24-year-old Arsenal player failed to impress last night, he struggled with his link-up play

New Arsenal player Kai Havertz didn’t have his best showing when he started against Manchester United last night.

The new signing was given a ‘5.5/10’ by the Daily Mail in their match ratings in what was a difficult night for the Gunners.

The review of Havertz’s performance said he tracked his man better in the second half but struggled with his wide distribution.

It said: “Tracking back was much better in the second half after caught failing to do enough of it earlier in the match.”

“Found it difficult to break the ball into the wide areas of Saka and Martinelli.”

Although Havertz is still very early in his Arsenal career there’s clearly food for thought for Mikel Arteta.

The 2-0 loss against United was Arsenal’s first of pre-season and may act as a small wake up call.

It was the first time Gunners fans were able to see their new midfield trio of Declan Rice, Martin Odegaard and Kai Havertz.

And whilst it’s an exciting combination for the future, it didn’t hit the ground running.

£65m Havertz was struggling with his link-up play as mentioned and the three looked to have little cohesion for now.

Arteta mentioned at full-time that the three will need time to gel together.

Havertz failed to impress for Arsenal against Manchester United

The 24-year-old will hope to have a better showing in Arsenal’s next pre-season friendly against Barcelona next week.

Arsenal have two games to come before the FA Community Shield and will also face Monaco in the Emirates Cup beforehand.

Despite the 2-0 loss to United, Arteta will likely be pleased with his pre-season work so far.

Several of his new signings are getting minutes early in their Arsenal career and players are returning from injury.

It would be very harsh to criticize the likes of Kai Havertz too much whilst he still adjusts to the club.

The Germany international is also learning a new position to the left of Arsenal’s midfield.

He was often deployed as a striker or winger for Chelsea and Germany.

His attacking midfield role will draw parallels to his role at Bayer Leverkusen but he does have more structural responsibility now.

However, Arteta has previously mentioned he’ll experiment with Havertz as a target man next season.

The Arsenal boss has a lot of positive problems going into the new season, and Havertz’s role is one of them.