Please do not compare Kai Havertz to Roberto Firmino, it’s unfair on both of them.
Firmino’s zone of influence was outrageous; dropping deep to combine with teammates, outrageous manipulation of angles and weight of passing. He’s a pure connector.
Havertz is an outrageous line-stretcher who provides elite box threat and occupation with such a top physical frame. Capable of combinations BTL’s but not of the level of Firmino.
Havertz is as good as Firmino if not better.
Gary Neville is an idiot & Liverpool fans + Casuals are blinded by winning bias & aesthetics.
Havertz matches Firmino’s goal contributions whilst being just as good if not better in general play
Havertz vs Firmino [A Thread🧵]
On Wirtz, when Arne Slot was here, Wirtz himself mentioned that Slot had given him some tidbits on why he wasn’t receiving the ball in the right areas. The point was that he was covering too much distance.
Then Iraola, about three weeks ago, said something very similar: Wirtz is too ball-attracted. He needs to learn patience and allow the game to come to him instead of constantly travelling huge distances trying to find it.
That is the issue with Wirtz right now IMO, and that is what he needs to adjust.
It also explains, at least partly, why we are seeing him dribble less. He is spending too much of his game moving towards the ball instead of receiving it in the zones where his turning, carrying and combination play can actually hurt teams.
He doesn’t need to cover those massive distances. He interprets the role that way right now, and that is probably something he needs to unlearn.
He’ll get there.
Shout out to Ronald Araujo. Fucking superb, and I'm made up because you had thousands of little bellwhiffs on this app writing him off before he'd even kicked a ball for Liverpool. It's almost like Barcelona's captain is good at football.
@TshepoBacela Context matters, all your examples don't show any harassment or dehumanizing of another. He deserves what he got, abamvuse bemgwaze futhi.