Kai Havertz has been announced officially as a Chelsea Player for £61million potentially rising to £71million with performance-related add-ons.
The German international signed a five-year deal at the West London Club with astronomical wages around £280,000/weekly. It is expected Kai Havertz will make his debut at the Amex stadium against Brighton on the 12th of September 2020.
During the 2019/20 campaign, Kai Havertz contributed in 18 goals, scoring 12 and assisting 6, therefore, giving Lampard greater scope for dynamic attacking tactics with additional versatility and quality. The German wonder-kid will join Werner, Ziyech, Hudson Odoi, Tammy Abraham and Christian Pulisic from last season. Thus, Lampard will have an incredible roster to pick and choose from at his disposal.
But how can Kai Havertz fit into Frank Lampard’s tactics?
As a Number 10
Kai Havertz is very tactically versatile. He’s played in a plethora of positions under Peter Bosz at Bayer Leverkusen throughout his career. Havertz predominantly played as number 10, and was very comfortable doing so due to his excellent passing ability and goal scoring ability. Havertz Completed 1375 passes and averaged around 87% success rate. However, Chelsea are a stronger team with a lot more quality so expect that number to rise over the season. Given that Ziyech will most likely be operating wide, and Pulisic as an inside forward, Havertz will occupy central areas to split the defense as well as being another attacking component to help Werner or Abraham moving Forward.
The number 10 position has been important for Frank Lampard when he used the 4-2-3-1 formation. With Havertz, the most exciting young attacking midfielder, Lampard has quality and versatility combined into one player.
As a number 9 in a 4-2-3-1
The Premier League clubs had to deal with a total of 764 injuries last season, the highest number in eight years. The Premier League is a very physical league and since the season is shorter, teams will have more condensed Schedules. Hence, injuries will occur. Havertz looks physically ready to play in the Premier League in a range of positions.
Kai Havertz showed at Leverkusen that he could be reliable as a number 9 on multiple occasions. With the forward and midfield options all but sorted for Lampard, his squad will create plenty of chances for Havertz to score goals. Ziyech can switch positions with Mount and act as a attacking midfielder while Mount can drift wide to create space for breaking defensive line. Addionally, Kai Havertz is 6ft2 which will enable him to act as a quasi target man.
Kai Havertz can also play as a false 9 to hold-up play. This allow Mason Mount to run into the box which could prove to be extremely productive. Havertz is an quality playmaker and is very effective at squeezing the ball into small spaces allowing those ahead of him to get on the score sheet. The likelyhood is he will play as an attcking 8 alongside Mount or as a number 10 with Kovacic and Kante behind him. Regardless of where he plays, Havertz will be an effective and integral part of the squad going forward. A future world beater, thats for sure.
Written by Chehade (@mbchehade)
Edited by Jai Mcintosh