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Granit Xhaka: Next Captain?

Which best describes your opinion of Xhaka?


  • Total voters
    223
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Big Poppa

Established Member
Trusted ⭐

Country: USA

Player:Saliba
Am I being unfair? Your first paragraph, IMO, epitomizes why the club went 9 years without a trophy. Our team back then was dross (Silvestre, Denilson, Almunia), one or two world class players (Fabregas, Van Persie) and too many guys who were good but not good enough (Walcot, Song, Fabianski). Sure Walcott had his uses and Song wasn't a bad DM but clinging on to those two stopped us from signing better players. I'm not knocking them, they just weren't good enough to be starters for a title winning team.

The club gets way too attached to these type of players instead of being ruthless and improving on them when the opportunity arises. You also know that when the shoe is on the other foot, these same players have no qualms about leaving us high and dry. We're being loyal to the guys we have now but how long do you think it would take Mustafi to get to the airport if his agent told him Real Madrid or Barcelona wanted him?

Walcott did have a knack for scoring in big games and was our top scorer for a season. All that means to me is that we should have sold him for a big fee and got in someone else. The only thing Theo was really good at was finishing and using his pace. Average in every other department. He could have used his skills to become a dangerous Wideman but was too fixated on becoming the next Michael Owen

I don't think Xhaka is a leader. He has way too many lapses in concentration. Was it against Watford last season where he was standing around picking his nose while they scored? He just isn't switched on enough.

Your last paragraph is more of an indictment on our current defence than it is praise for Clichy. There is also a difference between better than what we have and good enough to be where we want to be. Example, Giroud was a far better striker for us than Chamakh. The former still wasn't good enough to be our first choice.

EDIT:
Speaking of players who left us first chance they got. Remember City's tunnel cam? Players are standing in the tunnel. Wenger walks past Clichy and totally ignores him. leading Clichy turns to another City player and tells him, "its only been 9 years" referring to the time him and Arséne have known each other. Clichy's departure was kind of sudden IIRC, something must have happened there for him to leave just like that and Wenger to blank him because Wenger is usually ambicable with ex players.

Don't know about the Wenger/Clichy thing. Relationships are personal and can be affected by matters off the pitch.

As for the rest of your sentiments, I broadly agree. This club had an idealistic misconception of player loyalty based on acquiring and developing players from a young age.

Not only did we get it badly wrong by investing so much stock in FFP, we doubled down by doing so in the HG rule, think that these benevolent directives would supercede wealth and success in a sport governed by corruption and nepotism.

It's 100% the right thing to do, but it is not the job of any authority to level the playing field. We needed to adapt and evolve our tactics, coaching and recruitment model way sooner than we did, but we were too fearful of outside intervention (which came along anyway).

Anyhow what's done is done. Long winded way of saying I agree with you but just to reiterate your point, acceptance of mediocrity became evident as our CL performances deteriorited, and we became top 6 whipping boys. The culmination of falling outside the top 4 was inevitable.

We still have a legacy of that mediocrity that I think you see as much as I do, and that, to me, stems from rewarding players who make the same mistakes and non-appearances season in season out. Look at Walcott now being exposed for his true level.

I believe very much in backing everyone who throws on the jersey and gives 100% on the pitch, but there are some players in critical roles who simply aren't good enough for the level we need to reach.
 

Furious

Emery Gone, Telly Back On
The world class features to his game were his long range passing and shot taking ability. He barely uses either these days. In a quest for top 4, he's good enough, but I feel we need to upgrade in the summer. Worth keeping in the squad though. I wonder if Javi Martinez is available in the summer?

9/9 successful long passes just this last game you criticized him. Averages 5,8 long passes this season, only bettered by Neves, who plays for long ball specialist, Wolves.

Then you proceed to suggest Javi Martinez, feck me. Wonder now why I even bothered.
 

truth_hurts

but Holding’s hair transplant was painless
9/9 successful long passes just this last game you criticized him. Averages 5,8 long passes this season, only bettered by Neves, who plays for long ball specialist, Wolves.

Then you proceed to suggest Javi Martinez, feck me. Wonder now why I even bothered.

Bet you beat off to Opta stats with a mask on and the lights off? Coming out with that foolishness.
 

Erlis

Only Came To See Granit Xhaka

Country: Kosova
emery has done a wonderful job with him so far. i didn't rate him at all under wenger -- in particular, how one-dimensional and error-prone he was.

he still has those flaws to a certain extent, but he's progressing. i love how he's not afraid anymore to dribble and use his body to shield the ball under pressure. defensively he is also really solid. i may be in the minority, but i liked his cameos at CB. and i'm very happy he has rediscovered his passing range after he had seemingly lost that element last season.

our squad is certainly flawed, but xhaka isn't contributing to that imo. i can actually envision him as a starter in a 3rd/4th place team. still not good enough to be a starter for a title winner imo (i.e. man city or liverpool), but we are not close to that level anyway.

I do agree that under Emery he has improved especially from the defensive aspect and also has higher work rate as per my observation. I do not agree though that he cannot play for a top PL team that challenges for title. I think he is one of the best midfielders in PL. According to some stats I have read on PL site he is Arsenal's top performer.
 
Last edited:

YeahBee

Terrible hot takes
During the dissaray that was wenger last years any player would have at Times looked poor and made mistakes regardless of their skills

That dissaray is still not really solved
 

squallman

Still Pining for Wenger
We still have a legacy of that mediocrity that I think you see as much as I do, and that, to me, stems from rewarding players who make the same mistakes and non-appearances season in season out. Look at Walcott now being exposed for his true level.

I believe very much in backing everyone who throws on the jersey and gives 100% on the pitch, but there are some players in critical roles who simply aren't good enough for the level we need to reach.

I thought we had learned our lesson. But here we are again repeating the same mistakes and this time we aren't even doing it with young players who you could excuse for making silly mistakes week after week or putting in poor performance or two. Kolasinac is 25, Mustafi and Xhaka are both 26, Mkhitaryan is 30 (I think). We're screwing up our current seasons by playing these guys, who are supposed to be in their prime and for what? Does anyone at this point still think that Mustafi is suddenly going to jump up 8 levels and become the German Sol Campbell? This is it for a vast majority of these players

Like I said before, we're persisting with these guys through their mistakes and mediocrity at the expense of CL football, points and trophies (Carling Cup final last year) and there isn't one of them in that dressing room who would persist with us if they had a chance to progress their career and move to a bigger club for more money.

Iwobi is too close to the first team at the moment and even someone like Welbeck who has given us a few good moments has scored too little, thrown in too many average performances and been injured too much for someone on the money that he makes. But Wenger and the fans loved him because he "put in a shift". We could have had a young up and coming talent in Welbeck's place and not missed a beat. Instead we persisted with Danny and are now going to lose him for nothing.

I really hope things change at this club soon.
 

progman07

Established Member
Am I being unfair? Your first paragraph, IMO, epitomizes why the club went 9 years without a trophy. Our team back then was dross (Silvestre, Denilson, Almunia), one or two world class players (Fabregas, Van Persie) and too many guys who were good but not good enough (Walcot, Song, Fabianski). Sure Walcott had his uses and Song wasn't a bad DM but clinging on to those two stopped us from signing better players. I'm not knocking them, they just weren't good enough to be starters for a title winning team.

The club gets way too attached to these type of players instead of being ruthless and improving on them when the opportunity arises. You also know that when the shoe is on the other foot, these same players have no qualms about leaving us high and dry. We're being loyal to the guys we have now but how long do you think it would take Mustafi to get to the airport if his agent told him Real Madrid or Barcelona wanted him?

Walcott did have a knack for scoring in big games and was our top scorer for a season. All that means to me is that we should have sold him for a big fee and got in someone else. The only thing Theo was really good at was finishing and using his pace. Average in every other department. He could have used his skills to become a dangerous Wideman but was too fixated on becoming the next Michael Owen

I don't think Xhaka is a leader. He has way too many lapses in concentration. Was it against Watford last season where he was standing around picking his nose while they scored? He just isn't switched on enough.

Your last paragraph is more of an indictment on our current defence than it is praise for Clichy. There is also a difference between better than what we have and good enough to be where we want to be. Example, Giroud was a far better striker for us than Chamakh. The former still wasn't good enough to be our first choice.

EDIT:
Speaking of players who left us first chance they got. Remember City's tunnel cam? Players are standing in the tunnel. Wenger walks past Clichy and totally ignores him. leading Clichy turns to another City player and tells him, "its only been 9 years" referring to the time him and Arséne have known each other. Clichy's departure was kind of sudden IIRC, something must have happened there for him to leave just like that and Wenger to blank him because Wenger is usually ambicable with ex players.
On the topic I think we do not disagree, I'd replace Xhaka as well (at least drop him to the bench as un utility player) if I were the Club and we had the money, because he is not somebody who will win us big games, he is too slow to play the game City, Liverpool and others play.

Off topic, I think the biggest issue around 2007-2012 was that we were not prepared for injuries at all. We lost the title in 2008 because of our injuries. There were also two seasons (I think 10/11, and 13/14) where we led the league in January, but our best players got burnt out, and the replacements had to drop in.
Our bench was, as you said, awful with squad players like Silvestre, Squilacci and Chakamh not being able to replace our first teamers. I maintain that Clichy, Walcott and Song were underrated - although not world beaters on their own, but not worse than someone like Lovren, Wijnaldum or Laporte, Danilo - because overall we played some great stuff when everyone was fit.
Of course, we never actually had everyone fit, so we had to play dross like the above mentioned players.

Today, unfortunately our first team is much more average than it used to be.
 
Last edited:

celestis

Arsenal-Mania Veteran
Moderator

Country: Australia
Sell him to Liverpool, he can play there with Shaqiri. :D

His market value is around 45 million pounds I read so I think there is enough money to buy a decent replacement, maybe a Fabinho :lol:

P.S. Now seriously, still can't believe that Arsenal didn't go for Shaqiri with such a low fee.

Why would Emery sell him when he's the player Emery trust the most ?:lol:. More likely he'll be the permanent Captain of Arsenal .
 

TheArsenalis

Well-Known Member
Massively agree. It isn't just Xhaka to be fair, there are a few with this billing. Namely Mustafi, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Leno and Iwobi. The latter two have time on their side and are worthy of a squad role. The three former players regularly start and are squad level. Mustafi would be back up cb/rb at a top, top club and Xhaka and Kolasinac would be on the bench.

Even worse none of their places are under serious threat, bar Iwobi, who probably doesn't start in our strongest team. The likes of Leno, Holding, Maitland-Niles, Ghendouzi, Iwobi, Nketiah, Smith-Rowe and Nelson need to be playing under consistent op-level performers, so they can fit in.

How many starting players for city, pool, Chelsea or even (sick) Sp**s are squad filler level?

None at city, Henderson at pool (who barely starts) and arguably TAA, nobody at Chelsea depending on how you rate Morata and only Dier at Sp**s, who again rarely starts these days.

We need to level up.
Not saying your wrong. But you are over rating those other clubs players.
 

Ricardinho

La Liga Correspondent
emery has done a wonderful job with him so far. i didn't rate him at all under wenger -- in particular, how one-dimensional and error-prone he was.

he still has those flaws to a certain extent, but he's progressing. i love how he's not afraid anymore to dribble and use his body to shield the ball under pressure. defensively he is also really solid. i may be in the minority, but i liked his cameos at CB. and i'm very happy he has rediscovered his passing range after he had seemingly lost that element last season.

our squad is certainly flawed, but xhaka isn't contributing to that imo. i can actually envision him as a starter in a 3rd/4th place team. still not good enough to be a starter for a title winner imo (i.e. man city or liverpool), but we are not close to that level anyway.

Been as error prone as ever this season. His form has bombed since being put in the back three/suspension.
 

Ricardinho

La Liga Correspondent
How is that a mistakes solely on him and not everybody else around standing on their heels?

:lol:

I knew you'd be defending him.

How can you even see that as acceptable? One off maybe, bit his arsenal career is littered with these mistakes that lead to goals.
 
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