Tag Archives: Kai Havertz

Premier League: Best 11 Players of Week 34

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Manchester City are on the cusp of winning the Premier League title and all they need to do now is beat Chelsea next weekend to confirm it. City won their 25th game of the season when they beat Crystal Palace 2-0.

Leicester could only draw but they still look good for a top 4 spot and Chelsea in 4th are only 2 points behind them. Perhaps the big winners at the weekend were Tottenham who have won both league games under Ryan Mason. Gareth Bale scored a fantastic hat-trick to give Tottenham a boost of a top four finish and they have 56 points.

Everton lost at home for the 8th time this season and that defeat against Aston Villa has more than confirmed they won’t be finishing in a top four position. Relegation looks set in stone for the likes of Fulham and West Bromwich Albion and next weekend could well confirm their returns to the Championship.

Let’s check out the players that dazzled us this past weekend and the ones who earned all the points.

Goalkeeper: Ederson Moraes- Manchester City 7pts

Credit should go to Crystal Palace who lost 2-0 at home to Manchester City but in fact had more shots on target than the champions in waiting. Ederson had to be alert and pull off some fantastic saves to help his team and keep his 18th clean sheet of the season. He now has an incredible 109 points and has been well worth his value of 9m.

Defender: Benjamin Mendy- Manchester City 7pts

Benjamin Mendy now has 27 points from just seven starts and he had a solid weekend as he helped to keep a clean sheet as Manchester City beat Crystal Palace 2-0. Mendy earned extra points for assisting in the clubs first goal of the game also.

Defender: Joao Cancelo- Manchester City 5pts

One of the best defenders this season earned another 5 points and Cancelo has now helped to keep 15 clean sheets. With 78 points he is joint top with Ruben Dias as City’s best defender this season.

Defender: Lewis Dunk- Brighton 5pts

Lewis Dunk had a great game as Brighton beat Leeds United 2-0 and that was Dunk’s 11th clean sheet of the season- not bad for a team who have struggled near the bottom of the league for the majority of the campaign. Dunk has a total of 48 points, with his value set at 7m.

Defender: Thiago Silva- Chelsea 5pts

The veteran defender has blown hot and cold this season and has had some set backs with injuries but he showed all of his maturity and experience as Chelsea won the west London derby 2-0 over Fulham.

Midfielder: Mason Mount- Chelsea 4pts

Chelsea beat Fulham 2-0 to emerge as one of the favourites to finish in the top four and Mason Mount is always a danger. He didn’t score at the weekend but he did assist in the Blues first goal and that was his 5th of the season so far.

Midfielder: Gareth Bale- Tottenham 16pts

Gareth Bale hasn’t always been the dream ticket for Tottenham since he re-joined the club back on loan but when he shines, he really shines. Bale scored a memorable hat-trick as Tottenham thrashed Sheffield United 4-0. With 49 points Bale is ranked as the best midfielder for Spurs and his goal tally for the season now stands at 9.

Midfielder: Kai Havertz- Chelsea 10pts

What a game for Kai Havertz who earned a fantastic 10 points for Chelsea as they beat Crystal Palace 2-0. Havertz  scored both of Chelsea’s goals to give the player a boost of confidence in what has been an up and down debut season for the Blues so far.

Midfielder: Pascal Gross- Brighton 5pts

Pascal Gross scored Brighton’s opening goal against Leeds and the Seagulls never looked back as they recorded a great 2-0 win over Leeds who were in form coming into this game. Gross now has 41 points overall and has been one of the club’s best players.

Striker: Heung-Min Son- Tottenham 6pts

It’s not been a great 2nd half of the campaign for striker Heung-Min Son so he would have been delighted to have got on the score sheet especially as his earlier goal was ruled out by VAR. Son now has 16 goals this season and 86 points in another solid season for him.

Striker: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang- Arsenal 6pts

Aubameyang scored an important goal in a season which has not been vintage for the striker through a series of injuries and illness. It was a good 6 points earned though as Arsenal beat Newcastle 2-0 away from home, in a great result for the Gunners. Aubameyang has scored 10 goals now this season.

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3 more players Chelsea could sign this summer

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Chelsea have been busy so far during the summer transfer window, a year on from their transfer embargo.

Frank Lampard’s side have added prolific goalscorer Timo Werner from RB Leipzig, England left-back Ben Chilwell from Leicester City and experienced centre-back Thiago Silva from Paris Saint-Germain.

Shortly after the closure of the January transfer window, Chelsea agreed a deal to bring winger Hakim Ziyech from Ajax, with the Moroccan international joining his new teammates this summer.

Leaving Stamford Bridge are Willian to Arsenal, Pedro to AS Roma and Alvaro Morata to Atletico Madrid. Of those, only Willian made a significant impact under Lampard last season, whilst Morata had been out on loan in the Spanish capital anyway.

However, it appears Chelsea aren’t done there as Lampard looks to make further adjustments to his squad before the transfer window closes on 5 October. Three players who are being strongly linked with a move to West London are as follows:

Kai Havertz

The German international is believed to be undergoing a medical at Chelsea on Sunday depending on the reports you believe. Kai Havertz is coming off an excellent season with Bayer Leverkusen, particularly following the restart.

Still trying to establish himself as a German international, Havertz was very successful when deployed in the striker role in the closing weeks of the season. However, Werner’s arrival suggests Havertz wouldn’t be signed to play that role, but rather to replace Willian and Pedro as the right winger, where he has spent much of his career.

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Havertz, Chilwell, Silva and Rice? Watch out Premier League Chelsea have arrived

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It’s been an odd transfer window so far with not many big noticeable deals going through between the big clubs but it seems that Premier League side Chelsea are wanting to make a statement for next season.

The Blues have already spent over £80m buying Timo Werner from RB Leipzig and Hakim Ziyech from Ajax. Two players who on paper at least are superb additions to the squad. But Chelsea who qualified for next seasons Champions League after finishing 4th last season are not about to stop shopping yet.

Frank Lampard’s side are closing in on Kai Havertz the German youngster who is being tipped to be brilliant in his position, he currently plays for Bayer Leverkusen. Chelsea have put a succession of bids in for Havertz which have all been rejected although it seems that a deal for £90m could go through very soon.

Ben Chilwell, the Leicester defender has also been a target for some time and his name has been linked to Chelsea. It is thought that a deal for the player could go through this week as the clubs are in talks. But Chelsea are not stopping there. PSG defender Thiago Silva left the club on a free immediately after the Champions League final and it is thought that his next destination is likely to be Chelsea.

The Londoners are also keeping an eye out for Declan Rice at West Ham, although if they get Chilwell it is expected that might not be able to go for Rice too, as the Hammers could demand a hefty fee. But another player who seemingly looks on his way and in a bargain free transfer is Nice defender Malang Sarr. He is only 21 and has impressed in Ligue 1 but has purposely run down his contract which must have made his club furious. They will now get nothing for a youngster, out of all the deals being laid on the table for Chelsea Sarr’s arrival could end up being the best one.

If all the deals go through Chelsea will be looking at spending around £300m and one of the reasons the Blues can spend big is because they had a transfer embargo last summer when they couldn’t buy anyone and that has built up.

Chelsea are pushing this season to advance themselves and whilst it is brilliant news for the club it will be clear that manager Lampard’s position and objectives with the club will have to change with their spending. Lampard has been left in peace with zero pressure on him last season. That ended up paying dividends, after a shaky start Chelsea were in 3rd place for the majority of the season before being pipped down to 4th on the final day of the season on goal difference against Manchester United. It changed nothing of course. Although the board would have been displeased at losing the FA Cup final against Arsenal.

This season the bar will be set higher and any mistakes and a run of poor form will be magnified for Lampard. Then again when you look at what the starting line up could be for Chelsea they may well have their strongest team since winning the 2012 Champions League title.

This next season will be all about closing that gap to Liverpool and Manchester City and being more consistent. Also the club conceded 54 goals last season, that’s simply too many for a top 4 side, so their defence needs to be more shored up.

Chelsea have already raised over £60m selling the likes of Alvaro Morata and Mario Pasalic as they try and balance the books and of course they have lost Willian to Arsenal on a free.

So with this much spending and the quality coming in the pressure cooker will be more on Lampard but Chelsea are the one team in the Premier League so far making headway and making a statement that last seasons top 4 place was not a one off. Can they seriously challenge Liverpool and Manchester City next season though?

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Would Real Madrid be the best destination for Kai Havertz?

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His name has become a staple of the gossip column in recent weeks, and with very good reason. Kai Havertz has the makings of a generational talent. Not since the emergence of Mesut Ozil has Germany produced such a talented young player and so it’s natural that Europe’s elite are lining up to pitch themselves to the Bayer Leverkusen youngster this summer.

Chelsea and Liverpool have been most commonly linked with a move for the 20-year-old, but the former in particular seemingly edging the race. The Stamford Bridge club have already spent big on the signings of Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech and it seems they wish to continue that spending by completing a deal for Havertz, with Leverkusen demanding a fee of at least £100 million.

The Premier League isn’t the only potential destination for Havertz, though. Real Madrid have also been linked with the German. In fact, for a long time it seemed that the Spanish giants were leading the pursuit of the young midfielder. Havertz has been compared by many to a young Zinedine Zidane and so who better to develop him further than the man himself?

But where would Havertz fit in at the Santiago Bernabeu? Zidane has favoured a 4-3-3 shape this season, with the Frenchman rotating between Casemiro, Toni Kroos, Luka Modric and Ernesto Valverde in the centre of the pitch. Havertz, however, is a very different sort of midfielder to any of these three.

In fact, it can be debated whether Havertz is a midfielder at all. Bayer Leverkusen, for instance, used him as a centre forward when Kevin Volland was out injured after the resumption of the season, with the youngster adapting to the role seamlessly. He looked a natural in the role.

That’s because Havertz has the attacking instincts of a forward. He makes runs to get in behind opposition defences and get on the end of crosses into the middle. In the current Real Madrid side, he might be of best use on the right side of the attack, a position where Zidane has chopped and changed between a number of different options. The Santiago Bernabeu is where some of the brightest and best young players go to prove themselves. It would be a fitting stage for a player of Havertz’s talent and potential.

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Werner, Havertz, Chilwell who will join ambitious Chelsea?

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The Coronavirus pandemic has made teams across Europe stop and think about transfers, and one could conclude that some teams have taken their eye off the ball given that some seasons are about to restart across Europe. That cannot be said of Premier League side Chelsea though who have been actively busy in the transfer market.

Names have been touted and in some cases it seems that Chelsea are coming very close to wrapping up a few signatures. Heading their list is RB Leipzig striker Timo Werner. Werner is only 24 and has been quite superb for the Bundesliga team. He has scored  75 goals for the club in the league alone from just 123 games and netted 92 goals in all competitions for the side.

Inevitably this has led Werner to stake a claim in the German national side where again he hasn’t let down scoring 11 goals from 29 games. Werner in a nutshell is hot property but because of his contract release clause he can leave his current side for around 60 million euros. In the current football climate that figure seems a steal. It is thought that Chelsea are in advance talks with his club and that in fact a deal has been agreed in principle. This would be a huge capture for Chelsea, arguably one of their finest buys in years.

However it would be staggering to think that no other club will come in for Werner. Perhaps though the pandemic has had a much more negative effect on some clubs than others and this could be an opportunity for the Blues to get what would be a bargain. Usually a player so good in Germany ends up transferring to Bayern Munich so it would also stop a normal tradition.

Then there is the case of Kai Havertz. The player is just 21 and as an attacking midfielder and winger has really impressed with his pace and skills with current club side Bayer Leverkusen. Another German player Chelsea see Havertz as a must buy purchase for their team but they may have competition from Real Madrid on that one.

Not that its his job but he also scores goals and great ones too and in his four seasons with Leverkusen he has scored 43 goals in all competitions including 15 this year and the player is getting better and better by each passing season.

Of course Chelsea have always been famous for having some of England’s young talent and it seems that manager Frank Lampard won’t let that running theme be an exception under his charge. That is why Chelsea are very interested in adding Leicester’s Ben Chilwell to their squad.

The 23 year old left back has had an impressive season with the Foxes who look set to qualify for the Champions League next season after a fantastic season with Brendan Rodgers in charge.

Chilwell has also broken into the England national team and already has 11 caps to his name. Chilwell could well be on his way to Chelsea with Leicester admitting that they are already looking for his replacement. He would cost Chelsea at least £60m.

All in then if you’re a fan of Chelsea you must be excited with the names that the Blues have been linked too. They already have a very good side and the fact that they are currently 4th this season proves that.

At this stage of Lampard’s managerial term with the club things look very exciting as the former legendary player looks to steer the club in the right direction.

 

Kai Havertz, Thilo Kehrer and Nico Schulz deserving of Germany call-ups

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It was a summer to forget for Germany and their national team. Failure to advance from their World Cup group which included Mexico, South Korea and Sweden, Joachim Löw’s managerial skills came into question following sub-par performances.

Unlike four years ago, there was a sense of uncertainty around this Germany squad once the squads had been announced. Löw once again put faith in his old guards, such as Sami Khedira, Thomas Müller and Mario Gomez while the likes of Leroy Sané were left at home, a decision that angered fans. Continue reading →