Pundit blasts ‘lightweight’ Chelsea player as Terry sends a warning to Potter
Gabby Agbonlahor has criticised Kai Havertz for being too “lightweight” to play up front for Chelsea after they were held to a 1-1 draw against West Ham on Saturday.
The Blues are having a season to forget currently with Graham Potter’s side currently ninth in the Premier League and will drop down to tenth if Liverpool beat Everton on Monday night.
Chelsea sacked Thomas Tuchel in September with the Premier League club spending around £300m in the January transfer window to help new boss Potter reach his goals.
However, they failed to address one of their biggest issues with no incomings up front and now Havertz will have to play as a striker for the rest of the campaign.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is one option but Potter recently left him out of their revised Champions League squad, although the Gabon international is ‘determined to do everything’ to get back into the Chelsea starting XI.
And Agbonlahor thinks they need to try something new as Havertz is getting “bullied” most weeks up front on his own.
Agbonlahor told talkSPORT: “[Chelsea are] missing a ruthless striker. Put Harry Kane in that team, put Haaland in that team, imagine the chances they’d score.
“Havertz, for me, is lightweight. He’s a big lad, but gets bullied on the ball. He’s not an out-and-out number nine and is more a number 10.
“But] they’ve got [Cristopher] Nkunku coming in the summer.”
Potter is now coming under a lot of pressure to get results at the same time as moulding a number of new players into a team with Chelsea only winning once in eight matches in all competitions.
When asked by a fan on Instagram if he’d helped Potter get the Chelsea job, club legend John Terry wrote: “Absolutely not.
“I tweeted that I loved watching Brighton play and his style of play. I have nothing to do with the first team. I’m working with the [Under] 18s and 21s and love my role.
“Clearly results are not good enough and we need to get a settled team.”
Potter thought his side should’ve had a penalty in their draw against West Ham in east London after Tomas Soucek diverted a Conor Gallagher shot off target with his left hand.
“I thought it was a good save,” Potter said. “You need your goalkeeper, sometimes, to get you the points.
“It hasn’t been given so there’s nothing for me to say. I’ve only seen it briefly. It looks like one of those ones that if it had been given I don’t think it would have been overturned. But it hasn’t been given, so I don’t know.
“It looks like a handball to me. I didn’t know Tomas could get down that easily and save like that. But it’s not for me to say about VAR. Sometimes they go for you and sometimes they don’t, you just have to accept that.”
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