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Granit Xhaka: Swiss Army Knife or Blunt Tool?

Will Xhaka be here after the summer window?

  • Yes

    Votes: 38 55.1%
  • No

    Votes: 31 44.9%

  • Total voters
    69
  • Poll closed .
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Not open for further replies.

CaseUteinberger

Established Member

Country: Sweden
And there we are with calling people that defend Xhaka *Not Arsenal Fans*. Yeah, you're on a sooooo much higher moral ground.

Pathetic.

And I'll say Xhaka has improved (Under Arteta his tackeling most of all) BUT he has done a lot of those things before as well. No historical revisionism about that.. His stats (which by the way hilariously get ignored or ripped apart every time they get brought up) support that. Except before a lot of the work he's done got ignored or went by unnoticed.
*Point proven... Forum warriors just like I wrote. :facepalm:
 

Mrs Bergkamp

Double Dusted
Dusted 🔻
He had a quietly solid game. Gets rid of the ball a bit quicker but its still disappointing that he's so conservative. It's Arteta's choice and a tactic thats working, so it's all good. Him and Elneny were decent as a pair
 

EmeryCouldnt

Established Member
And there we are again with calling people that defend Xhaka *Not Arsenal Fans*. Yeah, you're on a sooooo much higher moral ground.

Pathetic.

And I'll say Xhaka has improved (Under Arteta his tackeling most of all) BUT he has done a lot of those things before as well. No historical revisionism about that.. His stats (which by the way hilariously get ignored or ripped apart every time they get brought up) support that. Except before a lot of the work he's done got ignored or went by unnoticed.

So your argument is that if we research historical defensive stats for Xhaka, it will prove he’s a consistently good midfielder?
 

Godwin1

Very well-known
Played some good passes, relatively solid but I just cannot stand it when he has the time and space to turn but his head is down and he passes the ball backwards. It's a flaw that just seems cannot be fixed. We can really up the tempo so much in that area of the pitch
I actually think he's been instructed to play it safe more often and recycle possesion to cut down on his errors. Xhaka recieving the ball under pressure and turning to move the ball foward is generally where he ****s the bed.
 

Manberg

Predator
So your argument is that if we research historical defensive stats for Xhaka, it will prove he’s a consistently good midfielder?

An eye test of watching Xhaka over the last few years will prove that he’s a consistently good midfielder. An eye that’s not behind anti Xhaka agenda glasses.
 

Kav

Established Member
An eye test of watching Xhaka over the last few years will prove that he’s a consistently good midfielder. An eye that’s not behind anti Xhaka agenda glasses.

Good in my opinion is Jorginho, Thiago, Rakitic, Kroos, Pogba, Fernandinho, Kante, pjanic, Fernandes. Is he among that category? Not in my opinion.

We aren’t even talking about great midfielders like Silva, Cazorla, Toure, Kroos/ De Bruyne.

There are levels to this and if I’m being honest he’s not near the level required if I were building a team to challenge for a title. He has his positives in his game. Xhaka’s greatest deficiencies have always been mental, a lack of concentration, lack of intuition but he seems to have improved on these the last 7 months. That being said i personally wouldn’t call him a good midfielder like those I listed earlier. He’s a solid player that can improve.
 

Manberg

Predator
Good in my opinion is Jorginho, Thiago, Rakitic, Kroos, Pogba, Fernandinho, Kante, pjanic, Fernandes. Is he among that category? Not in my opinion.

We aren’t even talking about great midfielders like Silva, Cazorla, Toure, Kroos/ De Bruyne.

There are levels to this and if I’m being honest he’s not near the level required if I were building a team to challenge for a title. He has his positives in his game. Xhaka’s greatest deficiencies have always been mental, a lack of concentration, lack of intuition but he seems to have improved on these the last 7 months. That being said i personally wouldn’t call him a good midfielder like those I listed earlier. He’s a solid player that can improve.

He’s better than a lot of those you listed. Yes I’m strawmanning I can’t be bothered repeating explanations for the umpteenth time.
 

Kav

Established Member
He’s better than a lot of those you listed. Yes I’m strawmanning I can’t be bothered repeating explanations for the umpteenth time.
It’s fine. I don’t expect you to see the game the same way that I do and I do expect us to have different views and perspectives on players. Just a healthy discussion.

For the record I don’t think Xhaka is garbage in fact I think he can be a very solid player, my gripe with him are his costly mistakes. That aside he is a good squad player to have as he’s very professional and does most of the things you want fairly well. I just don’t think he is what we need if we want to take the next step for challenging for titles or even competing in Europe.
 

Macho

In search of Pure Profit 💸
Dusted 🔻

Country: England
He’s better than a lot of those you listed. Yes I’m strawmanning I can’t be bothered repeating explanations for the umpteenth time.
Better than who out of interest?

Can only think of Jorginho in that list who would probably fit in very well under Arsenal the way he plays (under Sarri).
 

EmeryCouldnt

Established Member
He’s better than a lot of those you listed. Yes I’m strawmanning I can’t be bothered repeating explanations for the umpteenth time.

Yeah, I fee the same after you saying he passed the eye test. I don’t have AntiXhaka glasses, but I do have a different opinion of the eye test on him than you do.

it’s fair to say that we will not be reaching an agreement on this matter and it that probably will not negatively effect our lives at all so... agree to disagree.
 

TriniGunner

Well-Known Member
I can probably screen shot a whatsapp message I sent in our football group where I said that despite fans not liking Xhaka, there must be a reason why every coach and manager plays him consistently. There must be a reason why he was first choice to captain Switzerland and there must be a reason why he's always probably the first name of the team sheet. He does the little things well and you can clearly see that he's the leader on the pitch. No coach would overlook that.
 

Football Manager

Copy & Paste Merchant
So your argument is that if we research historical defensive stats for Xhaka, it will prove he’s a consistently good midfielder?
Xhaka has always been good with his passing, finding our attacking players in space. And also his decision making on when to play short/long , when to play slow/quick. So I think xhaka has always been pretty good. Defensively, there could be room for improvement.

Fabregas didn’t have good defensive stats too. He left it all to Flamini. To pair Fabregas up with a defensive minded player like Flamini is a tactical system that is created to release Fabregas’ passing ability and also hide his weaknesses on defending.

Now, people say Xhaka is good only because he is in a good system or being paired up with a more defensive minded player. I think that is a bit unfair to him.
 

EmeryCouldnt

Established Member
Xhaka has always been good with his passing, finding our attacking players in space. And also his decision making on when to play short/long , when to play slow/quick. So I think xhaka has always been pretty good. Defensively, there could be room for improvement.

Fabregas didn’t have good defensive stats too. He left it all to Flamini. To pair Fabregas up with a defensive minded player like Flamini is a tactical system that is created to release Fabregas’ passing ability and also hide his weaknesses on defending.

Now, people say Xhaka is good only because he is in a good system or being paired up with a more defensive minded player. I think that is a bit unfair to him.

I was responding to a post talking about Xhaka’s tackling/defensive play specifically.


As far as your first paragraph. I don’t think those are substantiated claims. So much discussion on how he will rarely play that long ball and hesitates to pull the trigger. Plenty of games where he just passes it backwards and sideways the whole game; A big reason why we created **** all for so many games. He plays it short to a well covered player in dangerous areas, losing possession, in just about every game (pre Arteta). You’re just saying praise for him that is untrue.

However, the only way to go is forward. And the future looks bright for Xhaka under Arteta.
 

Football Manager

Copy & Paste Merchant
Good in my opinion is Jorginho, Thiago, Rakitic, Kroos, Pogba, Fernandinho, Kante, pjanic, Fernandes. Is he among that category? Not in my opinion.

We aren’t even talking about great midfielders like Silva, Cazorla, Toure, Kroos/ De Bruyne.

There are levels to this and if I’m being honest he’s not near the level required if I were building a team to challenge for a title. He has his positives in his game. Xhaka’s greatest deficiencies have always been mental, a lack of concentration, lack of intuition but he seems to have improved on these the last 7 months. That being said i personally wouldn’t call him a good midfielder like those I listed earlier. He’s a solid player that can improve.
Agree Xhaka is not a top class midfielder. And could be replaced by Tonali/Roca/Cuisance.

Out of your list, I agree that the ones who play in the same DLP position, they are all better than Xhaka. The ones who are DM or more like AM, what’s the point of comparing them to a DLP? Comparing Iniesta to Pirlo? And if you replaced Xhaka with Kante, who is going to ply those cross field pass, that are essential to our tactics?

Xhaka is not top class but he is good enough. Carrick wasn’t on the same level as Scholes too. So? Carrick was contributing a lot tactically to the team, Xhaka too. If we could find a top player with good long passing ability to replace xhaka, it’s good. But if not then why not appreciating what he has contributed to the team.
 
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Sniper Mik

Not a Closet Sp**s Fan
I actually think he's been instructed to play it safe more often and recycle possesion to cut down on his errors. Xhaka recieving the ball under pressure and turning to move the ball foward is generally where he ****s the bed.
Yeah true it's cause his sharpness on the ball isn't that good, something about the way his body pivots isn't conducive to those quick turns. I think if we play a 3 man midfield this wouldn't matter at all. But when it's 2 in the middle, you gotta make every touch, every second count.
 

Mrs Bergkamp

Double Dusted
Dusted 🔻
I actually think he's been instructed to play it safe more often and recycle possesion to cut down on his errors. Xhaka recieving the ball under pressure and turning to move the ball foward is generally where he ****s the bed.
This is a good point and probably why he's looked more solid and made less errors. We don't expect a calamity anymore. He's very good at following instructions and seems to have done everything Arteta has asked. However, whilst simplifying his game has virtually cut out his errors, we are not as potent as we might be in attack because the limits to his game mean there's often a pause or extra passes that a more rounded midfielder would cut out. Yesterday, I found Elneny's contribution to be better, more effective and to add more.
 

Taneruit

Established Member

Country: Switzerland

Player:Zinchenko
Yesterday, I found Elneny's contribution to be better, more effective and to add more.

Eh. He had a very solid game, but he had like one real forward pass the entire game. It was a very Elneny game (In a good way). Other than that they had good games, both had a decisive action which led to a goal, and they were both solid.

Elneny also dropped off massively the last 10 minutes, whether that was because he suddenly had to switch sides or didn't have much practice with Ceballos yet I dunno.

YMMV of course.
 
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