Chelsea aren’t playing to Kai Havertz’s strengths, journalist Paul Brown has told GIVEMESPORT.
The forward has struggled for the majority of the season, and Brown thinks Frank Lampard is going to have to do some tweaking if he wants to get the best out of him before the campaign ends.
Chelsea news — Kai Havertz
Havertz was recently dropped for Chelsea’s 2-0 defeat in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final tie against Real Madrid.
“Well I think the balance of the team feels for me that we have to match the Real Madrid midfield, who have got three world-class players in there,” Lampard told BT Sport (via Metro) when asked about his decision to leave the 23-year-old out before the game.
“So I felt that we’re strong in that area of the pitch. Going with two up front with Raheem [Sterling] and João [Felix], they both have great counter-attacking abilities, at speed, can handle the ball, can get us up the pitch.”
“So it wasn’t an easy choice for me, and it’s absolutely a game where the output is going to be big — on and off the ball — so there will be changes in-game, we’ll have to.”
What has Paul Brown said about Kai Havertz and Chelsea?
Brown doubts Havertz will ever be the answer to Chelsea’s striker problem.
Speaking to GIVEMESPORT, the journalist said: “It just doesn’t feel like Chelsea are set up to play to his strengths at the moment, and I think maybe the manager needs to tweak the system a little bit. Havertz, to me, still feels like a 10, but Chelsea don’t have a nine really in the squad and that is the problem.
“I just don’t think Havertz is a ruthless goalscorer who’s going to be scoring you 20, 30 goals every season on a regular basis. That’s what Chelsea miss.”
Do Chelsea need to find another position for Kai Havertz?
Probably. The German, who earns £150,000 a week at Stamford Bridge, according to Spotrac, just doesn’t score enough goals to lead the line by himself.
As per Transfermarkt, Havertz has registered just nine times in 40 appearances this season, with the majority of those outings coming up front.
When you consider that, for this Chelsea team to truly flourish, Havertz may have to make way for a more prolific centre-forward. In terms of where the former Bayer Leverkusen man, who cost the Blues around £75m (via Sky Sports), could be moved to, that’d be interesting to see.
A lot of the time, the Blues play without a number 10, while you’d have to question if Havertz actually has the creativity needed to successfully fulfill the role over the course of an entire season.
