Highlights
- Rio Ferdinand defends Kai Havertz, comparing his situation to Mason Mount’s struggles at Man United.
- Havertz needs more time to adjust to his new role at Arsenal, but the criticism towards him is overblown.
- It’s unfair to judge Havertz solely based on goals and assists as he is playing in a deeper role. He has been winning duels and still making key passes.
Football pundit and legend Rio Ferdinand has come to the defence of Arsenal summer signing Kai Havertz, drawing comparisons with Mason Mount.
What’s the latest on Arsenal and Kai Havertz?
The Gunners spent big in the transfer window to bring the German over from Chelsea, paying a notable fee of £65m to get the deal done.
However, the player has faced criticism very early on at his new club, with this even dating back to pre-season when he struggled in a skills challenge while on Arsenal’s tour of the US.
Unfortunately for the German, he has been unable to silence his critics with either a goal or an assist in any of his first three Premier League outings for the club and struggled to impress most recently in the 2-2 draw with Fulham.
In that game, at one point, the Emirates crowd even seemed to turn on Havertz – as pointed out by journalist James Benge.
Indeed, he took to Twitter to report on the incident, saying: “That cry of frustration when Havertz misplaced a simple pass felt very redolent of the time when this ground had very little patience for certain players.”
However, in response to this, former Manchester United defender Ferdinand has somewhat surprisingly defended the German, slamming supporters for not showing more patience.
Speaking on his Vibe with Five YouTube channel (via football.london), the pundit said: “You guys [Arsenal fans] are all over the place. With Havertz, I understand that he might not have hit the ground running, bit like Mason Mount at Man United
“But the way that you guys are absolutely like: ‘get him out’, I don’t get it. If it was 10, 15 games, do you know what, I could see what they’re saying.
“But it’s three games you know. People need time to adjust.”
It’s interesting that Ferdinand uses the case of Mount in his defence, as the midfielder also left Chelsea in the summer – although joined Man United instead.
The new Red Devils hasn’t exactly settled in fast at Old Trafford either, and notably came into heavy criticism for his “insubstantive” efforts in the defeat away at Tottenham Hotspur.
With all this in mind, it will certainly be interesting to see how things play out when Arsenal host Man United this weekend at the Emirates Stadium.
What happened with Kai Havertz?
To be fair, Havertz probably will take more time to adjust to Arsenal as he’s been asked to operate in a new role this season.
Last term at Chelsea, he played the bulk of his games (29 times) as a striker for the Blues. This time around, however, he has started all three games with the Gunners as part of a midfield trio.
What’s more, criticism seems quite overblown. After all, as per WhoScored, he’s still managed a reasonable if not brilliant 6.57 average rating – with the likes of Ben White and Aaron Ramsdale registering worse scores.
Of course, his lack of goals and assists doesn’t look great but, as mentioned before, he’s playing in a deeper role so it’s unfair to judge him solely on just that.
Instead, looking at over stats, as per WhoScored again, you can see he has won more aerial duels (2.7 per game) than any other Arsenal player, and only Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard have made more key passes than his 1.7 per game.