The Arsenal

he had a Zoom meeting with Mikel Arteta. After this he was fully comitted to Arsenal.

I swear to god, every day I'm glad Arteta went into football/coaching, because otherwise he would be leading the most deadly cult since Charles Manson.

Barella!? God that would be a sexy midfield

So Kai is reverse Ozil

At 275k weekly wages, simply not enough

he had a Zoom meeting with Mikel Arteta. After this he was fully comitted to Arsenal.

This could be in the story for every new signing we've had since Arteta got here

“Think of how stupid the average Arsenal supporter is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” George Carlin

We’ve been defensively decent this season, but our XG is lower than it should be, and we aren’t that entertaining to watch, so Havertz is getting flack.

Havertz needs to add more creation of opportunities, and goals to get more support of the fans because we don’t see training sessions, or locker room banter. What fans see are games, and there is a noticeable drop of in game performance from the Leverkusen era of his career. I think a lot of this is due to Bundesleague being a lot easier, but also due to his inability to balance his defensive, and offensive duties.

Hopefully, he starts to add a little fluidity, and risk taking to his play. He has improved this season, but he is still maybe too focused on not making errors over impacting the game positively. As you can see from his goal, the more aggressively he plays in the final third the better.

Out here doing God’s work. Thanks, OP! It would be really interesting to know how this role he’s excelling at compares with someone like Xhaka prior to last year when he morphed into Goalzilla. I wonder if Arteta has initially prioritized this subtler, off the ball stuff with him on a longer term development track and will start asking him to do more offensive stuff when he settles in a bit more (maybe in a year or two as happened with Xhaka as well).

Kudus could backup Saka and also play attacking mid

These guys must have written this piece in September and have been waiting for Havertz to score his goal to post it 🤣

I really hope he comes good. I really do.

An interesting thing I noticed is the perception of the player over the years. I remember reading an article before he signed for Chelsea and it was bigging him up to be the next Ozil. More recently I've seen people commenting that at Leverkusen he was more of a player who just had a knack for popping up and scoring a lot of goals rather than a player who gets heavily involved in general play.

Very contrasting reports of his qualities.

If we really had a shot at Barella over Havertz, we fucked up.

I like havertz. I was open to the signing and poopoo'd a lot of people complaining about him. But wow, those wages are astronomical.

How dare you omit Amy Lawrence!

Why am I getting big Xhaka vibes

Sometimes there are things players bring that are hard to quantify.

Kai actually has provided steel in the middle of the park and is a threat in the air. Also, it was clear after Xhaka left that Arteta wanted size in the #8 position.

I'm not saying he's been secretly stellar or anything like that, but there are aspects to the game that don't involve assists and scoring. On top of that, Arsenal are 1st with a decent run of matches coming up and haven't even been fully fit.

I'm not gonna complain about one guy given the situation.

My guess is that he committed to arsenal because we would pay him and he would stay in london

I hope he comes good and trust the manager but that wage is ridiculous.

What’s the pod called?

I think everyone agree with his defensive work , i wad surprised by it really , he win headers in our box from open play crosses , imagine how he would be at his physical peak 26-27 yo

Great summary. Cheers

I want to have a zoom meeting with Arteta so he can make me committed to my job.

We are all liked him at Leverkusen as well. I’m glad he’s here and hoping for more success for him. COYG.

I would like to see more of Ødegaard, Havertz and Rice midfield

Seems that would be a great mix of defensive solidity with great ability both in build up and on the counter

Arteta is all about that Mentality FC. You are here to work hard and fight or you ain’t here.

Sounds like Abromavich gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse…

Havertz is a great guy. Don't hate him. He had my support. But his off the ball contributions isn't nearly enough to compensate for the opportunity cost lost in bringing in either a To striker, or a great rotation for Saka. He is being paid fast too much for his contribution. And I do think he will improve, but will never reach his Leverkusen heights, forget the potential he was supposed to reach at his peak, as predicted then.

This! The manager and his staff him every day and know way better than all of us if he deserves to play or not

Big difference in how public sees Havertz and how the people working in football see Havertz. He is highly rated in the fotball world.

I don't dislike him as a squad player, but on 275k this feels like some revisionist history