regard, Havertz pulled off the job expertly. Arsenal cut through the Liverpool defence numerous times in this match, and the role Havertz played in pulling them out of position and creating confusion played a huge part in that.

The downside to him playing as a false-nine meant that he was not always able to recover the ground he gave up in time to get into the box and make the kind of movements that Neville was looking for.

There were occasions when Havertz’s movement in the box could have been sharper or less predictable, but ultimately, Neville’s criticisms miss the point of what was being asked of the player in the first place.