Kai Havertz on growing into a No 9 and taking on England’s ruthless defenders

There aren’t too many forwards in world football who can say they have effectively seen off the threat of Cristiano Ronaldo and Romelu Lukaku for their place.

Kai Havertz has already achieved quite a lot in his career so far — scoring the winner in a Champions League final springs to mind — but this feat might provide almost as much satisfaction.

When Chelsea signed Lukaku for a club record £97.5million ($115.6m) from Inter Milan last year, he looked certain to be their main target man for years to come. Instead, Havertz started seven more games than the Belgium international and looked a much better fit when leading the line in Thomas Tuchel’s 3-4-2-1 formation.

After struggling to make a positive impression on Chelsea, Tuchel and the Premier League, Lukaku decided to give up early and head back to Inter on loan.

The threat for Havertz wasn’t over, with the club considering making a move to sign Ronaldo this summer. There were many factors behind Chelsea’s decision to not pursue Ronaldo but Havertz’s qualities will have been among them.

Tuchel has since gone on record to say that buying a centre-forward isn’t a priority in this transfer window. So all things considered, it must feel great for Havertz that Chelsea’s head coach appears to have such faith in his talents.

“Of course,” Havertz says. “It is always good for a striker and for me as well (to know that).

“I’m still young. I need to get that confidence from the coach. I need his trust, sometimes in the bad times, too. He has always given me that trust in the last couple of years. In every match, I want to repay the trust.

“You always feel the responsibility when you play. Hopefully, it is going to be a better year than last year.”

When Chelsea signed Havertz from Bayer Leverkusen in a deal worth up to £90million a couple of years ago, he wasn’t regarded as a centre-forward. He was seen more as the kind of player that would drift into the penalty area to score goals from an attacking midfield position.

But his ability to make runs in the channels and drop off to link up play makes him an ideal choice for Tuchel’s system. He has operated more and more down the middle over the last 18 months.

It’s a role he never envisaged but is increasingly coming to enjoy.

“I’ve played a lot of positions over the years but last season, I played a lot as a No 9 and it’s a position I like very much,” says Havertz. “If I look back four years ago, I could never have imagined playing there.

“It’s still good that I am flexible and can play different positions up front, but I am there to score goals and make assists, and as a No 9, you have to do that and link up with players.

“I always go into matches telling myself that I want to score or make an assist. As a striker, you have to do that. Of course, it’s not possible in every game. There are only a small amount of players that can really do that, and even they struggle sometimes, so I go into every match trying to score and help the team.”

Havertz’s conversion into a leading man is bearing fruit. In his first season at Chelsea, he registered nine goals and eight assists in 45 appearances (a rate of 0.57 direct goal involvements every 90 minutes). In 2021-22, there were 14 goals and six assists in 47 matches (0.55 direct goal involvements per 90).

He looked a little rusty in the 2-1 win against Club America on Saturday, blazing one particularly glorious chance over the bar, before being replaced at half-time. One should expect him to be more clinical when it matters.

The challenge of being the main focal point of attack, though, is you’re even more likely to come into contact with an aggressive centre-half using every trick they know to put you off your game, as well as being very physical in the tackle.

Anyone who witnessed Chelsea’s 1-0 loss at Everton in May will have seen Havertz getting increasingly wound up by Everton’s aggression and antics, with Yerry Mina in particular trying to unsettle the Chelsea man. The tactic worked. Havertz provided little threat at all and was booked after pushing Mina to the turf.

Opponents will have spotted that and will use a similar game plan against him. Everton are going to get a chance to do it all over again when the two teams meet on the opening weekend of the Premier League season on August 6.

When asked if this is a strategy he is going to have to get used to, Havertz replies: “Yes, of course. Everton was maybe a bad example because they were very tough to play against and last season they were fighting against relegation, so it was a crazy match.

“You know when you play in England that a lot of games are going to be like this. The defenders are very hard and I am not the type of No 9 who goes into every duel or always wants these duels. Sometimes, I want to sneak around them. But I’ve played for two years in England now and I am used to it.

“Consistency in football is a very big word. We play every three days and we have to always keep the level high. It’s normal that for one game, you drop the level. It’s not possible to score five goals in every game. Consistency is a big point and I try to work on that.”

Fortunately, he won’t be the only attacking player defenders will be worried about because Chelsea have added Raheem Sterling to the ranks following a £47.5million transfer from Manchester City. The England international is a key part of Tuchel’s plans and should be linking up with Havertz regularly.

Sterling has left a positive impression on Havertz on many occasions but he will never forget being on the receiving end at Wembley last year at the European Championship. The 27-year-old scored England’s opening goal and caused problems for Havertz’s Germany, who lost the last-16 match 2-0.

“In every game, you can see his ability,” Havertz says. “The game against England at the Euros, he played well. You can see his quality here already and it’s been just a few days. You can see in training how good he is, how fast he is. He is definitely going to help us.

“I saw a stat about him that he has had the most goals and assists for Man City in the last five years or something like that. That tells the whole story of him. He was a great player for City and the national team as well — hopefully, he can keep up his level. For me and everyone, he is going to help.”

The duo have already been getting to know each other on and off the pitch during Chelsea’s pre-season tour in the US. The atmosphere among the group is upbeat and they seem more united than ever.

No wonder. The vast majority of the Chelsea squad have to cope with the unprecedented situation of living under sanctions for the last few months of last season after former owner Roman Abramovich was cited by the UK government for his connections to Russia president Vladimir Putin.

It wasn’t the only obstacle they faced or the sole reason for their disappointing end to the season — Tuchel’s side only won six of their last 14 games, lost the FA Cup final and were knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid in the quarter-finals — but it was a significant distraction.

However, Havertz believes the experience has brought them all closer and now they can look ahead to the future, especially now all the uncertainty has been resolved following the takeover by the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital consortium.

Havertz says: “It was a crazy time for all of us. There were a lot of changes in the club, which was strange for all of us, but we came through it. We all got to know each other in different or difficult situations, so that everyone is together. It helped us.

“We are a special group. We see that in the changing room away from the pitch and on the pitch. We have a lot of young players who are roughly the same age. We have a lot of experienced players and we all fit together very well. It is hopefully going to be a special year for us.”

With Havertz leading from the front, it could very well prove to be.

(Top photo: Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC via Getty Images)