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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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RacingPhoton

Established Member
@RacingPhoton my work is done here, good luck with this thread :D
Yeah. I am also done now. Can't ruin my weekend by debating with Xhaka stans. 'He has great forward passes count', 'But Arteta told in press conference', 'But all managers started Xhaka', 'We were better with him in the team than without'... How many times should we point out the stupidity of these arguments?
 

RacingPhoton

Established Member
Okay so if that is your argument, I can say that prove those other players' forward passes are not similar.
Forward pass by itself is not a valid stat to judge a player. We have had much deeper arguments on every topic you have brought up. Please check some older posts in the thread.
 

drippin

Obsessed with "Mature Trusted Members"

Country: Finland
Xhaka leaving or not depends a lot on what our formation is going to be. If we are playing two in the midfield, Xhaka will be benched in favour of Ceballos. If we are playing three in the mid, Xhaka still has a chance. Based on the situation, we could rotate Xhaka and Elneny.
Mustafi was still making mistakes under Arteta. Our defensive structure was better and we were obviously forced to play 3 at the back to clean up the mess created by the clowns we have in the team.

I think it's pretty clear we will go towards 3 man midfield in the future. When that is possible with the squad.

What I mean by stupid mistakes, is stupid mistakes, not just basic mistake. And he deserved the compliments.
 

drippin

Obsessed with "Mature Trusted Members"

Country: Finland
Forward pass by itself is not a valid stat to judge a player. We have had much deeper arguments on every topic you have brought up. Please check some older posts in the thread.

I'm not judging him only based on that. There were a lot more statistics on my post. Against Ceballos even who Maybe said was clearly superior player and what I responded to.

We have now 3 good midfielders, and will get at least one new one in the next windows.

Xhaka will be here for a few more years, playing many games. Arteta likes him and wanted him in City too.
 

drippin

Obsessed with "Mature Trusted Members"

Country: Finland
By reading these stats, one could get a feeling that we have Xavi instead of Xhaka, but stats don't help you much when the other team presses you hard. Xhaka is the one who turns the panic mode under pressure, but Ceballos is actually the man who will progress our game and Xhaka will take the easy stuff.
Stats can't tell you that, you have to watch and analyze the game yourself.

Of course. But on that post it says that Xhaka was disposessed 11 times while Ceballos 22 times, so double amount in ~850 less minutes played.

How do you explain that? Say stats don't matter at all? Of course Ceballos dribbles more so that affects it, but to say Xhaka panics is not true.

Dribbling is actually only (1.1 vs 0.8) in favour of Ceballos. "On the other hand, the Swiss was dispossessed on average just 0.4 times per game against the Spaniard's 1.3."

"So, in fact, it's difficult to decide which of them was more efficient."

https://tribuna.com/en/arsenal/news...mpact-of-either-midfielder-on-past-pl-season/

You do realize if you hate some player, you usually just see the bad things he does, never the good ones? This "eye test" is not very fool proof.
 
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Maybe

You're wrong, no?
You do realize if you hate some player, you usually just see the bad things he does, never the good ones? This "eye test" is not very fool proof.
Interesting, and what do you think how did I start to "hate" the player (I don't hate the guy probably, I just think he is overrated among Arsenal fans)?
Was he great but I just needed someone to hate in my life?
 

drippin

Obsessed with "Mature Trusted Members"

Country: Finland
Interesting, and what do you think how did I start to "hate" the player (I don't hate the guy probably, I just think he is overrated among Arsenal fans)?
Was he great but I just needed someone to hate in my life?

Okay, I was typing fast. You obviously missed my points, but no matter, Xhaka is here to stay.
Lol, it's not I'm gonna stop watching the team just because he is playing, there will always be someone annoying in the team no matter who is the manager.
 

Big Poppa

Established Member
Trusted ⭐

Country: USA

Player:Saliba
Of course. But on that post it says that Xhaka was disposessed 11 times while Ceballos 22 times, so double amount in ~850 less minutes played.

How do you explain that? Say stats don't matter at all? Of course Ceballos dribbles more so that affects it, but to say Xhaka panics is not true.

Dribbling is actually only (1.1 vs 0.8) in favour of Ceballos. "On the other hand, the Swiss was dispossessed on average just 0.4 times per game against the Spaniard's 1.3."

"So, in fact, it's difficult to decide which of them was more efficient."

https://tribuna.com/en/arsenal/news...mpact-of-either-midfielder-on-past-pl-season/

You do realize if you hate some player, you usually just see the bad things he does, never the good ones? This "eye test" is not very fool proof.

Your stats aren’t wrong but Xhaka giving the ball away isn’t the problem. He still has occasional brain farts, but they’re occasional.

The issue is his pass selection negatively impacts our ability to exploit teams with quick, sharp runs in attack.

It results in him as an individual having better ball possession stats but us as a team having fewer attacking sequences per game.
 

Football Manager

Copy & Paste Merchant
Your stats aren’t wrong but Xhaka giving the ball away isn’t the problem. He still has occasional brain farts, but they’re occasional.

The issue is his pass selection negatively impacts our ability to exploit teams with quick, sharp runs in attack.

It results in him as an individual having better ball possession stats but us as a team having fewer attacking sequences per game.
We don’t want quick sharp runs in attack.
We need to build up patiently, pass the ball around, controlling possession.

That’s where Xhaka comes useful when he can switch sides with his diagonal long passes. Not only adding an extra dimension in our beautiful short passing play, but also find space on the other part of the pitch, to start another build up on that other side. Dragging the opponent’s defensive shape until we find a gap to exploit.

Xavi did that with his mid-long range passes in Barcelona. Xhaka could be used in a similar way as he has the ability to make those diagonal passes.

———Ceballos——
—Xhaka—Partey—

This looks like a slightly weaker version of Iniesta, Xavi, Y.Toure (Barcelona defensively focused era’s Toure) in terms of playing style. All we need is two more skilful attackers in the squad in order to make us playing like the beautiful prime Barcelona.
 
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drippin

Obsessed with "Mature Trusted Members"

Country: Finland
We don’t want quick sharp runs in attack.
We need to build up patiently, pass the ball around, controlling possession.
That’s where Xhaka comes useful when he can switch sides with his diagonal long passes. Not only adding an extra dimension in our beautiful short passing play, but also find space on the other part of the pitch, to start another build up on that other side. Dragging the opponent’s defensive shape until we find a gap to exploit. Xavi did that with his mid-long range passes in Barcelona.

This is what I find interesting in Partey & Xhaka combination. Both are great at long passing. Partey brings that much needed pace and great all-round game as a partner plus bringing up the ball from deeper.

Xhaka is the only left-footed midfielder in addition to Saka in our team. Arteta has clearly preferred left-footed CB's on the left, so I'd think the same goes for midfielders if possible.

Many great teams have Xhaka-like starting midfielder in the team.
 

Big Poppa

Established Member
Trusted ⭐

Country: USA

Player:Saliba
We don’t want quick sharp runs in attack.
We need to build up patiently, pass the ball around, controlling possession.


That’s where Xhaka comes useful when he can switch sides with his diagonal long passes. Not only adding an extra dimension in our beautiful short passing play, but also find space on the other part of the pitch, to start another build up on that other side.

Dragging the opponent’s defensive shape until we find a gap to exploit. Xavi did that with his mid-long range passes in Barcelona. Xhaka could be used in a similar way as he has the ability to make those diagonal passes.

Good grief.

We’ve done this dance with you before. Even if we wanted to play that way, Xhaka wouldn’t be able to. He isn’t agile or nimble enough. You need dexterity and an ability to pivot on the ball, and circumvent a press. Granit ain’t that guy.

To create chances you need quick sharp runs in attack. You cannot shift a well organised opponent without dynamic movement upfront dragging their defenders out of position and making quick incisive passes from deep.

Barcelona had 52% possession against Bayern but lost 8-2. They had 50 more passes but managed 4 shots while conceding 14. Both teams had the same passing accuracy.

Controlling possession is not controlling the game. You’re controlling zilch if your opponent is allowing you to have loads of the ball in areas you can’t hurt them and picking you off whenever they want.

Xhaka only ever plays those long diagonal passes you speak of when he’s afforded loads of time and space to do so. When pressed, it’s going back to Luiz or Tierney to do it.



 
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RacingPhoton

Established Member
Good grief.

We’ve done this dance with you before. Even if we wanted to play that way, Xhaka wouldn’t be able to. He isn’t agile or nimble enough. You need dexterity and an ability to pivot on the ball, and circumvent a press. Granit ain’t that guy.

To create chances you need quick sharp runs in attack. You cannot shift a well organised opponent without dynamic movement upfront dragging their defenders out of position and making quick incisive passes from deep.

Barcelona had 52% possession against Bayern but lost 8-2. They had 50 more passes but managed 4 shots while conceding 14. Both teams had the same passing accuracy.

Controlling possession is not controlling the game. You’re controlling zilch if your opponent is allowing you to have loads of the ball in areas you can’t hurt them and picking you off whenever they want.

Xhaka only ever plays those long diagonal passes you speak of when he’s afforded loads of time and space to do so. When pressed, it’s going back to Luiz or Tierney to do it.


Xhaka fans tend to think that if we move like a crane and 'patiently' make worthless passes, we can suddenly pull a goal out of our ass.
 

RacingPhoton

Established Member

drippin

Obsessed with "Mature Trusted Members"

Country: Finland
Nice article. Pretty much what we have been saying all along in the thread. Glad that someone has actually gathered all the stats for that. Under Arteta, Xhaka's role has been reduced to a role which any passenger can do. Even Elneny can replace him and do that job, maybe even in a better way.

From the end of the article:

"And since he’s no longer the main man with the ball in midfield that means that he’s no longer the main man that Arsenal fans want to criticize when things go wrong."

Surely this will happen to Xhaka "haters"?
 

Manberg

Predator
Ha ha. Even Elneny has started competing with Xhaka for his place. And stop using what a manager says in press interviews to come in these arguments, unless the manager is Mourinho. Arteta even praised Mustafi.

Jose Mourinho: "Granit Xhaka is the main man in the entire Arsenal midfield, you can't see it unless I lend you one of my eye. Without him, Arsenal is lost. He is a leader. Remember, mistakes are made by humans."
 

RacingPhoton

Established Member
From the end of the article:

"And since he’s no longer the main man with the ball in midfield that means that he’s no longer the main man that Arsenal fans want to criticize when things go wrong."

Surely this will happen to Xhaka "haters"?
Why not? If we have a player who is more capable, we would not play a strategy where our midfielder is reduced to the role of a recycler. That opens up so many ways for us to attack.
 

RacingPhoton

Established Member
Jose Mourinho: "Granit Xhaka is the main man in the entire Arsenal midfield, you can't see it unless I lend you one of my eye. Without him, Arsenal is lost. He is a leader. Remember, mistakes are made by humans."
Looks like someone did a quick Google search and didn't even bother to check the validity of the source. All I see are random posts made on social media, most probably made up by Xhaka stans like you :lol:
 
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