‘To be honest’… Pundit says £21m player Arsenal sold was better than Kai Havertz

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Kai Havertz has improved a lot for Arsenal in recent weeks, but he still has plenty to prove.

Indeed, Havertz isn’t a player that is universally rated by fans and pundits, and speaking on the Optus Sport Football Podcast, Jay Bothroyd has shared some of his doubts about the German.

The pundit says that he genuinely can’t understand what position Havertz is meant to be playing.

Havertz has played a number of different roles for Arsenal this season, but he’s mainly operated as a central midfielder in the same way Granit Xhaka did last season.

Bothroyd noted that he’s not really been impressed by Havertz in that role, claiming that he doesn’t actually see him as an upgrade on Granit Xhaka at this point.

Granit Xhaka is better than Kai Havertz

Bothroyd shared his verdict on the midfielder and the £21m man he replaced.

“What position is he? To be honest, when I see him play his best football, that was when he was playing in Germany and he was playing as a number 10,” Bothroyd said.

“That’s when I’ve seen him playing his best football. I don’t look at Havertz as an upgrade to Xhaka.

“To me Xhaka was playing better in that left of a three than Havertz is and we paid £65m for him, so that’s the only reason why I’m asking questions about him because I’ve seen Maddison go to Tottenham for £40m, I’m seeing Mac Allister go to Liverpool for £30m and I’m seeing him come to Arsenal for £65m.

“And again, he’s trying to find his feet, but he’s been in the Premier League for many years now, that’s my problem.”

Hard to disagree

It’s hard to disagree with this point of view.

Not only was Xhaka having more of an impact than Havertz in this Arsenal team last season, he’s carried that form over to Bayer Leverkusen where he has also been brilliant.

Havertz is finding his feet now, but it really doesn’t feel as though Arsenal are a better team for having Havertz in the side rather than Xhaka.