Stats Scouting: Kai Havertz

The German didn't live up to the big expectations at Chelsea could he do it at Arsenal?

The latest Arsenal transfer rumors are linking Arsenal to Chelsea’s Kai Havertz with the interest reported to be very serious, as reported by David Ornstein of The Atheltic.

Havertz is at the pivotal two years remaining on his contract stage and has reportedly given indications that he has not interested in extending his stay with Chelsea.

This is moving fast and deserves a deeper look to get to know the player that Arsenal are linked with.

Havertz In Germany

Havertz exploded onto the scene as a teenager with a 17-goal season as a 19-year-old. He was given a pretty free role playing primarily off the right (both as the wings and the eight) in Leverkusen’s 4-3-3 under Peter Bosz.

He was the jack of all trades slotting into whatever spot needed filling and put up good numbers for a teenager. His share of positions played highlight his adaptability and also make his numbers a bit more impressive.

The next season however is where he really took the leap as a player that looked like a superstar in the making. He scored a bit less going from 17 to 12 goals but put up all-around numbers that really started making you think he could be something very special.

He still played a role that was hard to pin down but was now basically the attacker that Leverkusen could and would deploy anywhere.

It was on the back of this performance that he was one of the most sought-after players in Europe.

That being said there were still some things in his data that still stick with me that I am not sure about. Number one, what exactly is he? He is versatile but also he doesn’t really seem to have a position and while he put up good numbers they were just short of elite at some of the most important areas.

The biggest one was that if he was an attacker and especially if he was a forward, he never looked the part of a superstar in the making there with numbers that were a bit too close to average for me.

He scored 25 non-penalty goals in his two big seasons in the Bundesliga but did so from 18 expected goals, beating his numbers by nearly 40%. Spoiler Alert but this level of finishing did not translate for him in the Premier League.

Havertz in the Premier League

Havertz joined Chelsea before the 2020/21 season with a big price tag of €80 million along with fellow Bundesliga star Timo Werner. Neither lived up to the expectations but with Havertz adapting better than his countryman.

He’s done similar moving around position-wise at Chelsea as he did at Leverkusen playing a bit of everywhere but landing primarily as a lone forward with 57% of his time there, with 22% as the central attacking midfielder, 11% on the right sided attacker, 7% as a midfielder (mostly left 8) and the final 3% as a left-sided attacker.