Havertz sends Lukaku message as Tuchel hands Chelsea star new responsibility

A challenge lies ahead for Kai Havertz at Chelsea. He knows it too. Romelu Lukaku is gone and there is currently no sign of an out-and-out number nine being signed. So it will fall upon the German to take on the goalscoring responsibility during the 2022/23 campaign.

Havertz netted 14 times last term; it's a figure that needs to be higher this time around. At 23 years old and with two seasons of English football under his belt, there is hope – perhaps even expectation – that the forward blossoms into one of Europe's most feared. But consistency is first required.

Throughout his career, Havertz has tended to start seasons slowly. That can't be the case come August if he is leading the Chelsea attack. Havertz also has to become more reliable in the penalty area, a fact which was highlighted by the former Bayer Leverkusen star's miss in the pre-season friendly win over Club America Saturday evening.

In Thomas Tuchel, Havertz has a strong supporter. The Chelsea head coach values the German international's game intelligence, appreciation of space, technique, and the intensity of his off-the-ball work. It's why Havertz ended the campaign as the club's first-choice striker ahead of Lukaku.

That trust is important for Havertz – and he plans to continue repaying it this season. "You always feel the responsibility when you play," Havertz explains. "We all wish Rom the best and hopefully, it is going to be a good step for him. But of course, I want to play. It was also the case last year.

"If you are playing and on the pitch, you always have to take the responsibility. I will definitely try to play as much as I can this season. Hopefully, it is going to be a better year than last year."

Havertz continues: "It is always good for a striker [to have a show of faith from the head coach]. I'm still young, I need to get that confidence from the coach, I need the trust, sometimes in the bad times too. He has always given that trust to me in the last couple of years. Hopefully, it will also be the case this season. In every match, I want to repay the trust back.

"I've played a lot of positions over the years but last season I played a lot as a number nine and it's a position I like very much. If I look back four years ago, I could never have imagined playing there. But the last two years I've played it more often and I like the position.

"It's still good that I am flexible and can play different positions up front, but I am there to score goals and make assists and as a number nine you have to do that and link up with players."

The departure of Lukaku, who rejoined Inter Milan on a season-long loan, left a hole for Chelsea to fill in their attack. Raheem Sterling has arrived from Man City it but the England international is far from a traditional number nine and certainly not a like-for-like replacement.

It indicates Tuchel is likely to field a fluid front three – which did propel Chelsea to Champions League glory in 2021 – or perhaps a quick and mobile front two when the occasion calls for it. And Havertz is looking forward to playing alongside Sterling, who is expected to be handed his first match action against Charlotte FC on Wednesday.

"You can see his quality here already and it's been just a few days," says Havertz "You can see in training how good he is, how fast he is. He is definitely going to help us.

"We all know he is a great player. I saw a stat about him that he has had the most goals and assists for Man City in the last five years, something like that. It tells the whole story of him. He was a great player for City and the national team as well. Hopefully, he can keep up his level here. For me and for everyone, he is going to help."

It's a quirk of circumstance that until this summer, Havertz hadn't undertaken a full pre-season with Chelsea or been on tour with the club abroad. The Covid-19 pandemic meant there was no trip in 2020 and he returned late ahead of last season having represented Germany at Euro 2020.

Yet with two weeks in the United States – with stops in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Charlotte and Orlando – and another fortnight at Cobham to come, Havertz expects to feel the benefit come the opening Premier League game of the campaign away at Frank Lampard's Everton.

"I think it helps me a lot because the duration is longer so you can maybe get a bit fitter," he says. "The last couple of years was hard, there was Covid and then the Euros, so there was not much time for pre-season. Now we have a longer time and hopefully it's going to help us.

"We are a special group. You see that in the changing room away from the pitch and you see it on the pitch. We have a lot of young players who are around the same age and we also have a lot of experienced players and I think we all fit together very well. You see that on and off the pitch. I think it's going to be a special year hopefully for us."