Comparing the goalscoring records of Havertz and Werner in Germany and England | OneFootball

Kai Havertz and Timo Werner have both had similar careers, moving from the Bundesliga to Chelsea where they won the Champions League together in 2021.

But since then, they have both had ups and downs that they would not have envisaged on that storied night in Porto. Both have since joined Chelsea’s bitter rivals, with Havertz heading to Arsenal and Werner currently at Tottenham.

Both were touted as being future greats when Havertz was at Bayer Leverkusen and Werner at RB Leipzig, but have things panned out as expected?

Comparisons between their time in England and Germany

Havertz has been the more successful of the two, with a goal record of 26 in 78 since joining the Gunners, who he joined directly from Chelsea, where he scored 32 goals in 139 games in all competitions across a three-year spell.

The 25-year-old has failed to match the same rate of goalscoring as he did in Germany, however. He scored 18 goals scored in all competitions in his final year at Leverkusen and 20 in 42 games the season prior to that.

Werner, meanwhile, re-joined his previous club RB Leipzig after leaving Chelsea, and had a very successful first season back with the German club, notching 16 goals and getting five assists.

In Werner’s previous spell with Leipzig, between 2016 and 2020, his record was a very healthy 95 goals in 159 games. It seems the 28-year-old is well suited to football in his native country, where teams play with higher defensive lines and his explosive pace is a very useful tool.

At Chelsea, his goal record was 23 in 89, interestingly, very similar to Havertz’s at Arsenal. But Werner was constantly criticised for his wasteful finishing and, at times, poor technical quality, a theme that has continued during his time at Tottenham.

He has not proven to be a reliable source of goals at Spurs. He has scored just once in 26 games in all competitions this campaign and netted four in 28 games last season.

Havertz, conversely, has never been attacked for his technique, which for a taller player is rather elegant. But wasteful finishing is a common trait between the two, and Havertz, especially in recent games, has cost Arsenal heavily with his haphazard finishing.

Havertz has always had talent, the problem however has been that he has never had a defined position, and has never been consistent during his time in England.

At Chelsea, there were a couple of periods where he scored regularly and fans felt he had turned a corner. For example in March of 2022 when he scored six in six for the Blues, but it proved not to be sustainable.

And at Arsenal, the same has happened. 26 goals in 78 games is not a great record, but during that time he has had a couple of runs where he has looked the real deal. This season has seen an improvement, with 12 goals already for the Gunners, but his recent misses have cost his side.

Where do they both go from here?

Three-and-a-half-years after winning the Champions League together, Werner and Havertz have taken different turns in their careers, but neither have reached the heights they would have liked.

Werner will return to Leipzig at the end of this season, and the best move for his career may be to stay in Germany.

Havertz, however, seems to have the backing of his boss Mikel Arteta after joining Arsenal for £65 million, and at 25-years-old, he is still young enough to reach a potential that has always seemed possible.

The form which he showed in the earlier part of the season has dipped but he is on course for his best goalscoring season in English football.

So far, however, neither have delivered on the expectations and value placed on them, and perhaps serves as a warning to clubs looking to buy players based on their strong form in Germany.