Arsenal has liberated Kai Havertz, and this might affect their transfer business.
When it comes to matters off the pitch, Mikel Arteta cannot be described as a particularly flexible manager. Just ask Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Matteo Guendouzi, two players from Arsenal’s recent past who were banned from the club for failing to abide by Arteta’s strict disciplinary rules.
On the pitch, however, Arteta is far more flexible than many supporters would think. “I don’t assert my authority by being dictatorial,” he once said, and there are plenty of examples of the Arsenal manager willing to redraw his plans and move in a completely different direction than he originally intended.
No better exemplified this season than in his management of Kai Havertz, who was signed for one purpose but now serves another. The former Chelsea man’s reshuffle has transformed Havertz, reinvigorated Arsenal’s Premier League title push and potentially even changed the club’s plans to improve the squad this summer.
Original plan: midfielder Havertz
When Arsenal made their £65million move for Havertz in the summer, they did so with a specific plan in mind. Arteta intended to play him in the position previously occupied by the departing Granit Xhaka, to the left of his back three. Havertz was listed as a midfielder on the club website and Arteta was clear when he said: “Kai will bring a huge amount of extra strength to our midfield.”
In theory, the idea was for Havertz to play as a midfielder who could use his running power, technical skills, and height to regularly contribute goals and assists in the final third. On the club’s pre-season tour, when Havertz scored twice in three games in the United States, it was evident that Arteta wanted him to attack the box from a midfield position. Both of his goals hit the back post.
But in the Premier League, it quickly became clear that something was not working. Havertz’s poor form has been one of the defining themes of the first half of this season, with many Arsenal fans showing their displeasure with the German in these early games. In September, Arteta pleaded with the club’s supporters: “Give him love.”
Until Christmas, there were fleeting moments of promise from Havertz, who gradually grew in confidence but still didn’t impact games as expected. On a special occasion, the original plan came to fruition. His come-from-behind winner at Brentford in November was a perfect example of the movement Arsenal have created in pre-season.
Similarly, against Lens and Luton in December, Havertz scored from midfield after running over center-forward Gabriel Jesus and into the penalty area.
Overall, though, many of Havertz’s performances have remained underwhelming. In the league games in which he started as a midfielder before the turn of the year, Havertz scored just three goals and provided zero assists. In 13 starts in midfield in 2023, he created just 15 chances. For all Arteta’s praise for Havertz, it was clear that his master plan was not going as expected.
Havertz unlocked: new position, new player
Arsenal played Liverpool twice in the space of a few weeks, from January to February, and in both of those games, Havertz was deployed as a center-forward. On both occasions, he was asked to match up with Martin Odegaard, with both players taking turns to drop into midfield or move up. Jurgen Klopp, the manager of Liverpool, called them “double 10s”.
In many ways, Arsenal’s shape came closer to a 4-4-2, especially when they didn’t have the ball. For Havertz, it was a move that effectively changed the course of his Arsenal career. Suddenly, the 24-year-old had more freedom on the court and more space to hit. Rather than having to move in relation to the attacking players, the entire front line now moved in relation to him.
Forward Havertz is, by most standards, a completely different player than midfielder Havertz. He has started nine league games as a forward this season, scoring seven goals at 5.51 goals expected. As a midfielder, he scored four goals for the 4.93 goals expected. As a striker, Havertz is often lethal. As a midfielder, he is often wasteful.
When playing in this striking position, which often involves dropping into deeper positions before exploding up the field, Havertz was also significantly more creative. As a midfielder this season, he has recorded zero assists and created 1.2 chances per game. As a striker? Now it’s five assists (0.55 per start) and 1.77 chances created per game.
Sunday’s win at Tottenham Hotspur was perhaps his best performance to date. He held the ball like a target, dropped into midfield like a ‘false nine’, scored with a high header, and raked a long-range pass to set up a goal for Bukayo Saka that would make any creative midfielder in the league proud. It was an absolutely stunning performance.
Impact on Odegaard
For most of last season Odegaard, Arsenal’s captain, was tasked with leading Arsenal’s defensive press from the front. With his tireless running, he hunted down the opponent’s central defenders and tried to prevent them from playing the ball from behind. Xhaka, on the other side of a midfield three, would generally sit deeper.
In many games in the first half of the season, Havertz’s position in midfield led to a change in Odegaard’s role. It was often Havertz who pushed high, next to a striker (usually Eddie Nketiah or Gabriel Jesus), which meant Odegaard had to be more restrained and sit deeper.
By moving Havertz into a more attacking starting position, Arteta freed up Odegaard. A feature of Arsenal’s recent games has been the sight of Odegaard and Havertz running for the ball together in the final third of the pitch. Few players in the league are as effective as Odegaard at reading these situations and closing down defenders.
There is a clear difference for Odegaard when Havertz is in midfield or in attack. In games in which Havertz started in midfield, Odegaard won possession in the final third an average of 0.8 times per game. When Havertz started in attack, that number jumped up to 1.4 times per game. In other words, Odegaard is almost twice as likely to win the ball back high up the pitch when Havertz starts as a striker.
The consequence of this is that Odegaard is also more likely to touch the ball in the opposition’s penalty area when Havertz starts in attack. In those nine games, Odegaard averaged 5.5 touches per game in the opposition’s penalty area, compared to 4.5 touches when Havertz plays in midfield.
When Odegaard and Havertz combined to score against Luton, in Arsenal’s 2-0 win in April, the Arsenal captain immediately turned to Havertz to celebrate. Their connection on and off the field grows stronger.
Asked last month about Havertz’s change to Arteta’s position, he said: “Players often decide where to play. We may have certain ideas, but then you see certain relationships and certain things flow. And when it’s flowing, you’ve got to let it go, I think Kai is flowing right now and he’s feeling really good there. The rest of the team feels comfortable with him there and things happen naturally.”
Impact on Arsenal transfers
For some time now, key figures at Arsenal have known that they needed to add at least one more high-quality attacking player to their forward line. A new striker has appeared on their wishlist, with Telegraph Sport reporting in January that Bologna’s Joshua Zirkzee was among the players they were studying.
Such has been Havertz’s form as a striker, although it is now entirely possible that Arsenal will instead opt to sign a new winger rather than a center-forward. Sources suggest the club is prepared to make that pivot depending on which targets become available this summer.
Havertz has done so well in attack that there are now even doubts over the future of Gabriel Jesus, who until recently was the undisputed first choice number 9.
The Brazilian’s fitness issues haven’t helped his cause, but it seems clear, especially after Havertz’s performance against Spurs last weekend, that the former Chelsea player is the man to have in the center-forward position at the moment. The knock-on effect for Arsenal’s other strikers and their summer business could be significant.
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