Is Kai Havertz really a problem for Arsenal?
We will be analyzing all actions or plays that involved Kai Havertz vs Fulham for the first 10 minutes. We aim to eradicate all instances of bias and use pure data and analysis to see what went wrong.
Havertz has been stated as the problem in this Arsenal team, but Arteta seems to be persistent with him. What is the reason behind Arteta's trust in Kai?
The commentator towards the 30-minute mark said “Kai Havertz has been nowhere to be seen” but this article aims to identify Kai’s efforts and actions that are not quantifiable by traditional metrics.
02:24 Kai gets the ball:
He could have played Odegard and opened up the play but chose for a through ball perfectly timed to Martinelli.
Gabi uses his pace and creates a very good position for himself to cross:
But we see a 4 v 2 situation inside the box. Saka is the only arsenal player in the box, this takes us back to the previous clip where Havertz first received the ball from Trossard, this shows a clear issue with tactical awareness. Trossard should have continued his run inside given his role as a CF, and Havertz should have stayed in his #8, deeper role where we can see him. This could have led to a very good chance, but Martinelli just ran out of space.
Fulham deserves credit here for blocking all passing options for Martinelli who dashed across the Fulham player but was restricted for passing options.
In this final picture again, you can spot Havertz occupying the similar position to Odegard on the left hand side, an area where we saw Xhaka a lot last season.
Right after that during the next attack we can see Havertz playing furthest out, leading the line, steching the play:
During this attack we can again highlight Kai’s space awareness attribute:
From being completely surrounded by Fulham players, he stretches the line by making a run forward, and opens up space for himself, as we can see in the next clip:
This is then followed by a perfect switch by Odegard to Martinelli which puts him in a great position, Fulham’s backline was caught sleeping by the width held by Martinelli, and the defense line focused on Kai’s run:
The Havertz’s run inside forced the back 2 of Fulham to mark him, completely taken by surprise by Martinelli’s run from the left flank. Both defenders were marking Kai:
Now this is where Martinelli showcased bad decision making:
He had Havertz and Trossard making a run, and could have squared them, but instead went for a shot which led to another wasted chance withing 4 minutes of the game.
Martinelli also had Saka and Odegard arriving late in the box unattended, but he chose for a wasteful shot, that went very wide.
Next, we see the non-striker venom in Havertz’s game, which can lead to frustrations:
Here Rice gets the ball, and instead of making a run towards the goal, Havertz makes a run inside towards Rice and Odegard, a position already clustered with Arsenal and Fulham players. A shake of the hand for a through ball could have easily led to an open space for Havertz given Rice’s body position allowed such pass, but Havertz’s run inside did not allow this.
The main issue with this play is that we can clearly see Havertz has midfielder instincts and is pulled towards the ball to receive it instead of opening up.
Now in any other case this could have been find but given that Odegard is already present in that position makes Havertz’s run completely useless.
Next we again see Havertz’s forcing the center back to mark him, allowing space for Martinelli:
Another smart run that led to Fulham’s Centre backs follow him, and leave Martinelli unmarked, followed by a perfectly pinged ball by White to Martinelli:
A good idea on the cross, but too much weight by Martinelli and ball runs out of the field:
We again see gabi unmarked on the wing, with White’s perfect pass as Havertz keeps Tete (the defender) busy:
Which eventually leads to Havertz in a good crossing position, followed by an average ping in, easily cleared:
Here we can see Saka totally unmarked again, and we have seen multiple instances of arsenal overloading the central positions allowing immense space to Martinelli and Saka on the wings.
Arsenal should look to take advantage of this, as they build up to create space for their top 2 finishers but are unable to get the ball to them. on this instance Havertz’s should have looked to play Saka wide, but clipped in the ball centrally to Trossard who was up against the tall defenders of Fulham.
This is followed by an almost open goal miss by Havertz as Saka clicked the ball in, we saw similar lack of finishing against city during the community shield:
So, in conclusion we can clearly see that Havertz is not the finished product that Arsenal wanted. But has the tactical awareness that allows Arteta to create overloads centrally allowing wingers the space to exploit. Even during the match against Manchester United, Martinelli accumulated a lot of crosses, but most were wasteful.
Hence Arsenal needs to work on the effectiveness on their tactics. And find out ways to actually reap the fruit of the chances they create. Similarly Havertz needs to focus on his finishing and final balls, if he wants to create a long term impace on this Arsenal team.
But this article clearly shows why Arteta wants Havertz to play in the position he is playing, and how he plans to use his tactical awareness to instill his style of play.
