Granit Xhaka: Swiss Army Knife or Blunt Tool?

[gunner4lyfe]

He was ok defensively but he'll get those tackles wrong in the next few if he's encouraged to make them. My opinion of him has not changed. If he continues to play he will cost us. Sell in the summer or at least buy someone who will relegate him to the bench.

 

[Football Manager]

People are judging him wrong again.
I don't care about his tackles. He is not a DM. No one cares if Alonso/Pirlo makes a tackle. They are known for their passing. And they let their proper DM doing the dirty work for them.
Xhaka’s passing was alright.

 

[DasBootist]

Imagine if twitter was around for literally any of Vieira's performances for us, the admin would probably have to be taken to a hospital



Granit wishes!

Paddy, Henry, Bergkamp and Pires came to our earth too soon.

 

[Big Poppa]

Imagine if twitter was around for literally any of Vieira's performances for us, the admin would probably have to be taken to a hospital



Granit wishes!

Instantly reminded me of the 12 min video highlights the admin posted for a Rob Holding contract extension.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

It shows how low the bar is for Xhaka that some consider his performance against Palace good or even great.

Yes he made a couple of decent tackles / blocks, most to make up for passes he had misplaced. His distribution was largely glacially slow and overly safe. 3-4 random poor passes under no pressure that really put us in danger. The same repetitive clumsy fouls as always.

The few times Palace really committed men forward and lost the ball, Xhaka would take 5-6 touches and totally destroy any chance of a counter attack we had.

You're never going to consistently dominate the centre of the park with a player like Xhaka in it, you're just not. He has way too many weaknesses.

 

[North5]

People are judging him wrong again.
I don't care about his tackles. He is not a DM. No one cares if Alonso/Pirlo makes a tackle. They are known for their passing. And they let their proper DM doing the dirty work for them.
Xhaka’s passing was alright.

This is the new level of expectation for our starting central midfielder in the Arteta era

 

[Football Manager]

This is the new level of expectation for our starting central midfielder in the Arteta era

I said I don't care about his tackles. Which means I don't rate him as much in the last match, after watching him making those tackles. Do you think I'm praising him?

 

[Tir Na Nog]

It shows how low the bar is for Xhaka that some consider his performance against Palace good or even great.

Yes he made a couple of decent tackles / blocks, most to make up for passes he had misplaced. His distribution was largely glacial and overly safe. 3-4 randomly poor passes under no pressure that really put us in danger. The same repetitive clumsy fouls as always.

The few times Palace really committed men forwards and lost the ball, Xhaka would take 5-6 touches and totally destroy any chance of a counter attack we had.

You're never going to consistently dominate the centre of the park with a player like Xhaka in it, you're just not. He has way too many weaknesses.

The bar is in hell ffs, this was genuinely a horrendous midfield performance. Like not even average or poor, it was ****ing horrendous saved by a few timely interceptions and tackles, some of them after his own mistakes ffs. People are so so desperate for Xhaka to succeed they're now blind to all of the stuff he does wrong and focus on a few nice tackles.

 

[Riou]

The bar is in hell ffs, this was genuinely a horrendous midfield performance. Like not even average or poor, it was ****ing horrendous saved by a few timely interceptions and tackles, some of them after his own mistakes ffs. People are so so desperate for Xhaka to succeed they're now blind to all of the stuff he does wrong and focus on a few nice tackles.

The question mark appearing got me :rofl:

 

[Maybe]

This debate is going on for years, but there is a reason why we are a mid table team, and Xhaka takes a huge part in that. Together with Bellerin and Auba, the 3 of them drop our attacking game by 2 levels.

There's no way we can maintain attacking fluency with them on the pitch. While Xhaka does have a football brain, he lacks the agility to play on a high level, while both Bellerin and Auba are "kick & run" merchants who are somehow involved in our build up process

 

[Tir Na Nog]

The question mark appearing got me :rofl:

"Progressive passer" uno.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

This debate is going on for years, but there is a reason why we are a mid table team, and Xhaka takes a huge part in that. Together with Bellerin and Auba, the 3 of them drop our attacking game by 2 levels.

There's no way we can maintain attacking fluency with them on the pitch

It's incredible there is a debate, it's the same story with him, he might put in a few solid performances, people get their knickers wet but before you know it he's back to dropping horrendous performances. Leopards don't change their spots, you hoped Xhaka might mature a bit into a competent midfielder yet here we are. Let's not forgot he was actually dropped for a bit earlier this season, for ****ing Elneny of all players who's absolutely useless and does nothing progressive at all.

 

[Maybe]

Xhaka might mature a bit into a competent midfielder yet here we are.

I think he is mature but will never have the right physical attributes for the role he is playing. It's an unfortunate lack of agility, he would be a great player (but probably not for us) if that wasn't the case. Some of the stuff he does is still exceptional, but football is a physical sport and he struggles with that part

 

[Tir Na Nog]

I think he is mature but will never have the right physical attributes for the role he is playing. It's an unfortunate lack of agility, he would be a great player (but probably not for us) if that wasn't the case. Some of the stuff he does is still exceptional, but football is a physical sport and he struggles with that part

Yeah but he makes some stupid decisions with the ball at his feet too which have nothing to do with his lack of athleticism or pace, he makes some bizarre decisions and has too many brain-farts for it to purely be a physical thing. He literally needs acres of space to be effective and sometimes that's not even enough. Very rarely do you see Xhaka move the ball quickly when pressed or crowded. He'll take several touches, passing lanes disappear as a result, he'll then have to go backwards or make a non-progressive pass and at times will lose possession through a poor pass or being closed down and just giving it away.

 

[Maybe]

Yeah but he makes some stupid decisions with the ball at his feet too which have nothing to do with his lack of athleticism or pace, he makes some bizarre decisions and has too many brain-farts for it to purely be a physical thing.

I was thinking the same for years, but watching him closely now, most of his mistakes come because he can't adjust his body for a pass and gets into trouble because of that, either by misplacing it or gets into a weird situation where he has to dribble and he buys a foul then.
He sees things better than I thought previously, but his body doesn't allow him to execute things properly so he takes some sideway options because it requires fewer body adjustments. For example, when there is a pocket of space to make a forward pass, he is looking into it knowing his body is not well positioned, and then he turns away and makes a backward/sideway pass. The brain is there, agility is what's missing

 

[RacingPhoton]

I was thinking the same for years, but watching him closely now, most of his mistakes come because he can't adjust his body for a pass and gets into trouble because of that, either by misplacing it or gets into a weird situation where he has to dribble and he buys a foul then.
He sees things better than I thought previously, but his body doesn't allow him to execute things properly so he takes some sideway options because it requires fewer body adjustments. For example, when there is a pocket of space to make a forward pass, he is looking into it knowing his body is not well positioned, and then he turns away and makes a backward/sideway pass. The brain is there, agility is what's missing

I always thought he was just slow in decision making. But your explanation with his body positioning makes more sense.

 

[L3T5 PL4Y]

I was thinking the same for years, but watching him closely now, most of his mistakes come because he can't adjust his body for a pass and gets into trouble because of that, either by misplacing it or gets into a weird situation where he has to dribble and he buys a foul then.
He sees things better than I thought previously, but his body doesn't allow him to execute things properly so he takes some sideway options because it requires fewer body adjustments. For example, when there is a pocket of space to make a forward pass, he is looking into it knowing his body is not well positioned, and then he turns away and makes a backward/sideway pass. The brain is there, agility is what's missing

I always thought he was just slow in decision making. But your explanation with his body positioning makes more sense.

Yeah, when we signed him me and @MutableEarth were positive we were getting a pretty good player but we pointed out how extremely slow and immobile he was. Sorting his feet and body out could potentially be a huge problem. Little did we know how much though.

 

[MutableEarth]

Yeah, when we signed him me and @MutableEarth were positive we were getting a pretty good player but we pointed out how extremely slow and immobile he was. Sorting his feet and body out could potentially be a huge problem. Little did we know how much though.

He built up really good stock in Bundesliga, I thought he would be the progressive #6 we needed. Hasn't turned out anywhere close to what I'd hoped.

 

[L3T5 PL4Y]

He built up really good stock in Bundesliga, I thought he would be the progressive #6 we needed. Hasn't turned out anywhere close to what I'd hoped.

Yeah I thought we were getting our Xabi Alonso but ended up with Alex Song impersonator.

Tbf to him, had he moved to somewhere like Italy his career could've been different.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

People should really go back and watch the game, just focusing on Xhaka.

Compare him to Ceballos, and I'm not saying Dani had a good match either but the fundamentals are so different. Every time he got the ball, it's head up either looking to drive forward or make a quick progressive pass, a negative backwards pass is the last option if nothing else is available. That's Xhaka's go to pass.

Xhaka's movement is woeful too, he just stands planted in the centre circle with two opponents blocking a pass to him. Offers nothing to the CB's when they have the ball and are looking for an outlet. No wonder the CB's are playing keep ball between themselves or having to work it out wide.

If I'm a wide man I'm not going to be busting a gut to make runs for Xhaka either because there's a 4/5 chance that'll he'll see the run, decide to pirouette back and lay off a 5 yard pass either to the side or backwards. One of his main attributes is meant to be progressive passing. Why's he stopped doing it?