Donkai Havertz | Arsenal Watch

[GoonerBear]

Is, was and never will be a striker. The second he was bought to play that role, even as a wannabe Firmino, I knew Arteta was bonkers.

He wasn't bought to be a striker, he was bought to play as an attacking midfielder, he was meant to be a 'box crasher' from the left 8 position, but a mixture of him being shite and the striker being shite meant he got moved up front where he found some form.

I think Arteta thought he can be a more attacking replacement of Xhaka, offering more of a goal threat, and try and rediscover some of his Leverkusen form, but he looks a different player from those days, lost a bit of skill and dynamism that could take him away from the opposing player, but the midfield just doesn't function as well with him in it.

Where do you fit him in then? Because he sure as hell can't be an effective midfielder. Almost every single one of his best games in 5 seasons in England have been up front. He's an inconsistent finisher, that's 100% obvious but he's still got 15 goals in 34 games. He's averaging roughly 1 in 2 in every comp Arsenal have played in this season. It's shaping up to be by far the most productive season of his entire career.

So yes, he's had a couple of high profile misses in a couple of big games recently, but most teams would be happy with that kind of production from their striker. They can and probably should look for a better striker in the summer, but the biggest problem with Arsenal's attack isn't Havertz imo. He's the least of their problems. It's their wide forwards Trossard and Martinelli, and surprisingly, Odegaard has been very very bad since his return from injury, bar a game or two initially.

He effectively should be a £65M, £280k a week squad player to be honest.

 

[jakko]

He wasn't bought to be a striker, he was bought to play as an attacking midfielder, he was meant to be a 'box crasher' from the left 8 position, but a mixture of him being shite and the striker being shite meant he got moved up front where he found some form.

I think Arteta thought he can be a more attacking replacement of Xhaka, offering more of a goal threat, and try and rediscover some of his Leverkusen form, but he looks a different player from those days, lost a bit of skill and dynamism that could take him away from the opposing player, but the midfield just doesn't function as well with him in it.



He effectively should be a £65M, £280k a week squad player to be honest.

Its almost like he's crap in every postion you play him but everyone will say he's not a striker when he doesn't really have a postion because he has a limited skillset.

 

[GoonerBear]

Its almost like he's crap in every postion you play him but everyone will say he's not a striker when he doesn't really have a postion because he has a limited skillset.

I'm hoping in the next season or 2 we are going to look back on this era with guys like Trossard, Havertz and Nketiah as forwards the same way we look back at the era of Mustafi, Holding, Luiz and Koscielny in defence with a wry smile and say no wonder we hardly won anything when that's the quality in a major department in your team.

 

[Rooney in Paris]

I'm hoping in the next season or 2 we are going to look back on this era with guys like Trossard, Havertz and Nketiah as forwards the same way we look back at the era of Mustafi, Holding, Luiz and Koscielny in defence with a wry smile and say no wonder we hardly won anything when that's the quality in a major department in your team.

I think football watchers will look back at this era in football and remember the paucity of top level forwards in general.

 

[romufc]

Think he's been doing okay. Not very far off from last seasons form which saw us miss the title by 2 points. The team as a whole hasn't been doing well though, with Odegaard, Martinelli, Trossard the bigger culprits. But its easy to shit on Havertz as he's the ex Chelsea man, and if you have a go at him, you can also take down Arteta who was the one to bring him in and persist with him. So easy target for fans and rivals alike.

This is it. The Arsenal fan base clearly have a massive agenda against Havertz. When you look at the numbers and performances, he is there for the chances, making things happen whilst the others are getting away with piss poor performances because 90% of the fan base wants to focus on Havertz.

 

[GoonerBear]

I think football watchers will look back at this era in football and remember the paucity of top level forwards in general.

Your not lying. Teams used to fork out big money on players that had scored 20+ goals over multiple seasons, now they are forking out £60M+ now on players that have barely scored 20 goals over the course of their career in the hope that they might eventually hit 20 goals a season.