Arsenal have a effective current custom of gamers who polarise supporters. Theo Walcott, Olivier Giroud, Mesut Özil, Aaron Ramsey, Alex Oxlade Chamberlain. Because the Gunners have travelled on an upward trajectory for the final couple of seasons, it seems like there have been fewer of these gamers with a largely very competent switch technique.
Nevertheless, I very a lot have the sensation that Kai Havertz goes to be a participant that divides opinion. Although most would concede he didn’t stay as much as his potential at Chelsea there may be nonetheless quite a lot of variance in how individuals seen his degree of expertise and his degree of culpability for his inconsistency in West London. A few of these doubts may have adopted him to the north of the River Thames.
Many people seen him as a straight swap for Granit Xhaka within the midfield however I believe the truth will probably be extra advanced than that. Arteta isn’t a lot ripping up final season’s template as he’s making an attempt to tailor it, to coax it into new fangled angles. Havertz performed as an eight and a 9 throughout pre-season however, I believe, the reality is that he’s going to do some eighting, some nineing and a few tenning in an Arsenal shirt, typically in the identical sport.
Towards Nottingham Forest on Saturday, he actually did all these issues. He additionally swapped positions with Gabriel Martinelli every now and then, showing on the left touchline, permitting Martinelli to float inside. That is the type of performance that Xhaka, for all his toil, doesn’t actually provide you with. In numerous phases of play, Havertz popped up somewhere else, although he was requested to do largely the identical issues, simply in several elements of the pitch as the sport progressed.
Havertz out large left on this pic, occurred so much in that half. Way more rotation on the left between him and Martinelli (it did occur when Xhaka was right here however not as typically as I’ve seen on this half). One other factor to search for this season. pic.twitter.com/TBGHpUCpjp
— Tim Stillman (@Stillmanator) August 12, 2023
The obvious side of Arteta’s line-up on Saturday was that he wished to squeeze an additional midfielder into the workforce in opposition to an opponent who had been prone to sit again and take in strain. So Gabriel got here out of the defence and Thomas Partey began nominally as a right-back however actually spent a lot of his time in midfield. It meant that Arteta might cram Partey, Rice, Havertz and Nketiah into his eleven in opposition to a conservative opponent.
I believe the opposite aspect of Arteta’s choice was protecting Forest below strain. He picked the gamers most definitely to win the ball again excessive up the pitch and we noticed the influence of that within the opening half-hour as Forest had been suffocated by the house facet’s strain. As for Havertz, these anticipating Havertz to do the identical issues and stand in the identical locations as Granit Xhaka are going to search out him tough to parse.
Let’s first have a look at Havertz’s heatmap from the sport courtesy of WhoScored (remembering that he spent the final 17 minutes plus stoppage time at centre-forward, extra on which anon). Whereas essentially the most outstanding ‘blob’ is certainly in left central-midfield (that was his principal place in spite of everything), we are able to see he was fairly thinly unfold across the pitch.
Now let’s have a look at the heatmaps of his midfield companions, firstly Martin Odegaard. We will see his ‘blob’ is way extra prominent- not least as a result of he had extra touches- however the space he was being requested to function in was much more outlined.
And it’s a lot the identical with Declan Rice (once more, he was given a much more ‘engaged’ on the ball position and had much more touches). There’s a extra particular hall that Rice operated in through the sport and a few of it overlaps with Havertz’s left eight space with Partey inverting from the suitable.
Principally, Havertz wasn’t actually part of Arsenal’s build-up within the sport, his was a largely off-ball position, which is in keeping with what Granit Xhaka was requested to do (I wrote about how his on-ball involvement dipped enormously when he was requested to tackle the left eight position right here). Nevertheless, Xhaka very a lot had a strip of the pitch, an alleyway in that left channel. Havertz was requested to do one thing a little bit totally different. Let’s have a look at some examples.
Rotation of positionsEffectively Arsenal performed with a type of field midfield with Partey the suitable six and Odegaard the suitable eight and Rice the left six and Havertz the left eight. Take a look at this instance right here.
Rice takes the ball on the base of the midfield with Partey at right-back, which is roughly what you’d anticipate.
As Rice lays the ball off, he shuffles over to the left in order that Thomas Partey can transfer into proper central midfield.
As Rice shuffles to the left, we see him sign to Havertz to take up a extra central position forward of him beside Eddie Nketiah.
Examine the form right here to the primary display screen shot within the sequence, in 9 seconds, the form of the Arsenal midfield has modified in possession as they’ve progressed the ball. There have been numerous barely totally different examples of this the place Havertz took up totally different positions.
Right here we see Havertz (purple) and Nketiah (yellow) swapping positions.
Or right here, we are able to see that Havertz has seen some house in the suitable half house and he has made a run into that channel. Once more, this isn’t the kind of run we noticed from Xhaka final season.
When Rice shifted to the left, Havertz often drifted into extra central pockets, as we see right here (we see Rice pointing once more right here).
The transfer ends with him taking part in a superb ball across the nook for the onrushing Rice which, sadly, quantities to nothing.
Or right here, as Arsenal construct with Partey on the base of midfield and Ben White out at right-back, Havertz is to the suitable, Odegaard central and Rice to the left.
Or on this instance, Martinelli has drifted into the assist striker place, so Havertz has stuffed his place on the left wing.
A lot the identical occurs right here. This time Martinelli (black) makes a run in the direction of the suitable channel, Eddie (yellow) stays central and Havertz (purple) strikes to the left. There have been a whole lot of those rotations through the sport and Havertz was variously requested to be a left eight, a proper eight, a left winger or a extra central ten.
Penalty space runsWe additionally noticed how a lot Arteta needs to reap the benefits of his bodily presence within the penalty space to behave like a striker. Almost each single time the ball was in a crossing place on the suitable hand facet, Havertz was within the space, typically ghosting in the direction of the again submit (he scored a aim in opposition to Barcelona in pre-season with a again submit effort). Simply have a look at what number of instances it occurred within the first half alone.
For Nketiah’s aim, Martinelli works his magic down the left and we once more see Havertz lurking on the again submit.
Arsenal used his bodily presence in different methods too. Alas, not one of the digital camera angles on the tv footage illustrate this, so take my phrase for it from my vantage level within the higher tier- for every aim kick, or any time Ramsdale had the ball at his toes, Nketiah and Havertz switched positions. This was simply in case Ramsdale wanted to play lengthy, the place Havertz’s means within the air might be utilised.
This was a Matt Turner aim kick and Havertz is positioned proper into the melee to compete for the aerial ball. The German spent the final 17 minutes of the sport plus harm time as a de facto centre-forward when Nketiah was changed by Trossard however, in fact, Trossard and Havertz constantly swapped roles.
Nevertheless, having Havertz because the centre-forward, particularly within the closing throes of a sport that’s stretched, permits Arsenal to discover…
The up ‘n’ below.
It gave Arsenal this presentable state of affairs as Forest chased an equaliser. Sadly, Havertz was blowing out of his arse so laborious at this level that he might have performed the solo from ‘Baker Avenue’ along with his bum cheeks, so the possibility didn’t materialise.
What is evident, already, I believe is that Kai Havertz is just not being requested to play the position Granit Xhaka was and we’re all going to should retrain our eyes and minds a little bit. Chelsea couldn’t appear to work out whether or not Havertz was an eight, a ten or a 9. It looks as if Arteta believes that he’s all of these issues, typically within the house of some minutes.
Observe me on Twitter @Stillmanator
