Granit Xhaka: Xhak Off?

[A_G]

Orny on Xhaka

 

[Penn_]

Ornstein’s just speculating, Arteta has targeted players to replace Xhaka every window. Fairly certain the summer is when it finally happens.

 

[MartiSaka]

Ornstein’s just speculating, Arteta has targeted players to replace Xhaka every window. Fairly certain the summer is when it finally happens.

Lets hope so, we can easily improve upon him.

 

[RacingPhoton]

Orny on Xhaka

He is one of those guys at work who sucks at work but manages to stay at job because he is nice to his colleagues and rims the manager, isn't he?

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Didn't watch but heard this G made a heroic goal saving intervention and took one for the team in the ultimate selfless act. My captain!

 

[Taylor Gang Gunners]

I did see the card come out quickly but Oliver is generally a fair ref. Xhaka in his recent interview felt he was targeted but stupid decisions are part of his DNA. He always makes it easy for a ref and our opponent

Oliver gave Evans a yellow card for a blatant red card offence away at Leicester. He took out Auba who was clean through otherwise. Oliver is one of the better refs (not that it means anything) but he’s still inconsistent af.

 

[Malky]

Stupid mistake, you have to know you're the last man and a ref can give you a red in such a situation.

But I've seen it a couple of times now, and I still think there would be a huge VAR review with any other player bar Xhaka. He barely hit the guy, and it wasn't his head either.

Then I look at some clips of a Crystal Palace player kicking the **** out of Saka or Kane flying studs high at Robertson and I can't help but feel that the ref pulled the card because it's once again Granit.

Edit: you can even see him looking at the ball and not the player. I believe a case was made for Ben Godfrey when he stamped on Tomiyasu's head because it didn't look malicious ffs.

Thats the problem with Xhaka now - he comes with this reckless reputation. He puts himself in an easy position for the refs to bring out a card when other players would still get the benefit of the doubt. Is it fair? No. But that's what's happening.
He's basically his own worst enemy - he knows he's an easy target for refs, but he constantly puts himself in stupid situations.

 

[CaseUteinberger]

Thats the problem with Xhaka now - he comes with this reckless reputation. He puts himself in an easy position for the refs to bring out a card when other players would still get the benefit of the doubt. Is it fair? No. But that's what's happening.
He's basically his own worst enemy - he knows he's an easy target for refs, but he constantly puts himself in stupid situations.

Xhaka has been turned into a household name in the PL and not for the right reasons. He honestly needs to move on because he will not recover from this but will always be targeted by the PL referees. Is it fair? No, but this is where he is now.

 

[Malky]

Xhaka has been turned into a household name in the PL and not for the right reasons. He honestly needs to move on because he will not recover from this but will always be targeted by the PL referees. Is it fair? No, but this is where he is now.

Agreed.
Heres the perfect example - I was playing football on wednesday night and one of the lads playing, who supports Liverpool, said " I hope Xhaka is playing because he'll do something stupid and give away a pen " I laughed, partly because I wanted to defend him but I also knew it was kinda true.
He's got the reputation and teams will always try and exploit it

 

[berric]

Not sure it's good for him to stay in EPL past this season.

Yesterday I got like 4-5 messages from our fans, opposing fans saying "I told you so" when he got the red.

He's an easy target for opposing fans, players, and refs and it gets worse each season instead of better. He should move to Bundesliga or Italy where he can rebuild his reputation a bit as he still has 3-4 potentially great years at the top level. Just not here.

 

[albakos]

Xhaka has been turned into a household name in the PL and not for the right reasons. He honestly needs to move on because he will not recover from this but will always be targeted by the PL referees. Is it fair? No, but this is where he is now.

Agree with you here.

His reputation alone will make it far easier for the refs when issuing red cards, yellows and accord penalties.

There were so many games when on the very first tackle he gets a yellow, while far harsher challenges by English and the more prominent players are easily dismissed/waved away.
The McCarthy kick on Saka, Kane's brutal challenge on Robertson, Mane's elbow at Tierney, Milner's routine knee-high challenges, Godfrey stamp on Tomi, Gordon's (Everton) two footed tackle on Tavares etc.... these are all only few examples where refs are far more tolerant than in case of Xhaka.

But yes, he has an ugly reputation on him, his acts like last night never help and make it easy for the refs.

But the fault on why he is still here is purely down to Arteta as he convinced him twice to stay here (and probably offered him a better deal).
@MutableEarth rightly mentioned elsewhere that Arteta sees himself in Xhaka as a player. The sort of player that commands respect in dressing room which seems important to Arteta. This is very evident as on the occassions where he was suspended or injured, he came straight back to starting lineup. I bet he will be back in the same way after his suspensions on our home match v.Burnley.

I've said he should have moved in summer and we should've had a better partner for Partey, but we are where we are because of Arteta's decisions.

 

[CaseUteinberger]

Agree with you here.

His reputation alone will make it far easier for the refs when issuing red cards, yellows and accord penalties.

There were so many games when on the very first tackle he gets a yellow, while far harsher challenges by English and the more prominent players are easily dismissed/waved away.
The McCarthy kick on Saka, Kane's brutal challenge on Robertson, Mane's elbow at Tierney, Milner's routine knee-high challenges, Godfrey stamp on Tomi, Gordon's (Everton) two footed tackle on Tavares etc.... these are all only few examples where refs are far more tolerant than in case of Xhaka.

But yes, he has an ugly reputation on him, his acts like last night never help and make it easy for the refs.

But the fault on why he is still here is purely down to Arteta as he convinced him twice to stay here (and probably offered him a better deal).
@MutableEarth rightly mentioned elsewhere that Arteta sees himself in Xhaka as a player. The sort of player that commands respect in dressing room which seems important to Arteta. This is very evident as on the occassions where he was suspended or injured, he came straight back to starting lineup. I bet he will be back in the same way after his suspensions on our home match v.Burnley.

I've said he should have moved in summer and we should've had a better partner for Partey, but we are where we are because of Arteta's decisions.

I agree. It is one of my bigger gripes with Arteta. Also hard to judge how much Xhaka is or was needed in the dressing room and around the club. If the dressing room indeed was as toxic as some have indicated he must have been an important player to rectify that. The team shows a lot of good characteristics now and he surely is part of helping build that. Unfortunately we also still have the issue of stupid mistakes by him and others.

Hope we move on in the summer and bring in someone better to partner with Partey.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

Orny on Xhaka

Blah blah blah this guy has become such a waffler since he left the BBC.

 

[MaraDon]

Agree with you here.

His reputation alone will make it far easier for the refs when issuing red cards, yellows and accord penalties.

There were so many games when on the very first tackle he gets a yellow, while far harsher challenges by English and the more prominent players are easily dismissed/waved away.
The McCarthy kick on Saka, Kane's brutal challenge on Robertson, Mane's elbow at Tierney, Milner's routine knee-high challenges, Godfrey stamp on Tomi, Gordon's (Everton) two footed tackle on Tavares etc.... these are all only few examples where refs are far more tolerant than in case of Xhaka.

But yes, he has an ugly reputation on him, his acts like last night never help and make it easy for the refs.

But the fault on why he is still here is purely down to Arteta as he convinced him twice to stay here (and probably offered him a better deal).
@MutableEarth rightly mentioned elsewhere that Arteta sees himself in Xhaka as a player. The sort of player that commands respect in dressing room which seems important to Arteta. This is very evident as on the occassions where he was suspended or injured, he came straight back to starting lineup. I bet he will be back in the same way after his suspensions on our home match v.Burnley.

I've said he should have moved in summer and we should've had a better partner for Partey, but we are where we are because of Arteta's decisions.

agree with everything, but I think the problem was that without European football getting a quality midfielder is practically impossible.

 

[TriniGunner]

As much as we'd like to think otherwise, Jota would have scored that chance as Ramsdale was way off his line. If this was another player, it would have been lauded for "taking one for the team". A player's reputation is everything and even fans and referees play into the stupid narrative that the player is to be blamed for everything they're involved in that may have gone awry in a game. Yes, he made a poor decision AGAIN but we don't join opposing fans in slating our players, it's stupid and really needs to stop. Xhaka is a leader on the pitch and it's the reason a lot of coaches love playing him.

 

[AbouCuéllar]

As much as we'd like to think otherwise, Jota would have scored that chance as Ramsdale was way off his line. If this was another player, it would have been lauded for "taking one for the team". A player's reputation is everything and even fans and referees play into the stupid narrative that the player is to be blamed for everything they're involved in that may have gone awry in a game. Yes, he made a poor decision AGAIN but we don't join opposing fans in slating our players, it's stupid and really needs to stop. Xhaka is a leader on the pitch and it's the reason a lot of coaches love playing him.

Nah, the control got away from him, Ramsdale would've got there first.

It was a very hard ball to control, it wasn't worth a red. Staying close to him and making him feel pressure in the control was quite enough.

 

[Makingtrax]

Saw Arteta stans imploding on here last night. Xhaka ruining their master's trusted process. Some even blaming Wenger . Must be hard for them to still see Arteta clearing up Wenger's sh!t.

The truth is, Xhaka is also the reason for the run of wins following that terrible bout where we lost to United and Everton, when he came back into the side to partner Partey. Lokonga is still work in progress. Xhaka when he doesn't make mistakes gets the team ticking.

 

[scytheavatar]

As much as we'd like to think otherwise, Jota would have scored that chance as Ramsdale was way off his line. If this was another player, it would have been lauded for "taking one for the team". A player's reputation is everything and even fans and referees play into the stupid narrative that the player is to be blamed for everything they're involved in that may have gone awry in a game. Yes, he made a poor decision AGAIN but we don't join opposing fans in slating our players, it's stupid and really needs to stop. Xhaka is a leader on the pitch and it's the reason a lot of coaches love playing him.

Who cares if Jota had scored? What do you prefer, losing to Liverpool in a worthless cup competition or losing to Sp**s in a league game because you have no midfield?

 

[TriniGunner]

Who cares if Jota had scored? What do you prefer, losing to Liverpool in a worthless cup competition or losing to Sp**s in a league game because you have no midfield?

In the heat of the game, nothing matters but the MOMENT. No player is making that decision in his head during a game.

 

[RacingPhoton]

As much as we'd like to think otherwise, Jota would have scored that chance as Ramsdale was way off his line. If this was another player, it would have been lauded for "taking one for the team".

What a lame excuse!! Which player was ever lauded for taking one for a team for getting a red card within 25 minutes?

Yes, he made a poor decision AGAIN but we don't join opposing fans in slating our players, it's stupid and really needs to stop. Xhaka is a leader on the pitch and it's the reason a lot of coaches love playing him.

No one is joining opposing fans. When a player has been consistently poor for years, we call it out. We have been doing for all the poor players. Xhaka is not any special. I wonder what is it about him that makes people to come up with random excuses to defend him. Leadership qualities? What exactly have we achieved with those so called leadership qualities in his 6 years here?