On Monday night, Bayern Leverkusen cruise to a 4-1 win at Werder Bremen and Kai Havertz proved why so many people in world football are interested in acquiring his services.
The 20-year-old had a reputation to live up to some extent, given how Haaland, Davies and Thuram had demonstrated their quality on an instant return. Two goals for the Leverkusen man certainly made everyone take notice given that a number of Premier League clubs, including Chelsea, have been linked with a move for him. And the Blues and their manager Frank Lampard cannot have failed to notice his brilliance last night amid the feverish speculation surrounding his future at Bayer.
Comparisons to Roberto Firmino are bound to continue over the coming weeks and months, with such a link probably being the closest we can get to aligning two rare world-class players. Despite playing the majority of this season in a more right-sided position, Havertz played as the centre forward for Leverkusen on Monday night and showed just how accurate the comparisons to Liverpool’s number nine are.
His ability to move between the lines and offer multiple threats from pockets of space between the defence and midfield makes Havertz an incredibly versatile player that can rotate with other players around him to confuse the opposition.
By occupying such a variety of positions, the 20-year-old acts as a constant source of creativity with link-up play in deeper areas allowing his teammates to progress forward. Such a relationship had become incredibly effective last season with Julian Brandt before he departed for Borussia Dortmund in the summer.
As a result of Brandt’s departure, Havertz has become a more varied attacking outlet through demonstrating his spatial awareness and goal-scoring threat. Two headed goals on Monday night showed his ability to score yet another type of goal, in addition to running beyond the last line of defence and poaching in the penalty area which have been on show over the last 18 months.
Such a vast number of attributes makes Havertz one of the most exciting talents in world football right now, and one that will probably benefit from playing alongside some of the best players in the world. The very nature of Havertz’s strengths dictates that most of what he does in terms of threading play together is dependent on how other players make runs and understand his actions.
With all due respect to Leverkusen, those strengths would most certainly be used to more effect in a world-class side. At the age of just 20, Havertz has all the tools necessary to develop into a household name across Europe – that is, of course, if he isn’t already.