Management is happy, coaches are happy, players are happy… somehow the outsiders and amateurs are not; and if he could not score/assist enough then he is a failure.
Well, we can say whatever we want, Kai is Arteta’s adopted child, secret child… whatever.
I even think the club was waiting him to score a goal to post this, pretty much an agenda.
I can tell is, at least the club is happy of what he is doing.
Happiness of the players around him is genuine.
If he is really doing no shit like the internet fans said… I think the players would not care or had a totally different gesture on him.
In the end, his teammates know what instructions Arteta was giving him and to the team, not the internet fans.
It’ll be worth it when we start seeing more output like we saw last weekend. I hope this is a complete turning point for Havertz but we massively overpaid to begin with and him being on insane money isn’t going to make a potential exit any easier if things clearly aren’t working. That means he’s here for the duration unless Edu smashes that big red CANCEL CONTRACT button on his desk.
I suppose you could say whatever goal contributions Xhaka would have reasonably ended up with (which obviously none or us can prove) you’d hope Havertz would have the advantage there.
But I suppose the forgotten element of this discussion is the fluidity of the team with a Xhaka type vs a Havertz type and the impact of Partey’s injuries which is a huge loss for the team also.
The teams fluidity is arguably more important overall because sooner or later than 1-0 will the other night will go the other way. At least that’s just my opinion anyway.
The longer the season goes on the more I think about how we miss Partey’s passing ability in midfield.
Rice is great and, regrettably, Jorginho has also been very good when required especially in the City match, but I just wonder how much we’re missing that Partey slid pass to someone like Odegaard or Zinchenko or White. If the ball gets punched through to the right and then swung back to the left, we’d have Havertz crashing in at that back post.
Ornstein was milking this dude on Atletic podcast. I am glad Havertz scored the winner. It would do a massive good to his confidence but the whole “oh he just needed time to settle into Arteta’s working” doesn’t explain why he has been such a timid player.
Think Havertz should get the benefit of doubt for now given he’s playing in a new position for him(midfield) and that too in a new team.
Personally, I’m still neutral about him, though I think he’ll come good for us and become a central figure in our team sooner or later.
