Just for reference, everybody: last year, Xhaka managed 0.18 throughballs per 90, and 0.18 switches per 90. Xhaka is obviously a lot more skilled at that kind of thing, but mostly, that stuff is just the role + deeper blocks.
Haha. Was wondering why they’d use this template, but just saw the original post (it’s from a Chelsea fan): “There is a bunch of reasons why this is sort of unfair, but that doesn’t make it less funny.”
This nicely illustrates something I’ve been wondering about - namely, Havertz seems to be a much better defender and a much shitter attacker than I thought.
No doubt it’s partly what he’s being asked to do because that’s how players get on the pitch and stay on it, but while Havertz himself often looks like the on-ball play is passing him by, the team look more solid and difficult to handle with him on the pitch.
When we got our “left 8 attacker” I think I mostly expected a 10-lite like everybody else, and to judge him by goals and assists. Failing that I figured you could judge him through involvements, much like Xhaka was - passes, touches, progression etc. Now I wonder if it’s more fair to judge him as a disruptor of the other team’s schemes instead because that seems to be his real talent, to chase the ball down, recover the ball and carry the press for 90 minutes. He’s a handful and I kind of think sometimes the best way to judge a player is to see now how good they “look” in your team, but how much of a pain in the ass they are to the opposition. Havertz appears to be a massive pain in the ass.
(To be fair I also didn’t realize that Havertz was massive and very good in the air so you could probably just say I had no idea what he was like as a player).
I hope the guy makes more of a habit of playing dangerous passes and gets a couple of goals and assists under his belt. I think they’d do him a world of good. But you have to wonder if the reason he’s continually starting isn’t just injuries, it’s that he exemplifies a team that can continually disrupt what the opposition are trying to do.
Just for reference, everybody: last year, Xhaka managed 0.18 throughballs per 90, and 0.18 switches per 90. Xhaka is obviously a lot more skilled at that kind of thing, but mostly, that stuff is just the role + deeper blocks.
Think this one shows a clearer picture.
Haha. Was wondering why they’d use this template, but just saw the original post (it’s from a Chelsea fan): “There is a bunch of reasons why this is sort of unfair, but that doesn’t make it less funny.”
This nicely illustrates something I’ve been wondering about - namely, Havertz seems to be a much better defender and a much shitter attacker than I thought.
No doubt it’s partly what he’s being asked to do because that’s how players get on the pitch and stay on it, but while Havertz himself often looks like the on-ball play is passing him by, the team look more solid and difficult to handle with him on the pitch.
When we got our “left 8 attacker” I think I mostly expected a 10-lite like everybody else, and to judge him by goals and assists. Failing that I figured you could judge him through involvements, much like Xhaka was - passes, touches, progression etc. Now I wonder if it’s more fair to judge him as a disruptor of the other team’s schemes instead because that seems to be his real talent, to chase the ball down, recover the ball and carry the press for 90 minutes. He’s a handful and I kind of think sometimes the best way to judge a player is to see now how good they “look” in your team, but how much of a pain in the ass they are to the opposition. Havertz appears to be a massive pain in the ass.
(To be fair I also didn’t realize that Havertz was massive and very good in the air so you could probably just say I had no idea what he was like as a player).
I hope the guy makes more of a habit of playing dangerous passes and gets a couple of goals and assists under his belt. I think they’d do him a world of good. But you have to wonder if the reason he’s continually starting isn’t just injuries, it’s that he exemplifies a team that can continually disrupt what the opposition are trying to do.
These are so misleading because the area becomes disproportionately huge if you have high score in 2 adjacent skills