Granit Xhaka: Swiss Army Knife or Blunt Tool?

[Jury]

What winds me up as well is this responsible act that he likes to put on, but whenever there is a chance to act responsibly in light of an error he acts completely irresponsibly and tries to spread the blame. How ****ing annoying is that?

 

[kash2]

Frankly, Leno is a frikkin idiot. He was able to see the whole play before him and still had a brain dead moment. There is something suspect about his mentality and decision making. Rarely leaves his line and when he does, its always a heart in the mouth moment with the odd comic episode.

Compare the narrative around Leno vs that about Xhaka for the same incident, which incidentally wasnt even a loss for arsenal. However reading here, it seems like xhaka went and shot the bum squads bum with pepper bullets.

 

[Penn_]

Is this all togetherness act you see all social media just football know or is it more unique to us?

Seeing his teammates comment on his post just felt a bit weird. Like he ****ed up poorly, and not for the first time. Just doesn’t feel as if there ever any accountability with these guys.

I’m always slightly sickened when I see Bellerin and Xhaka talking as they come out for the second half, it’s clear that they are both leaders in this team. Xhaka and ****ing Bellerin. Leaders.

 

[Mrs Bergkamp]

Maybe not but let’s say we buy a certified midfielder to partner Partey. Obviously, that’s gonna give him a hint to where he’s gonna be in the pecking order. At 28/29 years old he’s an international captain and a “leader”, he is looking for his last big contract. He probably wants assurances that he’ll be a starter and the length of contract is important, also he may have aspirations to play in CL football again. Maybe he may seek a move if an interesting offer came.

I like your idea but Monchengladbach only played CL in 2015/16 and won one match. He has no CL experience of note and no team of that calibre will take him. He shouldn't be given any assurances or extended again. Two years on his contract equals time to sell we were told.

 

[Big Poppa]

Frankly, Leno is a frikkin idiot. He was able to see the whole play before him and still had a brain dead moment. There is something suspect about his mentality and decision making. Rarely leaves his line and when he does, its always a heart in the mouth moment with the odd comic episode.

Compare the narrative around Leno vs that about Xhaka for the same incident, which incidentally wasnt even a loss for arsenal. However reading here, it seems like xhaka went and shot the bum squads bum with pepper bullets.

Dude it wasn’t like Leno blindsided him with an unexpected pass. Xhaka could see the whole play too before he decided to run towards Leno calling for the ball. He’s owned it, we move on.

 

[Mrs Bergkamp]

The problem with Xhaka isn’t just limited to mistakes though is it? We almost have to build our style around one player whose basically painfully average. Someone on here blamed Leno for giving it on his right foot... I mean if that’s what the discussion boils down to, we are in much deeper **** than we realise. The guy can’t lace the boots of someone like Cazorla for whom it was second nature receiving the ball on either foot.

A lot of Xhaka’s mistakes have come from distrust in his own technique or being pressed aggressively. We used to have midfielders who never had these problems. It’s time for us to move on and find someone more mobile and technically sound.

The bit in bold is crucial. He stat pads but isn't that effective. Wrighty pointed out that he could have demanded the ball from Tierney further up the pitch. Even if he turned quickly and hoofed it in to touch, we probably get to half time with our lead intact. He's horribly limited and not worth compromising his team mates to accommodate him. I'm sure he believed that because he'd started to look a bit more dynamic, that he was actually a better player than he is. Time to cut our losses

 

[Jury]

Dude it wasn’t like Leno blindsided him with an unexpected pass. Xhaka could see the whole play too before he decided to run towards Leno calling for the ball. He’s owned it, we move on.

Please don’t tell me somebody is trying to blame Leno The player comes running at Leno asking for the ball as if he knew what he was going to do with it. Probably some odd lad with a hard-on for the Aston Villa goalkeeper I’d imagine

 

[Kav]

But there wasn’t anything wrong with taking a punt on Xhaka either, he was rated highly and went on to have a decent Euros.

The problem was and still is that we persist for far too long.

Kinda funny though that fans were on Wenger’s back for not starting him when he arrived and now look.

Xhaka has always been an example of a Stat player. The kind that shines in databases like StatDna. Yet continually fail the eye test. He’s a average player with a good long passing range which he rarely uses. That aside he’s very limited in skill sets, lacks mobility, poor tackler and his decision making is problematic.

He’s exemplary of the pitfalls of StatDna and putting too much weight on statistics output to assess players.

 

[say yes]

****ing hell that poll is brutal

 

[dashsnow17]

The bit in bold is crucial. He stat pads but isn't that effective. Wrighty pointed out that he could have demanded the ball from Tierney further up the pitch. Even if he turned quickly and hoofed it in to touch, we probably get to half time with our lead intact. He's horribly limited and not worth compromising his team mates to accommodate him. I'm sure he believed that because he'd started to look a bit more dynamic, that he was actually a better player than he is. Time to cut our losses

I suppose maybe there's also the things you don't immediately see, like does Arteta instruct other players to play in a certain way and keep a shape to mitigate Xhaka's weaknesses? Like maybe if we had a player who could pass but also run we could be a bit more adventurous in our shape, instead of having to build a wall to cover for Xhaka's lack of mobility.

Don't know who that player is though, what we really need is Partey to have a twin brother.

 

[avenellroad]

I suppose maybe there's also the things you don't immediately see, like does Arteta instruct other players to play in a certain way and keep a shape to mitigate Xhaka's weaknesses? Like maybe if we had a player who could pass but also run we could be a bit more adventurous in our shape, instead of having to build a wall to cover for Xhaka's lack of mobility.

Don't know who that player is though, what we really need is Partey to have a twin brother.

A midfielder with good technique and ultimately trust in their technique is what we need. Being easily pressed is a symptom of poor technique. Someone like Wilshere pre injuries is the epitome of a press resistant midfielder. Not a spectacular midfielder but absolutely rock solid fundamental technique. Xhaka doesn’t have this.

If our scouts can’t find at least one player like this, they should all be fired from their jobs to be honest

 

[RunTheTrap]

Frankly, Leno is a frikkin idiot. He was able to see the whole play before him and still had a brain dead moment. There is something suspect about his mentality and decision making. Rarely leaves his line and when he does, its always a heart in the mouth moment with the odd comic episode.

Compare the narrative around Leno vs that about Xhaka for the same incident, which incidentally wasnt even a loss for arsenal. However reading here, it seems like xhaka went and shot the bum squads bum with pepper bullets.

Why is it so hard for you to accept Xhaka was at wrong here? Even Xhaka himself came out and apologised for his mistake. Partey collected the ball in the exact same area and it led to our first goal. Clearly that was the game plan but Xhaka messed up. Stop behaving like Manburg and be reasonable.

 

[Camus]

What winds me up as well is this responsible act that he likes to put on, but whenever there is a chance to act responsibly in light of an error he acts completely irresponsibly and tries to spread the blame. How ****ing annoying is that?

I'm one of Xhaka's biggest critics but I can see from his perspective why he has the mentality that he does.

From his point of view he sees the following:

He turns up to training and gives his maximum in terms of physical and mental exertion. As critical as I am of Xhaka one thing I will say is he doesn't look (and by all credible reports isn't) the type to slack in training or come in with the mentality to have a joke and piss about.

When is picked to play it would appear to me that he's by and large following the managers orders correctly, pleases them with his performances. That's Wenger, Emery and Arteta now that have all consistently played him and trusted him. And that's despite them all having widely varying faith in different players that their counterparts trusted/didn't trust. His willingness to follow his managers order is further emphasised by the fact he's happily played in a number of differing positions, from CB, fullback, DM, B2B and even AM.

And despite his numerous goal leading errors, his (early his Arsenal career? isn't it gone now?) disciplinary issue and his clearly deficiency in ability, he's still routinely played and trusted by the manager it an extremely high degree.

How is that not going to have an impact on his ability? If the guys that are his bosses, the ones who's opinions actually tangibly matter are pleased with him then why would he change his mentality? He's not just going wake up one day and have a epiphany and think:

"Damn, I'm really ****. I really need to drastically improve my game. I need to tell the gaffer that he should stop picking and that I'm refusing to play until I actual improve as a player"

It's never ever going to happen. Not even remotely. That needs to come from the manager. I actually don't get that mad at Xhaka anymore since I've reached the point where this is just his absolute level. He's not being **** on purpose or through a lack of trying. He's genuinely trying to the best of his abilities, he's just not a very good footballer and the manager needs to realise that and address it.

Contrast that to someone like Pepe who I believe is also not a very good footballer but I'm more vocally critical of him these days (not recently since he's improved a bit) because to me it seems like he's also not trying hard enough or responded well enough to the obvious push back from managers who are also not pleased with his performances.

 

[mirrorstare]

I was reading a Football London article which said Arsenal have found their answer to Kroos and Messi! Xhaka sits 8th in the table of passes in to the final third-ahead of Messi. They do say "statistically, he's had a good season " which imo means his numbers are good as they often are, without the actual performance to match. No mention of dropped and broken Henderson being ahead of him in the table. There seems to be an awful lot of love for this guy and I don't know how this happened.

This season his performances have matched, been fairly dependable since Chelsea and crucial in some of our best performances like Soton, all the while having to babysit an useless Cedric and a hilariously immobile Partey.

He is, along with Holding, one of the players we can clearly say has improved under Arteta, even if it doesn't look like much because everyone else regressed, some massively. Can't really blame Arteta for playing him every game either, the guy is world class at gaslighting managers or something and he did it to our best ever manager too.

 

[blaze_of_glory]

I'm one of Xhaka's biggest critics but I can see from his perspective why he has the mentality that he does.

From his point of view he sees the following:

He turns up to training and gives his maximum in terms of physical and mental exertion. As critical as I am of Xhaka one thing I will say is he doesn't look (and by all credible reports isn't) the type to slack in training or come in with the mentality to have a joke and piss about.

When is picked to play it would appear to me that he's by and large following the managers orders correctly, pleases them with his performances. That's Wenger, Emery and Arteta now that have all consistently played him and trusted him. And that's despite them all having widely varying faith in different players that their counterparts trusted/didn't trust. His willingness to follow his managers order is further emphasised by the fact he's happily played in a number of differing positions, from CB, fullback, DM, B2B and even AM.

And despite his numerous goal leading errors, his (early his Arsenal career? isn't it gone now?) disciplinary issue and his clearly deficiency in ability, he's still routinely played and trusted by the manager it an extremely high degree.

How is that not going to have an impact on his ability? If the guys that are his bosses, the ones who's opinions actually tangibly matter are pleased with him then why would he change his mentality? He's not just going wake up one day and have a epiphany and think:

"Damn, I'm really ****. I really need to drastically improve my game. I need to tell the gaffer that he should stop picking and that I'm refusing to play until I actual improve as a player"

It's never ever going to happen. Not even remotely. That needs to come from the manager. I actually don't get that mad at Xhaka anymore since I've reached the point where this is just his absolute level. He's not being **** on purpose or through a lack of trying. He's genuinely trying to the best of his abilities, he's just not a very good footballer and the manager needs to realise that and address it.

Contrast that to someone like Pepe who I believe is also not a very good footballer but I'm more vocally critical of him these days (not recently since he's improved a bit) because to me it seems like he's also not trying hard enough or responded well enough to the obvious push back from managers who are also not pleased with his performances.

I think part of the reason he is so highly rated by mangers is he's in many ways an extension of them on the field, making their job easier. He follow instructions to the letter (to a fault actually, players should improvise and I actually think the error on the weekend is down to Xhaka failing to read and adapt to the situation and instead defaulting to what they are told to do re: playing out the back) and gets everyone on the same wavelength. His team mates rate him for for this reason as well I think, as a player it's great to have someone on the field taking that role. And no one else in our team seems to step up to do it.

And yes, his disciplinary issues are mostly a myth at this point given he's only had three red cards in five seasons. But people act like its three each season.

 

[Riou]

...this was superb by him.

 

[Harz]

...this was superb by him.

The FA conspired to gift Arteta a cup so that he may further ruin our dear Arsenal

 

[Macho]

If our scouts can’t find at least one player like this, they should all be fired from their jobs to be honest

there are no scouts

It's typical of Xhaka but at the same time when you play out the back, these things will happen. Have seen it happen to better players.

 

[Riou]

The FA conspired to gift Arteta a cup so that he may further ruin our dear Arsenal

Would be lovely if UEFA could gift us the Europa this year, so Arteta can keep ruining Arsenal...

 

[EmeryCouldnt]

Frankly, Leno is a frikkin idiot. He was able to see the whole play before him and still had a brain dead moment. There is something suspect about his mentality and decision making. Rarely leaves his line and when he does, its always a heart in the mouth moment with the odd comic episode.

Compare the narrative around Leno vs that about Xhaka for the same incident, which incidentally wasnt even a loss for arsenal. However reading here, it seems like xhaka went and shot the bum squads bum with pepper bullets.

Dude, it looked like Xhaka was checking to him to hit it on his right foot to our defender on the right side. Instead, Xhaka has to take 3 touches on a tame ground pass before he can do anything. If you can't see that, then...

You're the bum squad, here to defend a bum like Xhaka.