I don’t think Kai had a bad game yesterday, actually I think it was probably his best performance in an Arsenal shirt so far. Still underwhelming when you compare it to everyone else’s contributions last night. I do remember 1-2 great runs he made though.
Even though I’m not a fan of his, I want him to succeed here and get to the level required as soon as possible.
Not worried. He’ll announce himself in the NLD.
Got a feeling his first goal for us will be a delicate chip or a lob. Dunno why
https://twitter.com/paddyarsenal/status/1704604478664560873?s=46&t=LlMNFvsPPy2ozwuX8FhQrA
He makes a great point and one I should also realise
Respectfully the bar for performance has to be set higher for Havertz as he’s been signed as a first team starter unlike Fabio V.
Do people expect more goals and assists from him than Granit Xhaka?
I wonder if that’s why there’s so much focus on him. He plays the same position as Granit but Granit was never seen as an attacking minded player.
Yes, Xhaka had a very productive year for his standards mind you, getting around 15 G/A I believe.
Long-term Havertz needs to be hitting even higher numbers.
Xhaka had a freak year in many ways though. He had 14 g+a on a total XG+xa of 10. He also started 36 matches.
Even a player like Gundogan who became a master of this role only once went over 12 league g+a.
In Havertz case, we would expect higher numbers if he plays as a striker at times. But if he is playing as a midfielder then 10-15 g+a is very good production as long as he contributes in other ways. So far he has been doing that. He’s not a brilliant passer but his defensive contribution is better than Xhaka’s.
Yes, I think that’s where the real disconnect is for me.
Starting with those games last season when Arteta was subbing Xhaka for Vieira it made me think Arteta wanted that left eight position to evolve into a more attacking position with a player who had the ability to routinely contribute double digit goals.
I had no questions about Havertz as an attacker, my concern was always whether he would be able to learn to do the defensive stuff, dropping in at left back (I was still under the impression we’d play with the same back four as last season and none of this Partey at RB bullshit).
But so far Havertz has done a pretty decent impression of Xhaka (minus the surprising goal tally) from last season. It’s competent but given the fact he signed from Chelsea, signed for a lot of money and on course to be one of those 007 memes before long, it’s underwhelming in that context. Part of that context are my own expectations which may be unfair and I’m not going to go out of my way to kill the guy but I’m not going to pretend that I wanted him here or that it’s somehow a good thing he’s 0 goals and 0 assists so far.
I think for me the barometer is whether I can look at signing like that and say, given who we let go and how much we paid are we clearly better right now. I think right now the answer is that we’re about the same but that the price tag could push it into “eh, maybe that money wasn’t a great idea” but it’s a really small sample size even if I don’t think Havertz has the same built in excuse of adjusting to a new league. I think I might have to adjust what we’re going to get from that left eight.
Exactly.
A player that cost 60m, who’s an experienced PL player at a top European club, Havertz should be doing what Rice has done and performing at the level required almost straight away.
The problem is, he’s never performed at that level since he came to the PL at Chelsea, so until he does, he should sit on the bench and not have excuses made for him.
Good thing we got him on the cheap after such a bad run of form over three years. 
I’m rewatching the PSV game again.
What Havertz does well is he can stride through midfield and has great awareness. If he can add some strength, which he’s severely lacking, and some shooting accuracy then we’re cooking with gas.
The best part of it is, we take our time rebuilding his confidence and still getting our points.
Didn’t he break through the PSV midfield at one point but instead of moving forward he curved his run and then passed. Think a more confident player, even maybe one who isn’t a speed guy, keeps going.
Someone mentioned it yesterday, what’s missing from Kai right now is that ‘bite’ to take that extra man, to go for the ball when it’s there for the taking.
An over the top ball was played into him and if he really tried, he could’ve pipped the keeper to that with a lob tbh, but he retracted/reacted so slow.
Properly pissed me off there. It was one on one and he decided to slow down the play.
Looked better at CF. half decent game.
If he was sitting on anything other than double zeros for goals and assists for the season, he definitely keeps going. Think he’s feeling the weight of it tbh.
Time to shake that off, then, and get stuck in.
Yeah luckily he’s got lots of positive support to help him do that 