Granit Xhaka: Xhak Off?

[boonthegoon]

Xhaka ending with the armband. Vs crystal palace. Poetic.

And good that he didn't lose his head to get a 2nd yellow.

 

[Entropics]

Brilliant first half, suspicious dive.

Second half he had to babysit Zinchenko a lot so his influence waned

 

[Batman]

Any team relying on this fool is unserious. Absolutely daft to dive and then touch a referee. Never going to lose the clown trait.

 

[PoleInGoal]

I really think this number 8 role is much better for him than the deeper role he played in previous seasons. Ironically he looks extremely dynamic and quite agile in the 8, contributing at both ends of the pitch. And this way he is less prone to making costly errors. Hope to see more of this

 

[Gooner416]

Got his card for the mafia today. Can't say he's not delivering.

 

[samspade]

I’ve been singing his praises and he didn’t play badly, but we need someone who can provide genuine options for interchanging with the lw. He’s just not mobile enough for that. Maybe Zinchenko is the play, maybe Vieira will come good.

 

[Jury]

He’s got no business playing that position for us. Stupid dive, touches a ref… It will never end until he’s gone.

 

[Riou]

As you would expect, when him and Partey are fully for and on form, we don't lose.

His dive was hilarious though, ffs

 

[BergMan]

Yet again doesn’t get credit? Was absolutely immense. His work rate off the ball today… wow.
And he absolutely saved us with his last ditch tackle, it was just as important as Ramsdale’s save!
Where is the credit? Should be motm contender.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

He good defensively and vital in our midfield but again as we play him number8 we need an upgrade. With him we just keep struggling to dominate possession but that not only his fault rest of team lose ball always.

We need someone who turn defense to attack quick with pace and running forward with ball unfortunately this is not xhaka strongest ability

 

[BergMan]

Watched it again, he didn’t dive. He lost his balance. He got up straight away. He never tried to appeal.
He must be pissed that everyone thought he dived, as did the referee.
Granit never dives.

 

[Xln]

How's the whole competition diving like mad man, Son diving when a ball gets passed at him and nobody bats an eye but when Xhaka dives he instantly gets a yellow?

This should be questioned by media/pundits. Embarassing.

 

[BergMan]

It’s another injustice, like that yellow card against Villa.
Go and rewatch the clip again. He loses balance as he is trying to go around the Palace player, and he got straight back up. It’s what he tried to tell the ref but the ref booked him straight away.

I’m actually fuming, because I allowed myself to believe everyone else who said that he dived when he clearly didn’t.

 

[Macho]

Didn’t get why he didn’t make that pass for Jesus, preseason he would have done it.

The replay showed that he saw the pass and got eye contact with Jesus, but then he picked the safe option instead.

Instructions and keeping the ball the priority? Playing percentages? Stuff like that is why the forum camps in the transfer section anyways.

 

[Ac3knight]

Yet another liability-like performance from Chaka. Should've gotten rid of him seasons ago when he told fans to F* off !

 

[samshere]

Didn’t get why he didn’t make that pass for Jesus, preseason he would have done it.

The replay showed that he saw the pass and got eye contact with Jesus, but then he picked the safe option instead.

Instructions and keeping the ball the priority? Playing percentages? Stuff like that is why the forum camps in the transfer section anyways.

It's obviously instructions, seen him(not) do it before. Fanbase gets mad but coaches love him.

 

[Taneruit]

Didn’t get why he didn’t make that pass for Jesus, preseason he would have done it.

The replay showed that he saw the pass and got eye contact with Jesus, but then he picked the safe option instead.

Instructions and keeping the ball the priority? Playing percentages? Stuff like that is why the forum camps in the transfer section anyways.

As already mentioned, yeah. Not a surprise either.

It's not just been Xhaka as well. In pre-season we pressed more, were more adventurous on transition and so on. I'd suggest re-watching Chelsea and Sevilla, especially the second half and you'll notice that we were more aggressive avoiding injuries than in the second half against Palace.

It's one of my own personal pet-peeves with Mikel and among the things I've been ranting most about him. Whenever he finds a solution he just has to self-sabotage the **** out of it (Apart from losing his mind for two games whenever we face difficulties.) for whatever reason.

At the moment I'm giving it some leeway as it was Palace away, but yeah.

 

[BergMan]

4 out of 4 aerial duels won, 5 out of 7 ground duels won. Considering the physical strength of Palace’s midfield those numbers are immense.

 

[Red London]

Xhaka is a good player and an important part of our squad, but over the course of the season you’re going to be seeing him get a few nose bleeds up there.

He is simply not a number 8. He’s not agile, not much of a goalscorer apart from long shots, and also his type of passing is more suited to being a bit more deep.

It obviously looks like Arteta has properly committed to the inverted fullbacks on both sides, and has pushed our LCM further forward than he was last season. In this case, surely we need a specialist there? Tielemans bags you 5-8 PL goals a season and can do those eye of the needle passes into the striker. This is unless he sees Vieira being an option there.

 

[MaraDon]

I'm not saying that Xhaka's not upgradable because he clearly is.

You probably need to spend £40-50m to get someone clearly better than him though. It's not like he's an awful player.

list the players, please.