Thierry Henry has compared Kai Havertz to Premier League icon Robin van Persie in a glowing review - despite the Chelsea forward's modest scoring record.
Havertz, 23, scored a controversial penalty to send the Blues through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League. After losing the first leg in Germany 1-0, Graham Potter's side defeated Borussia Dortmund 2-0 at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday night to progress.
Havertz has divided opinion since his £72million transfer from Bayer Leverkusen to Chelsea in the summer of 2020, but Henry is a big fan of the German. The Arsenal legend has highlighted Havertz's role in Raheem Sterling's goal, which levelled the tie on aggregate.
"I thought he was good on the first goal you could see held the ball ever so well," Henry told CBS Sports while sitting alongside Micah Richards and Jamie Carragher.
"He reminds me sometimes, a little, of Robin back to goal the way he can hold the ball. Robin van Persie was very good with his left foot, the touch was always immaculate he tried to bring people along.
"This is why out of the guys that used to be wingers or No.10 he plays as a nine because with his his back to goal he can hold the ball well. Now he needs to make sure he can transform that into more goals because you can play off him."
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Havertz has scored just 30 goals in 126 games for Chelsea since his transfer. He's won the Club World Cup, European Super Cup and Champions League during his time at Stamford Bridge - scoring the winning goal in the 2021 final of the latter competition.
Although Havertz has shown plenty of glimpses of his quality, he needs to be more consistent. Potter is deploying the international as a centre-forward, but Chelsea aren't scoring many goals. The Blues have managed just five in the Premier League during 2023.
Havertz's goal on Tuesday night was contentious. Chelsea were awarded a penalty when Dortmund's Marius Wolf handled in the box, although the defender had just a split-second to react to Ben Chilwell's cross. Havertz then missed his initial penalty but was allowed a retake due to encroachment, with Jude Bellingham calling the incident "a joke".
On Havertz, Carragher argued, "Havertz is a strange player in that there are a lot of players at Chelsea who haven’t really performed. [Hakim] Ziyech, [Christian] Pulisic, Raheem Sterling hasn’t set the world on fire yet. Havertz has done better than all of those players.
"But is it still enough to be the main man for Chelsea? It’s sort of in between both and that’s why he always plays. He plays on the last manager and under this manager.
"But most people would still look at Havertz and think is that enough for Chelsea to win the Premier League. It still feels al little bit short of what the other top teams have, even though he’s done OK since he’s gone to Chelsea."
