RacingPhoton
Established Member
Santi struggled when playing along with Coquelin? He was pressed. True. But never struggled. He was the master of getting out of a press. That was the last good midfield partnership we had.Xhaka is a good player that's been mismanaged for most of his entire career. If he was anything less than good then he would have dropped by Wenger/Emery/Arteta.
People go on about press resistance but show me a player who's press resistant when the opposition can focus solely on him. Santi struggled hugely when playing with Coquelin because teams could focus wholeheartedly on pressing him, remember that.
The dumb moments are unfortunately just him though. Nobody to blame for that although you could make a point about him having to cover huge areas of space which lead him to panic.