Arsenal’s Jorginho on Havertz: ‘If you know football, it’s not possible you don’t like Kai’
Arsenal midfielder Jorginho praised team-mate Kai Havertz saying: “If you know football, it’s not possible you don’t like Kai.”
The German has endured a difficult start to life since making his £65million move from Chelsea in the summer transfer window. Despite being deployed in several different positions, the 24-year-old has only scored three goals and provided one assist in 22 games.
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However, Jorginho, who joined Arsenal from Chelsea five months before Havertz, heaped praise on the midfielder’s quality and personality.
In an exclusive interview with The Athletic, when asked what it is like to play together, Jorginho said: “For me, he’s (Havertz) an unbelievable player, to be honest. As a guy, no words. It’s so, so, so good. Like such a nice guy. I love Kai and he became a friend and I always want the best for him as a player.
“He has intelligence. It’s funny because you look at him and you think he’s not fast and he’s fast, and then you think he’s not strong because maybe he looks skinny, but then he goes to the challenge and he’s strong.
“So maybe it takes a little while for people to understand his qualities and what he brings to the team, but how much effort he puts in and how much hard work he put in and his qualities just come out all of a sudden when his confidence is high as everyone else.
“But his intelligence, his technique, his finishing — when he finishes, I swear to you, it looks like he just like, put it there, like he doesn’t care. And then the ball goes to the corner and I’m like, how do you do that?”
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Jorginho and Havertz were Chelsea team-mates for two-and-a-half seasons, and both players started the 2021 Champions League final when Havertz scored to help record a famous 1-0 victory over Manchester City in Porto.
Jorginho, the 31-year-old Italy playmaker, added: “If you know football, it’s not possible that you don’t like Kai. And I know what you mean because that happened to me a lot. But when you play beside him, it’s just different.
“You see straight away his qualities and what he can offer. You just look at him and you understand what he wants, what he expects from you, what he expects (with) the ball, the way he puts his body in position. So he makes he makes things things easier for who’s beside him.”
Jorginho also highlighted the impact of Mikel Arteta, emphasising the detailed instructions provided by Arsenal’s manager to his players.
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However, he also admitted that Arteta refrains from extensive touchline analysis, focusing instead on delivering specific, unplanned instructions during crucial moments.
“Yeah, he provides a lot of information, but not in that moment (on the touchline),” Jorginho stated. “At that point, it’s just two key insights into what might be happening on the pitch, things that weren’t part of the planned training. He identifies these situations and instructs us on what needs to be done.
“All the intricate details and information are covered in our training sessions. So when we step onto the field, he prefers us to be mentally prepared, allowing us to play freely and apply our own strategies to the game.”
Read the Jorginho interview in full here.
(Photo: Getty Images)
