Granit Xhaka: Swiss Army Knife or Blunt Tool?

[drippin]

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.

We'll see. You're betting Elneny will replace Xhaka. I'm betting Xhaka will play a lot of games this season and likely the next too.

 

[RacingPhoton]

We'll see. You're betting Elneny will replace Xhaka. I'm betting Xhaka will play a lot of games this season and likely the next too.

Yup. Let's see. Xhaka may start the next few games. But I can see him relegated to bench over this season.

 

[drippin]

Yup. Let's see. Xhaka may start the next few games. But I can see him relegated to bench over this season.

I'd say that can happen when we get Aouar or similar player. And even then he will get many games as rotation/1st sub in a three man midfield.

Much will also depend on if we get Ceballos for long term and if Xhaka will renew or not, as in what role he accepts in later years and who we get.

 

[Trilly]

http://7amkickoff.com/index.php/2020/07/22/what-arteta-has-done-to-xhaka/

Interesting article on Xhaka, don't know if it's already been posted.

Really good article. I’ve noticed that his passing is nowhere near as adventurous as it used to be.

He appears to be more reliable now but he’s simply using the ball less. Hmm...

 

[RunTheTrap]

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."

The same Mourinho that millions of Arsenal fans worldwide were against. Mourinho who got rid of Salah and KdB because they didn’t track back enough. Same Mourinho that would sell Pogba for Scott F@cking McTominay. Come on now you’re losing this argument.

 

[Manberg]

The same Mourinho that millions of Arsenal fans worldwide were against. Mourinho who got rid of Salah and KdB because they didn’t track back enough. Same Mourinho that would sell Pogba for Scott F@cking McTominay. Come on now you’re losing this argument.

Was in response to someone else who bought him up. I don’t like Mourinho.

 

[Taylor Gang Gunners]

Sorry, that was Auba. Saying Xhaka was key while Auba was dragging the whole team is insulting

Here’s a thought.. somewhat crazy but hear me out. Maybe, just maybe.. maybe.. they were both key?

 

[Football Manager]

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.

I do see xhaka’s weaknesses. We can definitely make an upgrade on him. But we should not replace him with ceballos/partey. We should replace him with tonali/roca/cuisance, so that we would still have someone making those diagonal passes (but with less of xhaka’s weaknesses). Ceballos can be our iniesta/kaka, Partey can be our defensive Y.Toure/gattusso, and tonali/roca/cuisance can be our xavi/pirlo.We need a player who plays that xavi role in our team.

(By the way. I'm talking about the guardiola’s Barcelona. In order to make possession/beautiful football works properly, you need the right tactics and the right players.)

After replacing Xhaka, we may look to get aouar, an upgrade on ceballos (or to make him a rotation option), and then find a destroyer type of midfielder to backup Partey.

We can then ship out all the unskillful/the not good at general play/the not good on the ball players (Auba/laca/Özil/willock/nketiah...), and get some spainish/french/brazilian players (A younger version of Firmino/Van Persie/Benzema to be our striker. And two younger version of douglas costa to be our wingers).

It’s a dream coming true to have guardiola mkii as our manager, who is brilliant in tactical knowledge. I would like us to play like 07-08 arsenal (but with better defenders, better bench players, without walcott/adebayor/gallas, and with a better tactical system instead of a “free” system) or 09-10 barcelona.

I have been waiting for years and years for us to play beautiful football and ship out all of our unskillful players. I’m sick of watching Walcott/Chamberlain/Giroud/podolski/mkhi... and in recent years auba/laca/Özil (I was against the signing of these three players from day one). We need more of hleb/Sanchez/nasri/arshavin/Cazorla/fabregas/van Persie .......We need to claim back the identity that we played the most entertaining football in Europe.

Luckily, our future looks bright. Seems that I will finally get what I wanted. Because:
1) we have a true tactician as our manager
2) we improved on our video/data analysis
3) our transfer targets are the exact type of player I wanted. (skillful players like Aouar, coutinho, willian, ceballos....and our defenders signings are all good on the ball) This also suggested that we will play entertaining football in the near future.
4) our youth players, especially the u18 are more technical and skillful than ever. We have John Jules, Lewis, matt smith, cottrell, cirjan, patino, hutchinson, salah, flores......

I just want to say this to the people who keep telling me that my idea was wrong: I’m winning here. Skilful/possession/beautiful/entertaining football is coming back soon. 10 years of waiting and finally I’m going to get what I wanted.

 

[daron christie]

How many of these teams would xhaka get into

Liverpool
Chelsea
Man City
Manu
Spuds
Everton

 

[RunTheTrap]

Xhaka having a stink job against a high pressing team? Water is wet. The grass is green. The Pope is Catholic etc etc.

 

[drippin]

Xhaka having a stink job against a high pressing team? Water is wet. The grass is green. The Pope is Catholic etc etc.

Sommer passed it badly behind Xhaka (and Xhaka was moving the other direction), when he should have passed to the other guy.

"A blunder from Switzerland goalkeeper Yann Sommer was enough for Spain to win 1-0 in an empty stadium in Madrid."

https://www.sportsnet.ca/soccer/article/sommers-gaffe-gives-spain-win-switzerland-nations-league/

"Switzerland shoot themselves in the foot and Spain take the lead! Sommer's short pass out from the back presents the hosts with a chance inside the penalty box, with Merino winning it and Oyarzabal firing past the Swiss goalkeeper on the turn!"

"Merino deserves a lot of credit for recognising the pass out from Sommer was loose. He was right on top of the Swiss defence to win possession before Oyarzabal tucked away the finish."

"Another poor kick! This time, Sommer gets away with it, but the Switzerland looks so uncomfortable whenever the ball is played back to him. And yet his team persist with this approach."

"Time and time again, Sommer keeps putting his own side under pressure with his poor distribution from the back. The Swiss goalkeeper just isn't comfortable playing in this way."

https://www.eurosport.com/football/.../live-spain-switzerland_mtc1187366/live.shtml

 

[Red London]

This could go either way to be honest. When you look at it purely on talent, Xhaka is now our third best CM. The issue is that football isnt played on paper.

Xhaka is seen as a leader in the dressing room and a manager likes people like that on the pitch. Secondly, from a purely balancing point of view the jury is still out on whether Ceballos can act like a pure 6. For me he has played like he is between a 6 and 8; sitting back a lot but also venturing forward to create. I do think that he can basically do most the things that Xhaka can do but better, but it will depend on whether the gaffer experiments with Ceballos being our deepest player. Right now it looks like Xhaka and Partey is an extremely balanced partnership.

I think Ceballos has the ability to be a leader for us and be a very good player. In an ideal world he impresses next to Partey and we sign him permanently next summer, either selling Xhaka or keeping him as a rotational option.

 

[TakeChillPill]

Keeper was at fault for the goal today, can't blame xhaka.

Looking forward to see this miraculous change in xhaka once partey is in the first 11.

Partey is going to be Xhaka's Kevin Costner to his Witney Huston.

 

[Ash10]

Keeper was at fault for the goal today, can't blame xhaka.

Looking forward to see this miraculous change in xhaka once partey is in the first 11.

Partey is going to be Xhaka's Kevin Costner to his Witney Huston.

When do the cultists ever blame him anyway?

 

[Macho]

I do see xhaka’s weaknesses. We can definitely make an upgrade on him. But we should not replace him with ceballos/partey. We should replace him with tonali/roca/cuisance, so that we would still have someone making those diagonal passes (but with less of xhaka’s weaknesses). Ceballos can be our iniesta/kaka, Partey can be our defensive Y.Toure/gattusso, and tonali/roca/cuisance can be our xavi/pirlo.We need a player who plays that xavi role in our team.

(By the way. I'm talking about the guardiola’s Barcelona. In order to make possession/beautiful football works properly, you need the right tactics and the right players.)

After replacing Xhaka, we may look to get aouar, an upgrade on ceballos (or to make him a rotation option), and then find a destroyer type of midfielder to backup Partey.

We can then ship out all the unskillful/the not good at general play/the not good on the ball players (Auba/laca/Özil/willock/nketiah...), and get some spainish/french/brazilian players (A younger version of Firmino/Van Persie/Benzema to be our striker. And two younger version of douglas costa to be our wingers).

It’s a dream coming true to have guardiola mkii as our manager, who is brilliant in tactical knowledge. I would like us to play like 07-08 arsenal (but with better defenders, better bench players, without walcott/adebayor/gallas, and with a better tactical system instead of a “free” system) or 09-10 barcelona.

I have been waiting for years and years for us to play beautiful football and ship out all of our unskillful players. I’m sick of watching Walcott/Chamberlain/Giroud/podolski/mkhi... and in recent years auba/laca/Özil (I was against the signing of these three players from day one). We need more of hleb/Sanchez/nasri/arshavin/Cazorla/fabregas/van Persie .......We need to claim back the identity that we played the most entertaining football in Europe.

Luckily, our future looks bright. Seems that I will finally get what I wanted. Because:
1) we have a true tactician as our manager
2) we improved on our video/data analysis
3) our transfer targets are the exact type of player I wanted. (skillful players like Aouar, coutinho, willian, ceballos....and our defenders signings are all good on the ball) This also suggested that we will play entertaining football in the near future.
4) our youth players, especially the u18 are more technical and skillful than ever. We have John Jules, Lewis, matt smith, cottrell, cirjan, patino, hutchinson, salah, flores......

I just want to say this to the people who keep telling me that my idea was wrong: I’m winning here. Skilful/possession/beautiful/entertaining football is coming back soon. 10 years of waiting and finally I’m going to get what I wanted.

Jesus f*cking Christ

okay first off - why do you even watch us? Who in this squad do you even like? Do you even like the premiership?
Why do we have to recruit French/Spanish/Brazilian why not the best players for the job?

secondly- tonali/roca/cuisance are never coming here so you need to get over it. We have our own 20 year olds, those other guys can stay in midtable teams in farmers leagues.

thirdly - you’re never gonna get a team of 11 pure technicians, it’s a contact sport which means athleticism kinda comes into play.

Lastly- do you even realise the Brexit struggle ball Arteta has been implementing with our team? You got a lot more waiting to do for that tika taka mate, not everything is because of the players.

Arteta is his own man he’s not Pep jr. He has his own ideas and his own experiences (or lack there of).
Pep has been in the game years and years - with youth teams, B teams, senior squads - you can’t just assume all that knowledge and experience has been transferred onto Arteta just because he laid out cones for him.

If you like Barcelona so much, just watch Barcelona

 

[drippin]

When do the cultists ever blame him anyway?

I basically saved the haters from that, by copy pasting the reports of the Sommer blunder.

Otherwise people would have likely blaimed Xhaka more like RunTheTrap & RacingPhoton who liked his post.

Should've maybe waited to post today.

 

[kash2]

How many of these teams would xhaka get into

Liverpool
Chelsea
Man City
Manu
Spuds
Everton

all

 

[Football Manager]

Jesus f*cking Christ

okay first off - why do you even watch us? Who in this squad do you even like? Do you even like the premiership?
Why do we have to recruit French/Spanish/Brazilian why not the best players for the job?

secondly- tonali/roca/cuisance are never coming here so you need to get over it. We have our own 20 year olds, those other guys can stay in midtable teams in farmers leagues.

thirdly - you’re never gonna get a team of 11 pure technicians, it’s a contact sport which means athleticism kinda comes into play.

Lastly- do you even realise the Brexit struggle ball Arteta has been implementing with our team? You got a lot more waiting to do for that tika taka mate, not everything is because of the players.

Arteta is his own man he’s not Pep jr. He has his own ideas and his own experiences (or lack there of).
Pep has been in the game years and years - with youth teams, B teams, senior squads - you can’t just assume all that knowledge and experience has been transferred onto Arteta just because he laid out cones for him.

If you like Barcelona so much, just watch Barcelona

1) Why would I not watch Arsenal if I’m a fan?

2) I like the team. Not any particular player stand out the most. We have lost all the magical players in our squad like Sanchez/Van Persie/Henry/Bergkamp....that I will immediately say I am a fan without even thinking.

3) That’s just examples. Brazil/France/Spain did produce a lot of best talents in the world. And they are usually technically gifted.

4) Why would they not come if we work on our transfers? Cuisance in mid-table team? You do know a lot of big clubs are after them because they have great talent in them. If you don’t like them then how about Neves? He is in the PL. If not then who is going to make those 30 yards diagonal passes to play the Xavi/alonso/pirlo/Carrick role? Why do British fans hate this role so much?

5) Can a player with good technique/skills also have good stamina/strengths/pace...? Henry/Mbappe/Lewandowski/KDB.....a lot of world class players have good pace and body strength too. Do you think iniesta/silva is as slow as mertezacker?

6) Arteta has said it before what kind of football he wanted to play. I’m sure what stopping us from playing that is that we have too many non-skillful players in our squad.

7) You can see Arteta is using positional play in its setup. Just like Pep, his tactical plan is extremely detailed and well calculated. May be pep is more attacking as he has the right players available, and Arteta is more on the defensive side. But the principle is the same. They both use positional play. That all players will be assigned to occupy a certain area of the pitch in certain situations. And how they move is well trained and pre-instructed.

8) Barcelona don’t even played that way these days.

@Macho

 

[Ash10]

all

Probably as a mascot, yeah. I mean he does point a lot

 

[Big Poppa]

Jesus f*cking Christ

okay first off - why do you even watch us? Who in this squad do you even like? Do you even like the premiership?
Why do we have to recruit French/Spanish/Brazilian why not the best players for the job?

secondly- tonali/roca/cuisance are never coming here so you need to get over it. We have our own 20 year olds, those other guys can stay in midtable teams in farmers leagues.

thirdly - you’re never gonna get a team of 11 pure technicians, it’s a contact sport which means athleticism kinda comes into play.

Lastly- do you even realise the Brexit struggle ball Arteta has been implementing with our team? You got a lot more waiting to do for that tika taka mate, not everything is because of the players.

Arteta is his own man he’s not Pep jr. He has his own ideas and his own experiences (or lack there of).
Pep has been in the game years and years - with youth teams, B teams, senior squads - you can’t just assume all that knowledge and experience has been transferred onto Arteta just because he laid out cones for him.

If you like Barcelona so much, just watch Barcelona

It’s amusing to me at this point.