The quest to find Kai Havertz's best position continues, with Germany surprisingly fielding the Arsenal summer signing at left-back.
Euro 2024 hosts Germany are taking on Turkey in Berlin on Saturday night in their latest friendly assignment on the road to next summer's major tournament on home soil.
New boss Julian Nagelsmann continues to experiment to find his best lineup after taking over from Hansi Flick in September and producing an initial 3-1 win over the United States plus a 2-2 draw with Mexico in October.
The former Bayern Munich boss confirmed a particularly intriguing selection decision ahead of Saturday's game with Euros-bound Turkey at the Olympiastadion, deciding to deploy Havertz at left-back.
“Kai won't always be in this position. I have a great idea, he's an exceptionally good footballer," Nagelsmann told RTL.
“This is a very good option. He won't always play as a classic left-back”.
Such a bold call looked to have paid off almost instantly as the 24-year-old gave Germany the lead within just five minutes, racing forward and getting inside the box as he swept past Manchester United goalkeeper Altay Bayindir from Leroy Sane's smart cutback.
It was Havertz's 14th goal for his country in 41 senior appearances since making his debut as an exciting Bayer Leverkusen prospect back in 2018.
The oft-maligned Havertz - scorer of the winning goal in the 2021 Champions League final against Manchester City in Porto - has struggled notably for form since swapping Chelsea for London rivals Arsenal in a £65million summer transfer, having registered just one goal and one assist in 19 outings so far across all competitions this term.
Though he played primarily as a forward at Stamford Bridge and also operated at times off the flanks, as a false nine and even as a No10, Gunners boss Mikel Arteta was keen to quickly extoll his virtues as a central midfield option after sealing that summer transfer.
Havertz has already fulfilled several different roles in a short time for Arsenal, filling in on both sides of a midfield three as the title contenders continue to battle injury woes that have seen them miss the likes of captain Martin Odegaard and Thomas Partey for stretches.
Havertz has yet to feature in Arteta's forward line though despite injuries to the likes of Gabriel Jesus and Eddie Nketiah - something Gunners legend Paul Merson recently highlighted as a mistake.
Despite his potential success with Germany in the position, it seems unlikely that Havertz will be deployed on the left-hand side of defence for his club any time soon.
The popular Oleksandr Zinchenko is Arsenal's favoured option there, while the versatile Takehiro Tomiyasu has also been battling for the spot and even won the club's player of the month award for October to briefly keep the Ukrainian on the bench.
