Kai Havertz says new Chelsea manager Graham Potter has already made a "very good impression" and is backing him to be a success at Stamford Bridge
The 47-year-old was announced as Thomas Tuchel’s successor earlier this month after the German was sacked by new owner Todd Boehly. Few would have predicted he’d be one of the first Premier League managers to lose his job during the summer, especially after guiding the Blues to two cup finals last season, and winning the Champions League the previous year.
However, a disappointing start to the campaign combined with an embarrassing European defeat to Dinamo Zagreb and behind the scenes issues proved enough to see the Chelsea hierarchy take action, with making him the second top-flight boss to go, after Scott Parker.
Blues chief Boehly duly made Potter his primary target to replace the German, wasting little time in poaching him from Brighton. And although German international Havertz was shocked to see his compatriot dismissed, he’s already a fan of his new boss.
“Me too,” Havertz responded when told by Sport 1 about the shock of Tuchel’s departure in their homeland. “Especially when you consider how we have played in the past one and a half years and what we have won.
"You can’t talk about a messed-up start to the season with our current 6th place in the table, especially since we have a lot of newcomers who first have to acclimatise.
“But football is very fast-moving, a lot can happen at any time. Our new coach has made a very good impression; we have a great squad. I think we are in for a good time.”
Can Kai Havertz thrive under Graham Potter this season? Have your say in the comments...
Havertz will hope Potter’s arrival can coincide with an upturn in his own form after looking off the boil for a number of months. He impressed at the beginning of the year playing up top for the Blues as a false nine, scoring five goals in five appearances between February and March.
Yet his form began to nosedive late last season and hasn’t picked up so far this term, evident by the fact he’s found the back of the net just once across his eight Chelsea appearances so far.
It’s expected that Potter will broadly use variations of a 3-4-2-1 formation at Chelsea, with numerical overloads in all three thirds and positional fluidity key. Potter normally likes to play a narrow system in order to create multiple passing options for players on the ball, meaning attackers supporting the strikers will usually operate up and down the half-spaces, like floating No.10s.
This could play into the hands of Havertz given his strengths, an intelligent player who thrived at Bayer Leverkusen playing in between the lines, dropping into spaces, linking play and arriving late into the penalty area to score goals. There’s every chance he’ll be given opportunities to play to those strengths again in the coming weeks and months.
