Why this season is make or break for Havertz's Chelsea career
James Shearman
- Updated: 7 Aug 2022 13:39 BST
- 3 min read
Kai Havertz's Chelsea career has been underwhelming to date, despite scoring the Champions League-winning goal little over a year ago.
Havertz signed for The Blues in 2020, under then-manager Frank Lampard, in a £72 million deal from Bayer Leverkusen.
He struggled in the opening weeks of the 2020-21 season, often played out of position in the centre of midfield, but the arrival of Thomas Tuchel in January saw the German enjoy a much stronger end to the season.
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Indeed, Havertz was part of the Chelsea side that reached the final of the Champions League and scored the decisive goal in a 1-0 victory over Manchester City to lift the trophy.
Big things were then expected of him in the 2021-22 season, and he failed to live up to expectations.
Eight goals in the Premier League doubled his previous tally, but that paled in comparison to Mason Mount's 11 from a less advanced position.
At 23 years of age, though, now is not the time to write off Havertz's chances of making himself a success at Stamford Bridge.
What to expect from Havertz in 2022-23?
As previously stated, Chelsea would be wrong to give up on Havertz this summer, as they seemingly have done with fellow German Timo Werner.
Werner has also spent just two seasons at Stamford Bridge but, at 26, he has much less of an excuse.
Havertz signed at 21, so was entitled to two seasons of development and adjustment to the demands of the Premier League.
3 points, clean sheet. Thanks for the away support ✌🏼 pic.twitter.com/rfKbCT0zil
— Kai Havertz (@kaihavertz29) August 6, 2022
Now though, in his third season at the west London club, there is an awful lot of pressure on the 23-year-old to make a significant improvement.
And it looks as though Chelsea have missed out on their top attacking targets, meaning Havertz will only have youngster Armando Broja to compete with for the 'number nine' position.
This is a battle that Havertz should win comfortably, in which he should hit a tally of at least 12 Premier League goals.
The German should receive help with the goalscoring burden from the likes of Mount and new signing Raheem Sterling, but it's time he grew into a talismanic figure for the club.
