Still don't think he is the solution leading the line, we still need someone clinical imo, but he had an amazing game today and hope he builds on this.

He was excellent tonight, unfortunately we only see this a handful of times a year. 

The generational talent Santa Havertz who turns up once a season was class tonight, unfortunately Kai Havertz will be back at the weekend.

Like I said in the MoM thread. If we saw this kind of form 70% of time he wouldn’t get the amount of criticism he does. 

Would like to see his heat map. I wouldn't be surprised if it was very different from what we see in the league. 

41 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

Would like to see his heat map. I wouldn't be surprised if it was very different from what we see in the league. 

To be honest I believe the heat map would look very similar, but what he accomplished in those same spaces are light years apart.

Tonight there was no meek attempt at goal, they were all fierce and he had like 4 or 5 of them, passing was also slick and pretty accurate. Yet he never does that usually. He just showed a hunger he doesn't seem to have during regular matches until it gets to that 80th minute mark when he starts to be an annoying prick and fouls everyone out of desperation. Guess it's all about concentration and desire with him. 

Thought he had a good game but I wouldn't say it was excellent as people are making out. 

Dortmund are an average side, so if he can put up a similar performance Vs better players in teams like City, Madrid and Bayern then yeah I'll be more impressed. Also as the striker, false 9, we need goals from open play.

7 hours ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

Still don't think he is the solution leading the line, we still need someone clinical imo, but he had an amazing game today and hope he builds on this.

He is absolutely $hit if you ask him to lead the line. Even Fofana who is probably not Chelsea level is better than him. 

But if you play kai in a 2 or as a false 9 then you have a very good player. 

He does show up for those big games, whether he should play the 9 or 10 is a totally different discussion. I would rotate him this Saturday, don't think the CL Havertz will show up.

Credit where it is due to him for his performance last night. Really unfortunate with his shot that hit the post in the first half and spun back out.

Ice cool nerves with his penalty retake !

 

 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, erskblue said:

Credit where it is due to him for his performance last night. Really unfortunate with his shot that hit the post in the first half and spun back out.

Ice cool nerves with his penalty retake !

He did the right thing, I'm a big advocate of doing the same thing if you have to take a 2nd penalty, more often than not (atleast from my memory) the keeper assumes you will mix things up.

10 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Like I said in the MoM thread. If we saw this kind of form 70% of time he wouldn’t get the amount of criticism he does. 

He ofcourse deserves criticism but i also believe momentum is a big thing. The last time he had it we punctured it by signing Lukaku and shoehorning him in another role.

If (and that's ofcourse still a huge if) we get enough of these level performances between now and the end of this season i really hope we try and properly build on that this time instead of just looking at the top line.

His work rate is by far the most impressive quality he has. At times last night he played deeper behind Sterling and Felix (who does not really do much defensive work) and it is in this position he really shines. We have seen that before. One of his best games for us this year was City at home where he played the same role. 

Allowing him to play deeper helps the team enormously both defensively and in the transition phase. Like I said in the match thread I'd much rather keep Kai and buy a striker than paying upwards of £100 mill for Felix. Don't get me wrong, Felix is a great player but also a luxury one which I don't really think works that well in the PL. Ronaldo's last stint in United is somewhat comparable.

4 hours ago, KonaKai Blue said:

Thought he had a good game but I wouldn't say it was excellent as people are making out. 

Dortmund are an average side, so if he can put up a similar performance Vs better players in teams like City, Madrid and Bayern then yeah I'll be more impressed. Also as the striker, false 9, we need goals from open play.

He was excellent in a high pressure game. He showed exactly why he is so highly touted.

Why he can't replicate this form every game remains a mystery. 

I think Kai has been much better than this bitter forum is expressing. 

Will he be our main man for the next 5 years remains to be seen.

He’s definitely a big game player. 

He was immense last night - and another example of games he has won for us. Add it to the UCL final, the CWC final (or was it semi?) and a couple of epl games. 

He needs to be this fired up more regularly.

He shot twice from a bit of a distance as well. One hit the post, one went in beautifully in the top corner and one was hopeful and almost went out from sideline. Anyway why he doesn't seek for a shot more often baffles me. Potter should encourage him to shoot more.

Last night was the Havertz we need for the rest of the season please. He shows glimpses of that ability but too often he hasn't in the 3 seasons he's been here. 

So far he's been a big game player for us but sadly many times only a big game player. 

Just now, evissy said:

So far he's been a big game player for us but sadly many times only a big game player. 

At the moment he seems to get up for the CL games, which I'm not against of course, but that needs to be translated into domestic form too.  

4 hours ago, Argo said:

He ofcourse deserves criticism but i also believe momentum is a big thing. The last time he had it we punctured it by signing Lukaku and shoehorning him in another role.

If (and that's ofcourse still a huge if) we get enough of these level performances between now and the end of this season i really hope we try and properly build on that this time instead of just looking at the top line.

Inside forwards need to be close to him for him to succeed. 

Again, do not know where this puts both Mudryk and Madueke. 

People can roll their eyes at me being negative and yes we do need to see this more often, so I'm not going to get carried away. It was one game albeit a very big one against a poor Dortmund side. He got a lifeline from that Dortmund player in the box. I wouldn't say he's even a big game player. He has his moments yes but still doesn't have much influence that he should do and we expect. The problem is that he has been so consistently poor that an actual 7 out of 10 performance would look like a 10 out of 10 performance to others clinging onto hope. Different positions but relatively a 6 out of 10 performance from Hazard was equal to what Kai put up last night.  

Need to see more games with him taking over as the clear winner on the pitch before I change my thoughts.

One thing that should be factored into our analysis of havertz is that he clearly isn't a lead striker. Yes, he sometimes does job there, and yes, it was worth the experiment at first, but longer term we need to move on from that. 

It's painful seeing him playing back to goal and competing for high balls, and that's what a false nine ends up doing if his team isn't functioning / can't play out of a press. I think he was helped by often not being the furthest forward player last night. 

As I've said before, given his talent and workrate I'd love to see him become the player he sometimes suggests he could be. Hopefully he backs up last night with more of the same in the rest of the season. 

Edited March 8, 20233 yr by g3.7

Overkill on this thread today likely because of his game.

He had a good 10 mins at the end of the first half and another good 15 mins in the second half. Other than that he was largely anonymous throughout and fails to test the keeper again.