Chelsea and German attacker Kai Havertz have heaped praises on Chelsea’s new signing Raheem Sterling claiming he is a great player and was impressed by The 27-year-old England international’s statistics in the last five seasons.
Kai Havertz is expected to be Chelsea’s new number with the departure of Romelu Lukaku on loan to Inter Milan.
Chelsea has no intention to sign a new striker in the transfer following Thomas Tuchel’s admission that strengthening his defense is his top priority.
Raheem Sterling’s arrival gives Chelsea more options in the attack as the England international can play on both sides of the attack as well as a false nine.
However, The German international is relishing the opportunity to share the same pitch with the former Manchester City player and learn more from his experience.
What did Kai Havertz say about Chelsea’s new signing Raheem Sterling?
The German international said: “We all know that he is a great player.
“I saw a stat about him that he has had the most goals and assists for Man City in the last five years or something like that. That tells the whole story of him.
“He was a great player for City and the national team as well, hopefully, he can keep up his level here. For me and of course, for everyone, he is going to help.
“I think in every game you can see that. I know the game against England at the Euros, he played well.
“You can see his quality here already and it’s been just a few days. You can see in training how good he is, how fast he is. He is definitely going to help us.”
Kai Havertz was deployed as false nine or a central forward mostly last season and the 23 years old has insisted that he enjoys playing in that role.
Kai Havertz continued: “I’ve played a lot of positions over the years but last season I played a lot as a no.9 and it’s a position I like very much.
“If I look back four years ago, I could never have imagined playing there. But the last two years I’ve played it more often and I like the position.
“It’s still good that I am flexible and can play different positions up front, but I am there to score goals and make assists and as a number nine you have to do that and link up with players.”
Meanwhile, Christian Pulisic has hailed Raheem Sterling but vowed to work hard to earn a place in Chelsea’s lineup.
Speaking in an interview with ESPN, the American international said: “Great quality, we’re really excited about it.
“The beautiful thing about being at a club like this is the competition every single day. We all thrive competing with each other in training and getting to play with each other is just another great addition to the team.
“It doesn’t change a whole lot [for me], I’m still going to have to play hard and earn my position, just like I did before, nothing crazy has changed. This is Chelsea, this is what you signed up for, this is the kind of club it is with the caliber of players that we have.”
