Former Chelsea midfielder Cesc Fabregas has predicted that Timo Werner and Kai Havertz will be ‘different players’ for the blues next season.
Chelsea activated Werner’s £47.5m buy-out clause at Red Bull Leipzig last summer, before spending more than £70m to sign Havertz from Bayer Leverkusen.
Both players endured mixed first seasons at the club, with Werner only scoring 12 goals in 40 games and Havertz initially flattering to deceive before improving towards the end of the season and scoring the winner in the Champions League final.
Werner and Havertz appeared to benefit from Thomas Tuchel’s appointment and Fabregas believes there is more to come from the German duo now that they are settled in west London.
He wrote in a column for the Daily Telegraph: ‘I watch every single Chelsea game, so I’ve followed the first seasons of the club’s two big German signings, Kai Havertz and Timo Werner, very closely and I am convinced next season we will start to really see the best of them.
‘As a midfielder who likes to make assists, I have played behind strikers before who are going through a bad time or suffering with their confidence.
‘It’s a bit of both that it can be frustrating that they miss chances, but I would also be thinking at some time Werner will score.
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‘The most important thing is that he keeps making the runs, that his timing is good, that he’s not offside and with his speed he will always get chances.
‘Players like Werner are so valuable nowadays because players want the ball at their feet a lot and, as a midfielder, you would like this type of player to run on to your passes.
‘Football is so much about confidence and what’s in your head and especially strikers who depend so much on scoring or not scoring. If they miss, it’s when you need to support them the most.’
Fabregas added: ‘I was talking to my Monaco team-mate Kevin Volland, who was a team-mate of Havertz at Bayer Leverkusen.
‘He told me that Havertz would usually struggle a little bit at the start of seasons to get going, but that once he gets a clear ride and is mentally good then he’s a fantastic player.
‘Havertz didn’t start very, very well at Chelsea and sometimes he looked off the pace. But once Thomas Tuchel put him in a false nine position, it was working better.
‘He didn’t have to touch a lot of the ball, but he helped the team tick. He was not losing the ball, he made everyone else secure, he was creating stuff. And I think at the end of the season, he was very, very good.
‘I saw that both Werner and Havertz scored for Germany in their last warm-up game, so, hopefully, they can have a good tournament and, definitely, I think we will see different players for Chelsea next season.’
