Souness claims Havertz gets ‘caught out’ for Chelsea

Will Ford
Souness

Graeme Souness says he still has “reservations” over Kai Havertz despite a goal and an assist in a fine display for Chelsea on Saturday.

The German playmaker opened the scoring with a beatifully taken finish before a neat pass set up Christian Pulisic to double Chelsea’s lead in their 4-1 win over Crystal Palace.

Havertz did however have two further excellent opportunities to get on the scoresheet, setting himself up expertly for the first, but both efforts were tame and easily saved by Vicente Guaita.


MAILBOX: Solskjaer’s no-win Man Utd situation; Kane the tryhard


It was undoubtedly one of Havertz’s best performances for Chelsea, in what has been a difficult first season in the Premier League for the £72million summer signing from Bayer Leverkusen.

But he still came under scrutiny from Souness after the final whistle, with the Sky Sports pundit claiming the “intensity” of the Premier League can at times “catch him out”.

He said: “I think all the Chelsea supporters were expecting really big things from him. I know he’s only a boy and I know it takes some players time to adjust to the intensity of our game, but I think overall, Frank before was trying him in different positions to try and get that spark out of him.

“We’ll have to wait until next year to see if he is what we all hope he is going to be – a star player. He’s a young boy, technically very gifted, but sometimes the intensity of our game catches him out so we’ll have to wait and see if he’ll become the player Chelsea thought he would be.

“They paid big money for him. You say it’s a strange time (to move during Covid), but it’s a game of football. Training is still the same, I think overall, he’ll look back at his first year at Chelsea and it’s been so far, if they end up winning the European Cup and end up in the top four, then he’d be part of a very successful Chelsea team, but that’s for the end of the season.

“Right now, there’s reservations.”