Chelsea look determined to seriously improve their attacking options in the transfer market this summer. Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech have already joined, and Kai Havertz is strongly rumoured to be the next star to sign for the Blues.
Former England international Owen Hargreaves spoke on BT Sport at the weekend and claimed Chelsea “need to sort out the keeper and the centre-backs first,” ahead of completing any deal for Havertz.
Whether Frank Lampard agrees with his former England team-mate’s opinion or not, there is obviously a chance that Havertz may not be moving to west London this summer. The 20-year-old looks set to command an £80million transfer fee, which even for a club of Chelsea’s wealth is a serious chunk of change. Deals of this magnitude can never be taken for granted.
With that in mind, the Blues may need to consider other options in case the transfer falls through. There may not be many players who are as talented as Havertz, but here are some suggestions for some realistic alternatives.
Marcus Thuram (Borussia Monchengladbach)
If you’re looking for young players who posted similar underlying numbers to Havertz in 2019/20, there aren’t many options. There are only a handful of players aged 21 or under who have similar stats, and the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Jadon Sancho aren’t valid options in this scenario as they will cost more and be harder to procure than Havertz is anyway.
Thuram would appear to be a more attainable target, and has better numbers than the Bayer Leverkusen man too. He averaged 0.28 expected assists and 0.42 non-penalty expected goals in the Bundesliga this season, where Havertz’ respective figures were 0.23 and 0.31. Perhaps Chelsea are looking at the wrong young star in Germany?
Domenico Berardi (Sassuolo)
Another strength of Havertz is his ability to play through balls. Despite his tender age, he has already featured twice in the Bundesliga’s top seven players of a season for this particular attribute.
While a few years older – he recently turned 26 – Berardi has this weapon in his arsenal too. And with 12 through balls completed this season, he recorded more than Havertz has in a single campaign. The players were also tied on 0.54 non-penalty expected goals and assists per 90 minutes this season, suggesting Berardi could match the Chelsea target’s output in that field too.
Christopher Baumgartner (Hoffenheim)
Havertz is very adept at ensuring his goal attempts test the opposition goalkeeper. While his tally of 25 shots on target in 2019/20 was a drop from his tally of 39 the season before, he was still one of only 12 players aged under 23 in Europe’s big five leagues who took at least 50 shots and put 23 or more of them on target this season.
Baumgartner is another young man who did though. His game leans more towards shooting rather than creating – at least when compared to Havertz – but his combined figure for expected assists and non-penalty expected goals (0.61 per 90 minutes) topped what the Bayer Leverkusen starlet produced this season.
*All statistics taken from FBRef.com
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