Granit Xhaka: Xhak Off?

[Macho]

There is a lot between bad and sick. Xhaka is and always been average player. As of today lokonga is atleast equal and should already play ahead as he can atleast improve. No matter what happens xhaka ain’t gonna be missed

We'll see. I like Lokonga and think he will be a star, but right now I feel like a lot of you are projecting onto him a certain level or hoping he's better than Xhaka so we never have to see him again.

Would be nice if he was genuinely better than Xhaka but lets atleast give him a chance first.

Before some of you start getting mad at me btw, Xhaka is an Arteta thing, personally I'd have taken the Roma offer and gambled on someone else even though our options this summer weren't inspiring (to me).

 

[Rasmi]

We'll see. I like Lokonga and think he will be a star, but right now I feel like a lot of you are projecting onto him a certain level or hoping he's better than Xhaka so we never have to see him again.

Would be nice if he was genuinely better than Xhaka but lets atleast give him a chance first.

Before some of you start getting mad at me btw, Xhaka is an Arteta thing, personally I'd have taken the Roma offer and gambled on someone else even though our options this summer weren't inspiring (to me).

Lokonga is better than xhaka and right now not good enough as well. I really don’t rate xhaka at all

 

[AbouCuéllar]

I think the top four had better midfields in 2008/09 than they do now.

Alonso, Gerrard and Mascherano at Liverpool.

Scholes, Hargreaves and Carrick at Utd.

Lampard, Essien and Ballack at Chelsea.

Even Sp**s had Modric as well as a lot of future and current internationals playing for the lower clubs. Jack didn’t have it “easier” than Patino would.

Main argument against playing him a lot is that running up the clock on attacking players at a young age with significant minutes in the PL tends to shorten their careers.

Likes of Wilshere, Cesc and Rooney were all dusted well before they hit 30. Him getting kicked all over the park as he’s still growing into his body would hurt him down the road imo.

City's of Rodri, Gündogan / Bernardo / Foden, and de Bruyne is better than any of those, IMO, especially considering the manager / system they play under.

Liverpool's of Fabinho, Thiago / Henderson, Jones / Elliot is not fancy on paper but Fabinho is a hugely underrated player and Thiago is a fantastic player whose lack of dominance in the PL speaks a lot to its quality, honestly.

Chelsea's of Jorginho, Kovacic, Kante (Saúl) is top.

Maybe not as sexy names on paper but I think we're talking about similar levels. Modric at Sp**s, yeah, but then Pogba and Fernandes at United, Tielemans and Maddison at Leicester, Ndombele at Sp**s, Thomas here...

Anyways, Jack's first season as a starter was in 2010, it's not the same as 2008/09, as discussed, up until around that season-2010 was when the league has been strongest probably in its history before now.

Yes, I absolutely feel that Patiño has it harder than Jack did, is facing a significantly higher competitive and tactical level league-wide, but this is an argument for that other thread which has become really tiresome and I've covered the same ground over and over again.

Agree what you say about the aging factor, that's undoubtedly true, but in the end if you can get 5-6 top years out of an academy player you are in reality talking about a nearly best case scenario, if those come from age, say, 19 or 20 to 25 or 26 instead of 23 to 29 that's fine with me. It's the same with Saka, who no doubt we'll see begin to have an early decline, maybe something that is occurring to some extent with Sterling right now?

Anyways, point is, we are in dire straits in terms of our midfield quality, we've got 2 viable options for 2 positions and nothing better than Championship level quality behind them, and players that don't combine particularly well with the options we already have (if it was Thomas or Lokonga that was hurt long-term at least you could pair Elneny with Xhaka and have a somewhat functional midfield in terms of passing and construction, but Elneny / AMN with Thomas or Lokonga is just wholly deficient in terms of passing). So our hand is effectively forced.

 

[Barry]

City's of Rodri, Gündogan / Bernardo / Foden, and de Bruyne is better than any of those, IMO, especially considering the manager / system they play under.

Liverpool's of Fabinho, Thiago / Henderson, Jones / Elliot is not fancy on paper but Fabinho is a hugely underrated player and Thiago is a fantastic player whose lack of dominance in the PL speaks a lot to its quality, honestly.

Chelsea's of Jorginho, Kovacic, Kante (Saúl) is top.

Maybe not as sexy names on paper but I think we're talking about similar levels. Modric at Sp**s, yeah, but then Pogba and Fernandes at United, Tielemans and Maddison at Leicester, Ndombele at Sp**s, Thomas here...

Anyways, Jack's first season as a starter was in 2010, it's not the same as 2008/09, as discussed, up until around that season-2010 was when the league has been strongest probably in its history before now.

Yes, I absolutely feel that Patiño has it harder than Jack did, is facing a significantly higher competitive and tactical level league-wide, but this is an argument for that other thread which has become really tiresome and I've covered the same ground over and over again.

Agree what you say about the aging factor, that's undoubtedly true, but in the end if you can get 5-6 top years out of an academy player you are in reality talking about a nearly best case scenario, if those come from age, say, 19 or 20 to 25 or 26 instead of 23 to 29 that's fine with me. It's the same with Saka, who no doubt we'll see begin to have an early decline, maybe something that is occurring to some extent with Sterling right now?

Anyways, point is, we are in dire straits in terms of our midfield quality, we've got 2 viable options for 2 positions and nothing better than Championship level quality behind them, and players that don't combine particularly well with the options we already have (if it was Thomas or Lokonga that was hurt long-term at least you could pair Elneny with Xhaka and have a somewhat functional midfield in terms of passing and construction, but Elneny / AMN with Thomas or Lokonga is just wholly deficient in terms of passing). So our hand is effectively forced.

I'm not sure any of those midfields that you quoted apart from maybe the City one is up there with the ones that Rex mentioned imo. Your completely right about the quality across the league though, there are a lot of good players in the midfield's of most teams now (Leeds, West Ham and Brighton also have desirable players).

One thing I disagree with is the idea that Lokonga & Partey are deficient at passing though. Partey's almost at Xhaka's level in terms of his passing range, accuracy and vision. He occasionally cocks it up but he can definitely dictate play. Lokonga we haven't seen enough of yet to know for sure, but his stats from the Jupiler League were very well rounded and again he was touted as having a decent passing range. Patino is just untested at this point, we don't know if he can hack it with Premier league level senior pros, throwing him in would be a huge gamble at this stage in unless he's ready.

 

[Trilly]

If Xhaka is as bad as everyone says and Partey/Lokonga are as sick as everybody thinks, that doesn’t happen.

Arteta isn't going to see that Lokonga is better than Xhaka and then just put Xhaka back in, he's fighting for his job lol. Even if he wasn't under pressure, what manager would do that?

 

[Trilly]

It's the same with Saka, who no doubt we'll see begin to have an early decline, maybe something that is occurring to some extent with Sterling right now?

Is that a thing? Thought it only happened if the player didn't take care of their body/lost motivation etc.

Sterling hasn't really declined, he's not putting up the crazy numbers but i'm not sure how sustainable those were tbh. He's as good as he's ever been for England there are just better players than him at City atm.

 

[Rex Stone]

Is that a thing? Thought it only happened if the player didn't take care of their body/lost motivation etc.

Sterling hasn't really declined, he's not putting up the crazy numbers but i'm not sure how sustainable those were tbh. He's as good as he's ever been for England there are just better players than him at City atm.

Guys like Rooney, Jack and Cesc for me just had their bodies pack up. Not scientific but I believe the body can only take so much high level performance and putting all that strain on it as a 16 year old taxes you later on.

Jack and Cesc were clocking up 30 game seasons before they could even learn to drive ffs. I think when you add in the amount of fouls and kickings their positions got it’s no wonder they were dusted so young.

I'm not sure any of those midfields that you quoted apart from maybe the City one is up there with the ones that Rex mentioned imo. Your completely right about the quality across the league though, there are a lot of good players in the midfield's of most teams now (Leeds, West Ham and Brighton also have desirable players).

I do think tbf the PL ten years had decent players in smaller clubs.

Likes of Scott Parker, Barry, Milner, Arteta, Fellaini, Borja Valero and Nzonzi were all midfielders playing for smaller teams.

Even in other positions there were quality players in a lot of teams right the way down the table.

 

[RacingPhoton]

Back view of @Erlis found

 

[Macho]

Arteta isn't going to see that Lokonga is better than Xhaka and then just put Xhaka back in, he's fighting for his job lol. Even if he wasn't under pressure, what manager would do that?

Was more talking about the fans hyping up Xhaka in his absence. I see some already seeing the reality about Lokonga after Brighton.

 

[Macho]

From Orny.

Arsenal appeared to feel the loss of Granit Xhaka through injury in Saturday’s goalless draw at Brighton & Hove Albion but there is optimism the midfielder will return as quickly as possible, largely owing to a level of dedication for which he is renowned at the north London club.

And the public may be granted a rare glimpse of this after Xhaka agreed to let the Amazon Prime cameras follow his recovery for its All or Nothing documentary on Arsenal’s season, which will be streamed next year.

Xhaka is expected to be sidelined for approximately three months with damage to his right knee ligament and that has presented an opportunity for the film crew to spend dedicated time with the 29-year-old during his journey back to fitness.

Despite dividing opinion at the Emirates Stadium, Xhaka has been a key man for each of the Arsenal managers he has played under and the chance for fans to take a closer look at his behind-the-scenes professionalism might not only make for good TV but also help change some perceptions.

How much of Xhaka’s rehabilitation is screened will, of course, depend on the editing process but the intention is there. The Amazon lenses have already been focused on the Switzerland international at Arsenal’s London Colney training ground since he suffered the knee problem in last Sunday’s victory over Tottenham.

 

[Maybe]

You seriously have to question the intelligence of people here. Apparently, we were badly missing Xhaka on Saturday and there is a feeling we would be much better with him and maybe win the game if he was here, that's the very same guy who was a key player in a period of our meltdown as a club since the day he joined, playing some of the worst football I've seen in my life as an Arsenal fan.

Looks like every game we don't win it's gonna be because we were missing Xhaka, the same guy who was absolutely useless for years and took us from the CL position to mid table (not on his own but was an important part of the group that did it), and every game we do win it will be because Xhaka is not here and we are much better without him, even though his alternatives are just as bad as him (I'm still happy to see the development of Sambi though).

We just don't have the quality in CM, simple as that, and that's with or without Xhaka. There was a chance to fix that this summer, but Arteta was soft again and he will pay the price for it

 

[Tosker]

Guys like Rooney, Jack and Cesc for me just had their bodies pack up. Not scientific but I believe the body can only take so much high level performance and putting all that strain on it as a 16 year old taxes you later on.

Jack and Cesc were clocking up 30 game seasons before they could even learn to drive ffs. I think when you add in the amount of fouls and kickings their positions got it’s no wonder they were dusted so young.

you see this in other sports too, such as tennis - Nadal springs to mind for one

 

[Riou]

From Orny.

He will help us in home games, playing next to Partey, don't think you can trust him in away ones.

He really struggles when pressed, and teams are more attack minded at home, so it's a bad mix...think since he became our main CM in 2017, our away form has been really poor.

But as long as Partey is fit to cover him, Granit could be play an important role in getting us back into Europe.

 

[Barry]

you see this in other sports too, such as tennis - Nadal springs to mind for one

Nadal's a funny one, his body keeps packing up but then he always finds a way to get back into it again. Everyone assumed that he would be spent by 27 but he's just so good that he's always find a way back.

 

[Jury]

I thought he’d made a miraculous recovery I was due back soon for a minute.

 

[RacingPhoton]

You seriously have to question the intelligence of people here. Apparently, we were badly missing Xhaka on Saturday and there is a feeling we would be much better with him and maybe win the game if he was here, that's the very same guy who was a key player in a period of our meltdown as a club since the day he joined, playing some of the worst football I've seen in my life as an Arsenal fan.

Looks like every game we don't win it's gonna be because we were missing Xhaka, the same guy who was absolutely useless for years and took us from the CL position to mid table (not on his own but was an important part of the group that did it), and every game we do win it will be because Xhaka is not here and we are much better without him, even though his alternatives are just as bad as him (I'm still happy to see the development of Sambi though).

We just don't have the quality in CM, simple as that, and that's with or without Xhaka. There was a chance to fix that this summer, but Arteta was soft again and he will pay the price for it

Exactly. 5 years of dogshit performance with him being the player with least injuries. Even this season, we lost to Brentford 2-0 with him starting. Apparently Xhaka would have miraculously won us the game against Brighton.

 

[Ash10]

you see this in other sports too, such as tennis - Nadal springs to mind for one

Unlike these footballers, he managed to become the goat & has/will always come back as good as anyone

 

[Ash10]

Idk how his cult members start talking big when the guy got destroyed by a promoted team recently & got sent off after a putrid display against city

 

[Macho]

Idk how his cult members start talking big when the guy got destroyed by a promoted team recently & got sent off after a putrid display against city

Where and who?

So far it's just Ornstein unless it's in the Lokonga thread?

 

[Maybe]

Idk how his cult members start talking big when the guy got destroyed by a promoted team recently & got sent off after a putrid display against city

Big game against Sp**s, he literally didn't cost us a goal