Pat Nevin says ‘technical’ Chelsea player not playing in best position under Graham Potter

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Blues icon Pat Nevin believes versatile forward Kai Havertz is struggling to play as a number nine under Graham Potter at Chelsea.

Chelsea’s poor goalscoring form — six goals since November, which makes them the lowest-scoring team in the top four divisions in England in this period — is arguably the biggest issue Potter is dealing with.

In the end, without scoring, you just cannot win a football game.

The club has done everything they could to help solve the problem, by bringing in four new attackers, including on-loan Atletico Madrid forward Joao Felix, in January, but it clearly has not worked as well as they would have hoped so far.

Nevin argued that Potter’s using Havertz to lead the line is part of the problem.

“He [Potter] is going to have to think outside the box,” the former Blues winger told Sky Sports when asked about Chelsea’s goalscoring issues.

“Because he’s not got an obvious, straight-up striker.

“Havertz has been playing up there — it’s not his best position.

“No way anybody who’s watched him over the years has thought that’s his best position.

“He’s someone who arrives from a number 10 or number eight position — he’s very good at that. He’s a good technical player but not particularly good with his back to goal, which you need to be [as a number nine] in the Premier League.

“People are asking about [Pierre-Emerick] Aubameyang, but remember, his record hasn’t been great and when he’s played for Chelsea, it’s not been fantastic, either.

“I think [Potter] is unlucky with [Armando] Broja.

“But imagine if they’d managed to keep Olivier Giroud, he would have been almost the perfect guy they could have got.

“But they don’t have that, so they have to find a method around it.”

Obviously, Chelsea also signed young striker David Datro Fofana last month, but he still lacks experience at the top level and does not seem ready to be a regular starter, at least for now.

Unfortunately for Chelsea, unlike last season, players in other areas have not been scoring as well.

Bear in mind that in the last two seasons, Chelsea’s top scorers were Mason Mount and Jorginho, so they have lacked a reliable goalscorer for a while now.

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