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Granit Xhaka: Swiss Army Knife or Blunt Tool?

Will Xhaka be here after the summer window?

  • Yes

    Votes: 38 55.1%
  • No

    Votes: 31 44.9%

  • Total voters
    69
  • Poll closed .
Status
Not open for further replies.

Jack_the_boy

Definitely Not Manberg
Yes, Pirlo and Xavi were capable of doing that more often that not. That's what made them some of best players of all time in their positions.

Not sure why you're always bringing all time greats into a conversation about Xhaka anyway. Forget technique their game management, footballing intelligence etc were in a different stratosphere to Xhaka.

Yes, he made a good pass too Tierney first half. ONE nice longish range pass. That's the problem. He needs to do more of that when it's available rather than the constant ambling forward, ignore the free wide men, pirouette and lay off a 5 yard backwards pass to the CB's. He kills our attacking momentum on the break 4/5 times.

He needs to be more progressive with his distribution, that's where his best talent lay. It's not hard to see.

No player makes wonder passes in every game. Also, under Arteta’s tactics, he has more defensive responsibility and less creative freedom than he used to. A wonder pass from Xhaka is to be seen as a luxurious treat, not an expectation.
 

Blood on the Tracks

AG's best friend, role model and mentor.
Trusted ⭐

Country: England

Player:Rice
No player makes wonder passes in every game. Also, under Arteta’s tactics, he has more defensive responsibility and less creative freedom than he used to. A wonder pass from Xhaka is to be seen as a luxurious treat, not an expectation.

I'm not asking for him to play a Hollywood 90 yarder onto a six pence every time he picks up the ball.

I'm asking him to be more progressive. If he can loft a nice little ball out to the wings quickly, do it. Don't take 5-6 touches first. Release the ball and look to be positive with it. He has the technically ability to do that.

The amount of times that he's turned down that pass to KT or Bellerin this season is unbelievable, and not for a better option either.

The little 5 yard backwards passes should be a last resort if there's nothing on. Xhaka at the moment is treating them as his go to pass.

It might make his pass completion stats look good but it's not helping the team offensively.
 
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Jack_the_boy

Definitely Not Manberg
I'm not asking for him to play a Hollywood 90 yarder onto a six pence every time he picks up the ball.

I'm asking him to be more progressive. If he can loft a nice little ball out to wings quickly, do it. Don't take 5-6 touches first. Release the ball and look to be positive with it. He has the technically ability to do that. The amount of times that he's turned down that pass to KT or Bellerin this season is unbelievable.

The little 5 yard backwards passes should be a last resort if there's nothing on. Xhaka at the moment is treating them as his go to pass.

It might make his pass completion stats look good but it's not helping the team offensively.

Fair enough. Always room for improvement. But what irks me is people using it as a go to excuse for why we’re not scoring. Xhaka holding onto the ball for 5 seconds more than be should or not taking enough risks in his passing is not why we’ve looked blunt offensively very often. In the gif on the previous page, there is no easy option to take. You have to consider that he’s left footed, too.
 

Sweet'n'Soulful

Yet another banned account of Jury
Xhaka holding onto the ball for 5 seconds more than be should or not taking enough risks in his passing is not why we’ve looked blunt offensively very often.
It's unquestionably a contributing factor though. Is his his fault on his own? No. But if they all played it as safe as he did as often as he does, we'd be fvcked. A clear example is Partey's decision to flick that ball into the path of Auba. That goal broke the deadlock. It was effectively a free, no-lose pass into the channel, executed as good as it could have been that resulted in an opening. If you identify opportunities to try passes like that more often, doors open. It's not complicated.

Now Partey's up and running, god willing, maybe Granit can afford to keep it simple a little more and just concentrate on being efficient and positioning himself as well as he has been recently, but progressive passing is meant to be his thing, isn't it? Partey played that pass with the outside of his right foot iirc... That's a left footed pass.
 
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Jack_the_boy

Definitely Not Manberg
It's unquestionably a contributing factor though. Is his his fault on his own? No. But if they all played it as safe as he did as often as he does, we'd be fvcked. A clear example is Partey's decision to flick that ball into the path of Auba. That goal broke the deadlock. It was effectively a free, no-lose pass into the channel, executed as good as it could have been that resulted in an opening. If you identify opportunities to try passes like that more often, doors open, It's not complicated.

A rare opportunity on the counter attack with so much space ahead of Auba. If such a pass is on I don’t see Xhaka slowing it down in that instance, or very rarely. I also think Xhaka has perhaps lost trust in his teammates after our poor form by not expecting them to make the run and could be second guessing himself. A common mental block when it comes to pass masters like him. He will get better, I’m sure.
 

Sweet'n'Soulful

Yet another banned account of Jury
A rare opportunity on the counter attack with so much space ahead of Auba. If such a pass is on I don’t see Xhaka slowing it down in that instance, or very rarely. I also think Xhaka has perhaps lost trust in his teammates after our poor form by not expecting them to make the run and could be second guessing himself. A common mental block when it comes to pass masters like him. He will get better, I’m sure.
Sorry lad, I added a bit more for 'balance' :lol:
 

Sweet'n'Soulful

Yet another banned account of Jury
A rare opportunity on the counter attack with so much space ahead of Auba. If such a pass is on I don’t see Xhaka slowing it down in that instance, or very rarely. I also think Xhaka has perhaps lost trust in his teammates after our poor form by not expecting them to make the run and could be second guessing himself. A common mental block when it comes to pass masters like him. He will get better, I’m sure.
I saw him attempt a similar pass to Tierney tbf that he over hit quite badly and went behind, but he did see him.

It's a new partnership anyway, that looks nicely balanced on paper, so lets see how it progresses. Partey has spoke well of Xhaka fwiw, so if they can gel well, it could be good us.
 

Jack_the_boy

Definitely Not Manberg
This thread has 192 pages. Why is Xhaka so controversial and talked about? Why is this place such a hung jury? You’d think we’re persisting with Kim Kallstrom every week. Instead Xhaka’s been one of our better players, a fact that can’t be denied. Why is everyone nit picking over every little Xhaka flaw? I love Partey and I don’t want to get into a comparison battle. But that’s what others are doing so I’m going to indulge just this once, since two Xhaka misplaced passes against Palace got people talking and making clips over...
Newcastle’s best moment in front of goal yesterday where Willson got into a 1v1 with Holding (Holding did brilliant).... came from Partey losing the ball. Not talked about. Now I do not mind this mistake at all, he was trying an ambitious pass. I’m very happy with the Partey signing and very eager to see the fruit the Partey and Xhaka partnership will bring. It’s the agenda merchants I take issue with. Placing all of Xhaka’s minor negative points under the microscope to make him out to be some terrible player. Every footballer has good and bad moments in every game.
 

Atlas

Lost a sausage bet on Xhaka 😭
Granit Xavi is a stoke city level player who somehow manages to play for us. Recent good or bad performances won’t change that. He wasn’t good enough last season and he won’t be good enough this season or the next. Won’t be hard to upgrade on him either Doozi for example is a much better player. Elneny is as well tells you all you need to know about him.
 

novar

Well-Known Member
Lame notmanberg baiting aside he did receive a lot of **** for no good reason on last match, maybe because it felt needed to make it look like Partey had a superb game for some reason. Match thread kept getting a lot of strange comments in that regard.

He had a good performance and didn't look out of place at all like everyone was claiming, if it continues... Well our midfield issues aren't solved at all actually because when Newcastle bothered they could easily advance to our box anyway but that's not the point.
 

North5

Here since 2009. Unlike Cornavirus.

Country: England
tenor.gif
 

Mrs Bergkamp

Double Dusted
Dusted 🔻
This thread has 192 pages. Why is Xhaka so controversial and talked about? Why is this place such a hung jury? You’d think we’re persisting with Kim Kallstrom every week. Instead Xhaka’s been one of our better players, a fact that can’t be denied. Why is everyone nit picking over every little Xhaka flaw? I love Partey and I don’t want to get into a comparison battle. But that’s what others are doing so I’m going to indulge just this once, since two Xhaka misplaced passes against Palace got people talking and making clips over...
Newcastle’s best moment in front of goal yesterday where Willson got into a 1v1 with Holding (Holding did brilliant).... came from Partey losing the ball. Not talked about. Now I do not mind this mistake at all, he was trying an ambitious pass. I’m very happy with the Partey signing and very eager to see the fruit the Partey and Xhaka partnership will bring. It’s the agenda merchants I take issue with. Placing all of Xhaka’s minor negative points under the microscope to make him out to be some terrible player. Every footballer has good and bad moments in every game.
Wrong and I beat you to it and posted it in the matchday thread when it happened. I love Partey. No agenda. :)
 

MutableEarth

Reiss' Dad
Trusted ⭐
Came here to post this, the diference between him and Partey is incredible.

He just takes so ****ing long to do anything, it's infuriating. Specially because he has a passing range that allows him to release the ball sooner, with acuracy and impetus.
He was quite good yesterday but that was an issue and quite a clear contrast from Partey.

Xhaka is not a bad midfielder IMO but he's not part of the solution. I can acknowledge both that and the fact that he has played pretty well since his red card. I'd still like to see him replaced.

He's been getting pelters though - Yankee Gunner from the Arsenal Vision Podcast absolutely killed him on the instant reaction pod and I was like "
18355-21f2686d912814fb5205ee2d4d940eb4.jpg
He wasn't even bad man :lol:"
 

El Duderino

That's, like, your opinion, man.
Moderator
He was quite good yesterday but that was an issue and quite a clear contrast from Partey.

Xhaka is not a bad midfielder IMO but he's not part of the solution. I can acknowledge both that and the fact that he has played pretty well since his red card. I'd still like to see him replaced.

He's been getting pelters though - Yankee Gunner from the Arsenal Vision Podcast absolutely killed him on the instant reaction pod and I was like "
18355-21f2686d912814fb5205ee2d4d940eb4.jpg
He wasn't even bad man :lol:"

Yeah, said it before, he's not a bad footballer, just not a good fit here or this league.
 

Bloodbather

Established Member

Country: Turkey

Xhaka has his limitations that'll always be there: Not being able to beat the press, being slow on the ball and a tendency for foolhardiness. These factors are sufficient to look for a replacement.

But the time he becomes really annoying to watch is when he doesn't even utilize the strengths that made him an Arsenal player, and a mainstay at that. We all know Xhaka's main strength is his passing range. That's quite an important asset for a midfielder to have, indeed, we just saw a demonstration in that regard from his midfield partner.

When he goes into that ultra-conservative style where he's content to pick the safest pass possible all game and almost refuses to progress the ball, as demonstrated in the video above, he negates his strengths and turns himself into a net negative.

To give him credit, his tackling/ball-winning has been pretty tidy since the stupid red card. If he could combine that with more progressive passing, he'd make a solid partner to Partey. Not a great one, because of the limitations I listed, but a solid one.
 

blaze_of_glory

Moderator
Moderator

Country: Canada
Xhaka has his limitations that'll always be there: Not being able to beat the press, being slow on the ball and a tendency for foolhardiness. These factors are sufficient to look for a replacement.

But the time he becomes really annoying to watch is when he doesn't even utilize the strengths that made him an Arsenal player, and a mainstay at that. We all know Xhaka's main strength is his passing range. That's quite an important asset for a midfielder to have, indeed, we just saw a demonstration in that regard from his midfield partner.

When he goes into that ultra-conservative style where he's content to pick the safest pass possible all game and almost refuses to progress the ball, as demonstrated in the video above, he negates his strengths and turns himself into a net negative.
I don't' think you're wrong, but I'm pretty sure if he's playing conservatively its because he's been told to.
 

Bloodbather

Established Member

Country: Turkey
I don't' think you're wrong, but I'm pretty sure if he's playing conservatively its because he's been told to.

He's had similar episodes in the past, before Arteta took the reigns, so I doubt it. I think he's become a bit too risk avoidant offensively, which is ironic because Xhaka's weakness usually is the opposite - recklessness.
 
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