Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel believes Kai Havertz has returned to the club a different animal this season, riding off the confidence of scoring the winner in the 2020/21 Champions League final.
Havertz struggled to impose himself for the most part last season following his £72m move from Bayer Leverkusen - not helped by a debilitating bout of COVID-19.
However, the appointment of Tuchel as head coach in January has led to steady improvement, culminating in that memorable moment against Man City in Porto before the 22-year-old had an impressive Euro 2020 on a personal level with Germany.
Asked about Havertz's progress since the summer in his pre-match press conference ahead of facing Tottenham on Sunday, Tuchel said (as quoted by football.london): "I found him very strong when we came back. I was pleased with his attitude to training and the pre-season matches very early in the season.
"I felt him very self-confident after his end to the season after he was very decisive in the Champions League. He didn’t lean back on that and took it as a given that he has made an impact now and has his place.
"He is fighting hard with a different attitude and self-confident. He is also using his body to play physically in training, if he misses in training, he still takes the next shot with full belief.
"These are little details where I could see that he is in a good place. He pushes himself and he wants to continue to get better and have another impact and another impact."
Tuchel also stated that Chelsea will not let Havertz rest on his laurels, seeing the world-class potential in him waiting to be fulfilled.
"This is what we demand because the guy is so full of talent that we won’t let him relax for a second," he added. "If you have this amount of talent, we will push him to the absolute maximum and this guy has the body, talent and head.
"He has everything and the belief to play at the very top level. This is it. I felt him a little bit tired after the national break where he was a bit ill during his matches for Germany but now he is in very good shape.
"He had a good physical impact versus Zenit where he came off the bench. We count on him. He’s super important for us."
Source : 90min