It’s not like these comments are beamed directly into Kai’s brain. Behind most of what you may deem as negativity, we still want him to thrive.
In comparison to xhaka, I would add that xhaka started as mainly as defensive mid. And he was a liability for most of it. It wasn’t until partey and zinchenko’s arrival that he was given a freer rein and proved somewhat effective. Xhaka also kept up his defensive work. Admittedly, I can’t say I’ve paid attention to that part of Kai’s game, but he doesn’t give you a lot to really applaud at the moment.
Vieira is younger and hasn’t been in country as long.
Can havertz be as good as odegaard? Sure. But it’s up to him to start putting in the contributions to back that up.
Don’t want to start a pile on, however, one of the biggest reserbations I had with Havertz is the question of whether he is a consistenlty good player, his time at Chelsea gives evidence to support the assertion that he is not and when you’re trying to beat the juggernaught that is City to the title you need someone to at least give you 7/10 every game. Time will tell but I’m far from convinced he is that kind of player.
Additionally, I thought that he is better with the ball at his feet. He seems to be mediocre in possession and passing particularly short incicsive passes and through the lines.
Such a strange decision and such a long shot to spend 65M on a weird forward and expect him to deliver on a position he never played before and not to spend that money on a more obvious option.
Doesn’t look good at all on Arteta. Seems he got overconfident and ahead of himself over this one.
Decision to bring in Havertz and play him as #8 reminds me of Guardiola overthinking things in CL, trying to look smarter than everyone else and in the end it bites your tail
Hope is that Odegaard was once looked at as someone not quite up to it
Issue is you can’t always see players come out the other side as a truly top player, the outlay on Havertz would have been enough to put me off both in terms of fee and wage. If we secured him at a cut price perhaps but there was always a potential bust factor with him.
Right now he isn’t playing well enough to command a starting spot and has already lost his place, Arteta and the coaching staff have their work cut out for them on this one. Its a signing thart really can’t fail considering he was the only attacking signing and they went balls to the wall to sign him
Hope we’re looking back at this thread by end of the season and joke about it
