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Granit Xhaka: Xhak Off?

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drippin

Obsessed with "Mature Trusted Members"

Country: Finland
I prefer Elneny as a number 6, and I prefer everyone else to Xhaka as a number 8; so in my book he should be out mate. If we are short handed due to international competition I would prefer we call up a youngster or hold tryouts in pubs close to the stadium. People bag on Elneny, he is very safe and limited player who is a decent specialist as a pure defensive midfielder. I would hate him as a box to box midfielder.
Elneny was safe in his purple patch. After that he has misplaced easy passes leading to bad situations.

His level is not near Xhaka, and I have never been a Xhaka fan.

Plus Elneny will leave for free next summer, so only an idiot would play him over Xhaka who has two years in contract.

And only a total fool would extend Elneny.
 

GDeep™

League is very weak
The reality is we'll struggle to bring anyone above average in during the January window.

AMN and Lokonga isn't great depth or options wise. There's not a lot of experience there as CM's. Xhaka will be another option.

I don't particularly rate the guy but I'd much prefer him back and available for the AFCON period than not. At worst he's another body.
You say you don’t rate Xhaka, but none of his rumoured replacements were better than him.
 

Farzad Stoned

Self-appointed Deprogrammer for the Cult of Mik 🟥

Country: USA

Player:Havertz
Elneny was safe in his purple patch. After that he has misplaced easy passes leading to bad situations.

His level is not near Xhaka, and I have never been a Xhaka fan.

Plus Elneny will leave for free next summer, so only an idiot would play him over Xhaka who has two years in contract.

And only a total fool would extend Elneny.
I said nothing of extending him, I remember last season reading that Xhaka had most mistakes leading to goal of any outfield player since we signed him for nearly 40 million. He is an awful box to box midfielder and much worse as a number 6. Let Mo go I don’t care, I still believe as deepest player in midfield I prefer him to Xhaka. If that makes me an idiot in your book then so be it.
 

Mrs Bergkamp

Double Dusted
Dusted 🔻
This is where I am at too. Recent matches have put to bed the idea that Xhaka is indispensable or our midfield will be completely lost without him. Partey, Sambi and AMN at their best are doing much better than Xhaka and at their worst are pretty much the same as the results we get with Xhaka in the mid.

Arteta's biggest weakness so far has been the way he give special treatment to his favourite players. But he has been lucky in many ways. Injuries forced him to play ESR, Willian leaving by himself, Xhaka injury forced him to play Partey/Sambi. Now the question is did he learn his lessons from these? Will Xhaka just walk into the lineup as always? Well if this is the hill he wants to.......
I agree and even if we struggle vs Liverpool, well so be it. It's not as if we wouldn't with Xhaka. I caused a storm when I wished him injured and I admit it wasn't nice but I just wanted to see Partey, Sambi and AMN get a chance together in any combo. They have and results wise and even snippets during performances have been pleasing and better than before. Pray AMN and Sambi are in beast mode during AFCON and Arteta is forced not to take a risk by dropping any of the three.
 

Jury

A-M's drunk uncle
Is Giroud handsome? I’m not sure Kevin Samuels would rate him about 5.5 you know.

Obviously being rich adds some prestige to a man. A woman is pretty/beautiful no matter if she’s an actress or cleaning toilets at Tesco.

Need Xhaka back ASAP for them winter games.
What you need to ask yourself is would your crush at the Ginsters factory find him attractive?
 

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel
What you need to ask yourself is would your crush at the Ginsters factory find him attractive?

He "won" this back n 2015, I think it was...

Giroud1.jpg
 

drippin

Obsessed with "Mature Trusted Members"

Country: Finland
I said nothing of extending him, I remember last season reading that Xhaka had most mistakes leading to goal of any outfield player since we signed him for nearly 40 million. He is an awful box to box midfielder and much worse as a number 6. Let Mo go I don’t care, I still believe as deepest player in midfield I prefer him to Xhaka. If that makes me an idiot in your book then so be it.
Xhaka is better player than Elneny, and Partey is clearly our best DMF, and midfielder currently.

Otherwise I rather adjust tactics than play Elneny.

I can't believe some people would play Elneny even with under one year in contract. Xhaka hate really blinds many people.

Yes, I think it's very stupid, but you have had good posts on this forum otherwise.
 
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Farzad Stoned

Self-appointed Deprogrammer for the Cult of Mik 🟥

Country: USA

Player:Havertz
Xhaka is better player than Elneny, and Partey is clearly our best DMF, and midfielder currently.

Otherwise I rather adjust tactics than play Elneny.

I can't believe some people would play Elneny even with under one year in contract. Xhaka hate really blinds many people.

Yes, I think it's very stupid, but you have had good posts on this forum otherwise.
I admit Xhaka is one of my least favorite gunners of all time. But this is because of how really poor he has been. I think our best 3-5 midfield setups all include him not playing
 

CaseUteinberger

Established Member

Country: Sweden
This is where I am at too. Recent matches have put to bed the idea that Xhaka is indispensable or our midfield will be completely lost without him. Partey, Sambi and AMN at their best are doing much better than Xhaka and at their worst are pretty much the same as the results we get with Xhaka in the mid.

Arteta's biggest weakness so far has been the way he give special treatment to his favourite players. But he has been lucky in many ways. Injuries forced him to play ESR, Willian leaving by himself, Xhaka injury forced him to play Partey/Sambi. Now the question is did he learn his lessons from these? Will Xhaka just walk into the lineup as always? Well if this is the hill he wants to.......
Photon, it has been a long journey and at times we have thought we were at the end, but never, never forget, Xhaka will outlive and outlast us both!
 

Barry

Definitely Not An Old Poster
This is where I am at too. Recent matches have put to bed the idea that Xhaka is indispensable or our midfield will be completely lost without him. Partey, Sambi and AMN at their best are doing much better than Xhaka and at their worst are pretty much the same as the results we get with Xhaka in the mid.

Arteta's biggest weakness so far has been the way he give special treatment to his favourite players. But he has been lucky in many ways. Injuries forced him to play ESR, Willian leaving by himself, Xhaka injury forced him to play Partey/Sambi. Now the question is did he learn his lessons from these? Will Xhaka just walk into the lineup as always? Well if this is the hill he wants to.......
I don't mind Xhaka as much as most on here, but one thing has been very noticeable this season compared with last; we absolutely hamstrung ourself with stupid red cards and penalties last year. Those dumb decisions were often the difference between us winning or losing the tight 50/50 matches where we're now picking the points up.

Xhaka has games where he controls matches and puts in big performances - often in the important matches to his credit. But it's the dumb stuff that makes me hope that Sambi is the real deal though.
 

Farzad Stoned

Self-appointed Deprogrammer for the Cult of Mik 🟥

Country: USA

Player:Havertz
I don't mind Xhaka as much as most on here, but one thing has been very noticeable this season compared with last; we absolutely hamstrung ourself with stupid red cards and penalties last year. Those dumb decisions were often the difference between us winning or losing the tight 50/50 matches where we're now picking the points up.

Xhaka has games where he controls matches and puts in big performances - often in the important matches to his credit. But it's the dumb stuff that makes me hope that Sambi is the real deal though.
And the fouls are always unnecessary, it is not the professional foul where he saves a breakaway chance. It is a stupid foul, look at his cards most are not desperation lunges to save a goal. I’ll say it again a player who goes to ground in too much in modern game is a liability and Arsenal might be one of the worst sides in recent years playing 11-10. When you go to ground as a defender in desperation you better get it perfect.
 

RacingPhoton

Established Member
I don't mind Xhaka as much as most on here, but one thing has been very noticeable this season compared with last; we absolutely hamstrung ourself with stupid red cards and penalties last year. Those dumb decisions were often the difference between us winning or losing the tight 50/50 matches where we're now picking the points up.

Xhaka has games where he controls matches and puts in big performances - often in the important matches to his credit. But it's the dumb stuff that makes me hope that Sambi is the real deal though.
I am surprised at the number of people who would easily overlook the fact that he single handedly makes us lose points in two PL matches every season because of his rashness/stupidity. For a team that's supposed to be in top 4, that should be a big deal. Even if the player is prolific, playing him at the cost of two matches per season is completely unacceptable. And the best we get from Xhaka is two/three good matches per season.

Our downfall coinciding with his arrival is easily correlated. Even before him, our midfield was solely dependent on Cazorla-Coquelin pairing which was prolific. It was poor management from our side to not have a single good player behind them on bench.

Then Cazorla gets injured, we buy Xhaka who is not even half as good as Cazorla. We only have Xhaka and Coquelin. Coquelin becomes ineffective without Cazorla. We sell Coquelin too, leaving us with just Xhaka as a regular starter. We spent so long just trying to find a partner for him in Torreira, Guendouzi, Ceballos, Elneny all of whom failed in one way or another.

In the midfield area where a strong team would need three good players to rotate, we didn't have a single good player. Xhaka was probably the best of that worst lot. Looking back, the way we overlooked the midfield was massive mismanagement from the club and one of the main reasons why we are at this state.
 

Riou

In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over

Country: Northern Ireland

Player:Gabriel
Cazorla-Coquelin

Considering how much Arsenal fans dislike these 2 players, they will probably become my fav ever Arsenal midfield...definitely not our best in terms of talent, but I like a good underdog story...stick Ramsey on the right, and we are rolling!

The calendar year they played together (2015) was probably the last time we played consistent Wengerball, became more reliant on individual moments after that I felt.
 

Yousif Arsenal

On Vinai's payroll & misses 4th place trophy 🏆
Trusted ⭐
Great to see he already training with ball that's mean his knee fully stable and okay won't be surprised he return to be in squad is 2 weeks time.
 

Farzad Stoned

Self-appointed Deprogrammer for the Cult of Mik 🟥

Country: USA

Player:Havertz
I frankly don’t know how we won a match with Xhaka and mustafi both playing, there should be a trophy for that alone. People get angry when I say I would select midfields with Mo in it before Xhaka. Xhaka is our 3rd best box to box midfielder and our 4th best defensive midfielder. He gives you almost nothing going forward and is a liability with his lack of pace and rash tackles. Sometimes you just want a water carrier, at the least Mo can manage that specialized role at a bare competency; Xhaka fails miserably as an 8 and is even worse as a 6.
 

RacingPhoton

Established Member
Considering how much Arsenal fans dislike these 2 players, they will probably become my fav ever Arsenal midfield...definitely not our best in terms of talent, but I like a good underdog story...stick Ramsey on the right, and we are rolling!

The calendar year they played together (2015) was probably the last time we played consistent Wengerball, became more reliant on individual moments after that I felt.
Sometimes a good pairing between the two players with different attributes works great even if an individual player may not look that great. Coq coming back from loan and saving us was fairy tale material. Shame we don't have a farewell thread for this Arsenal legend.
 
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