Granit Xhaka: Next Captain?

[squallman]

What makes you think Kante wanted us over Chelsea? Glad we didn't get him. We have Torreira now. Much better player and one for the future.

Are you serious mate? Kante would have been a massive help to us before Torreira even arrived.

FWIW, I was talking about getting Kante in before Leicester bought him. Wenger even said he was watching Kante while he was still in France.

Are you really glad we didn't get Kante? What about the 2015/16 when we were playing a past it Arteta and Flamini and lost the league title to a team that Kante himself played for and anchored their midfield?

Or the two seasons after that when Xhaka was stinking up the place and we dropped out of the top 4?

This is like saying you're glad we didn't get Suarez a few years ago because we have Aubameyang now. When if we had bought Suarez we might have won the league.

 

[YeahBee]

Midfield rock
Leftback rock
Centralback rock

 

[YeahBee]

I fear xhaka-torreira is going to become our new coq-cazorla. An overall flawed midfield that gets overpraised because it works better than the alternatives.
Coquelin-Cazorla was flawed for the same reason Xhaka-Torreira is flawed. They're both carrying one flawed player in Coquelin and Xhaka respectively.
You can't have one player in a two man defensive midfield doing all the defending. Xhaka's passing range and build up play don't make up for it either because the Swiss is overrated in both of those departments. The way some of you talk about him you would swear we had a prime Xabi Alonso or Pirlo in midfield dictating our play.
We also have an awful defensive record and that isn't on just the defence. You could drive a truck through our midfield at times the space we give the opposition.
Do I hate Xhaka? No, but he's the 6/10 bringing down the average performance level of our midfield and I hope we don't let a better player slip through our fingers as we did with Kante because we had Coquelin, "who is just as good".

Cazorla was The weak player man

Coq DID his job great

 

[MutableEarth]

Cazorla was The weak player man

Coq DID his job great

Nah bro. Whenever Coquelin was partnered with anyone else, the midfield struggled to get attacks going and had very little presence outside of tackling. Cazorla was the only one regularly breaking press, progressing play and making key passes. Opposition figured this out and basically cut off anyone who did anything with the ball while allowing Coquelin to have possession, which he often did nothing with.

Coquelin was good for us, but ultimately he was the flaw in that partnership and became obsolete the moment he had to do anything beyond forcing turnovers.

 

[Heskey]

Cazorla was The weak player man

Coq DID his job great

Cazorla a weak player?

Woah. There's a good reason for your title man.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

That's a lovely FIFA/Man City type expectation but in reality both players would want game time and we'd end up losing one or the other sooner or later. We have far more pressing issues in the squad currently like lack of a winger and lack of elite CBs

This is what I've been saying about Laca/Auba. Eventually it'll become untenable with 2 50 mill+ strikers challenging for 1 spot. Don't tell me about Aubameyeng on the left cos we know that's not his preferred position.

 

[Newchange]

Bring in Rabiot & Isco for Xhaka & Ramsey

 

[HBL]

Bring in Rabiot & Isco for Xhaka & Ramsey

Yeah because that's totally happening.

Rabiot is massively overrated anyway.

 

[MikeVinna]

Wouldnt mind Rabiot. Would replace Xhaka most likely or we’d play a flat 3 in midfield. However, Rabiot has far better options now that he’s a free transfer.

Xhaka is a great player but he’s just not that mobile and he’s not a dribbler at all which means he’ll always be vulnerable to good pressing.

 

[Football Manager]

Bring in Rabiot & Isco for Xhaka & Ramsey

Isco would be great. Rabiot is overrated.
I don’t think a mobile midfielder is the answer.
If you need to replace Xhaka, get Weigl, Tonali, or even Parejo, Locatelle.
We don’t need someone running like an idiot on the pitch.

 

[Tom349]

Physically he has improved a lot, was of the few players who keeping pace with his opponents. Not his best game but didn't have much support but deserves praise for the way he battled on when others around decided to throw in the towel.

 

[Mrs Bergkamp]

He did ok but our MF was over run quite easily. It's a shame he's improved and has a partner who compliments him at a time when the team as a whole is playing worse.

 

[MutableEarth]

Lot of talk about how bad Torreira was but I thought Xhaka was pretty bad today aswell. He's had a good season but I thought he lost too many 2nd balls in the middle and didn't provide enough of a presence in the middle. Both he and Torreira looked outmatched by Liverpool's midfield. Fabinho and Wijnaldum in particular put in a lot of hard yards and, along with Mane and Shaqiri, ran us ragged. Shaqiri wasn't praised as much as others, but he was picking up some really annoyingly dangerous positions between Xhaka and the full back all game and not being picked up.

A lot to think about regarding our midfield. Up till now, Xhaka-Torreira has been a most heralded union.

 

[HBL]

Lot of talk about how bad Torreira was but I thought Xhaka was pretty bad today aswell. He's had a good season but I thought he lost too many 2nd balls in the middle and didn't provide enough of a presence in the middle. Both he and Torreira looked outmatched by Liverpool's midfield. Fabinho and Wijnaldum in particular put in a lot of hard yards and, along with Mane and Shaqiri, ran us ragged. Shaqiri wasn't praised as much as others, but he was picking up some really annoyingly dangerous positions between Xhaka and the full back all game and not being picked up.

A lot to think about regarding our midfield. Up till now, Xhaka-Torreira has been a most heralded union.

I actually thought Fabinho was poor and it seems quite a few Pool fans agree. Our issues came from them constantly having four attackers swamping around our midfield, our three in front of our midfield weren't consistent enough when tracking back. We also didn't really have an out ball, only option was Iwobi who did well. Ramsey was a passenger and dwelled on the ball and it doesn't seem to stick with Auba up front, the ball just kept coming back at our midfield.

 

[blaze_of_glory]

 

[MutableEarth]

I might be in the minority, but I don't think he was very good today despite his goal. Gave the ball away more than usual. Was a bit more solid in the 2nd half.

 

[HBL]

I might be in the minority, but I don't think he was very good today despite his goal. Gave the ball away more than usual. Was a bit more solid in the 2nd half.

It was good that he scored because he was dreadful for the first 20 minutes.

 

[A_G]

Struggled a bit today but he's had a very good season overall imo

 

[Erlis]

He was the best player in the first half, I couldn't focus a lot in the second half so I cannot say much, I saw only goals.

 

[Furious]

Between him and Auba for player of the season. Elite.