Havertz’s performance today was up there with one of the worst performances I’ve seen. He literally didn’t do anything right. He gave away silly fouls, was too passive in the penalty box, was getting in other people’s way and was misplacing 5 yard passes. He never turned when receiving the ball and kept trying to play it backwards. Honestly, we don’t have time to wait for him to come good. This is a big season for us and there’s a lot of pressure. We need players who are ready and require minimal adaptation. If we start him against Man Utd next week, I don’t think we win the game.
Feel a bit sorry for Arteta that he finally builds almost his dream squad but both his inverted full backs start the season crocked. Once Zinch is actually fit it might be slightly fairer to judge what he's going to do. Though relying on Zinch to be fit is a big gamble. Another inverted full back would be nice.
Lately, it seems all teams are all too eager to throw money away. It is as though there is now a league for senseless spending. It really baffles me when players are brought in without clear indication of how they will make the team better. This is the exact problem with the midfield at United. Too many players falling over themselves not knowing where they fit in. Chelsea did very well getting large sums from Arsenal and United this season.
Honesty think you are being too harsh. He wasn’t good today for sure. Thought he was ok in the first 2 games. I am going to give him time to settle before getting too down on the player. I heard he was being booed by a section our own fans today. That’s not going to help.
I don't want to completely write him off, but based on his time in England and his average performances so far, I just don't see how it's going to work. For £65m, we need him to hit the ground running - being just OK or below average isn't going to cut it when we are under huge pressure to deliver this season. We don't have time for passengers and we don't have time for players to have the perfect conditions to play their best football. We need players to do the business right now. I promise you, if we had played: Ramsdale, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Kiwior; Partey, Rice, Odegaard; Martinelli, Nketiah, Saka That would have give us the optimal chance of winning the game. I think we win the game easily with that team actually. All the tinkering and trying to be too unpredictable for the opponents is confusing our players IMO. But also, Havertz being in the side doesn't maximise our chances of winning. He's done nothing to prove why he deserves to be starting.
Oh come on. In florida and only just caught up with highlights. Bonus of USA is that YouTube gives you 14 minute extended NBC game highlights. I read the live text and it sounded like a classic sour performance of little creation but we could have won that 6-1 on another day. Martinelli, Saka and Odegaard would have had two each on another day. Not concerned now I've watched that. The big bonus is that we're objectively NOT playing anywhere near our best but that lower level is far better than our lower level last year and we have 7pts from 3 less than great performances without a true inverted full back. Onwards. PS. Also don't understand why Ben White isn't being trusted with being the inverted full back.
Creating chances wasn't the issue, we created plenty. The issue was our lack of defensive stability and how easily Fulham were able to break through our structure. They countered on us too many times. The entire first half was ridiculous at how frantic a pace it was played at, we had no control or security at all. We were misplacing a lot of simple passes and giving the ball away under zero pressure. Second half, when he bought on Zinchenko, Vieira and Eddie, we started to look like our old selves because we adopted more of the principles from last season. But then our defensive issues came back to haunt us. On another day, we win that by 4 or 5 goals. But when you don't take your chances and make careless mistakes like we did, then we get what we deserve.
Let's face it, he had loads of time to prove his worth at Chelsea but never did. His approach has always been too casual, there never seems any fire there.
There are loads of reasons he might be a waste in the long run, but not doing great at Chelsea is not one of them. They ruin many good players and don't really improve anyone. Their coaching is atrocious judging by the last five years. They just burn through transfers until they get players that manage to do well for them from the off until they just replace them with more transfers.
They've all been has-beens well past their prime. Havertz is younger than White, Odegaard and Rice and almost same age as Nketiah. Look how many players under the age of 30 leave Chelsea and do well. Plenty of time to coach him into a proper player. He might end up a turd, but no point giving up on him yet.
I just think, after 3 years in England and having not settled upon a position, why did we feel it was worth the risk to spend £65m on a player that has huge question marks? There were so many other players we could have signed that would have been a better fit or that would have actually been worth the risk. If this was a season where we were still in transition and looking to build, then I could somewhat understand signing him. But this is a season where we're expected to compete on all fronts and stay within touching distance of City. And I am struggling to see how the manager and recruitment staff thought Havertz was the signing we needed to propel us to that next level. I really, really want to be proven wrong on this - and I hope I am - but I don't see how this move is going to work. And if it doesn't, huge questions are going to be asked of Arteta for wasting significant funds on a player that wasn't essential to sign at the expense of the team's evolution.
Yeah I don't get the Havertz decision at all. Chelsea looks to be going after Smith Rowe now and to me that basically says it all. It seems like Arteta will shoehorn him into the team anyway he can. I just hope it's not the hill Arteta dies on.
