Nope. As for this DLP stuff, Luiz and Gabriel did a fair bit of that for him. He's not some metronome through which all our play goes and who starts all our attacks. The DLP role is is a shared one. Nobody can say anything that's not one hundred percent praise for Xhaka can they? Keep up the boring work. Hope he's sold in the summer.
He's often our deepest midfielder indeed. But did you see Luiz take the ball and play all the way in to the Leeds box? Did you see Gabriel get forward? Did you see Ceballos driving forward,? Quite a lot of that play involved Xhaka standing a filling a gap-which is tactically on point. He's no Xavi. Hiding at the back whilst Luiz plays out might make him the deepest midfielder but not one that's actually playing in the role you're trying to con me into imagining. No need to explain any further as I know what your on about. Are you Manberg or another Xhaka cultist?
Maybe as a former midfielder himself Arteta just knows how to improve him? I agree with that though.
Could also argue now that he finally works out it'd be stupid to sell? THIS Xhaka i'd like to gamble on tbh.
It’s hilarious. The term sideways passing merchant (or something similar) was literally coined after Xavi.
I am a big advocate of the players we have. Whilst I want to buy into this version of Xhaka, he's burnt me one too many times to stick my neck out for him all the way unfortunately.
Fair enough, I'm certainly not a fan of his. But if he can maintain his recent form and his partnership with partey works out like it promises to a lot of good work would go down the drain if we sell. gonna eat my words the next blunder he does ofc.
Hiding was a bit strong. How about standing tactically in position whist a CB does the actually play making from our box. Simba was making it sound like he does all the play making alone. The improved job he's done over the last couple of months don't mask his flaws either. Every player gets criticised. It's the "ban" on having anything but a loved up opinion on this guy that gets me.
If you're Manberg, I think you said, in another incarnation, that you need a high iq to appreciate Xhaka. You're obviously too clever to get any point I make. For clarity, the Xavi mention was to illustrate a player through whom most of the game passes. That's not Xhaka. He is not setting up the majority of our plays from deep. This is shared and this DLP stuff always comes up to disguise any stats his followers don't like. I'll continue to believe what I want but thanks for the insight.Xhaka plays those long balls at times too. Luiz may do it more often because he’s capable and he has more space. Xhaka is also a specialist at switching the ball to the opposite flank if one is overloaded, a key part of tactics. And he covers for the overloading left back. That’s not hiding at the back that’s him doing his tactical job. When it was a back 3 he dropped to centreback. Again, a tactical instruction. For Xhaka to be getting as many assists as he is is incredible considering his role. Assists aren’t a key part of his role.
What’s your point about not being Xavi? I don’t get it. Besides, if you call Xhaka a sideways passer what do you call Xavi? Xavi was notorious for sideways passing. Xhaka actually does a lot more passes forwards as a percentage of overall passes than Xavi. I’m not saying sideways passing is bad but it goes to show the double standards that the agenda merchants have. “Xhaka not on the level of Xavi all Xhaka does is pass sideways and backwards”
