Country: England
Spot on, my earlier post had to be done though especially how some were firing shots at a few of us straight after that Newcastle game last season but we’re doing fantastic now, so it’s all irrelevant tbh.
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Granit Xhaka: Xhak Off?
- Thread starter BigPoppaPump
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Country: England
Spot on, my earlier post had to be done though especially how some were firing shots at a few of us straight after that Newcastle game last season but we’re doing fantastic now, so it’s all irrelevant tbh.
Tir Na Nog
Changes Opinion Every 5 Minutes
Country: Ireland
What an absolute pity it's worth jack ****.
14Henry
Looking for receipts 👀
Loved how he wound up the Chelsea lads today. And for once when the drama was unfolding he looked in control. Not backing away and not doing anything stupid. Has been excellent this season and if he picks up a title winners medal (as unlikely as I think it is) or getting us CL football next year and maybe a cup win he will have certainly answered his critics the right way. Me being one of his biggest ones up until about 18 months ago.
Erlis
Only Came To See Granit Xhaka
Country: Kosova
His criticism was not only football oriented that is the problem. There was open bias, I will not call it racism to sound harsh, against him. He was criticized for everything.
razörist
Soft With The Ladies, Hard With The Mes
Country: Morocco
Honestly I disliked him a lot. Not anymore though.
For me he is like a new signing, a new player from when he started playing further forward. This is his second season at the club for all intents and purposes, everything before that is forgotten for me.
For me he is like a new signing, a new player from when he started playing further forward. This is his second season at the club for all intents and purposes, everything before that is forgotten for me.
Riou
In The Winchester, Waiting For This To Blow Over
Country: Northern Ireland
Player:Gabriel
The relationship had gotten to such a toxic point between the two, that he told the fans to **** off in 2019.
Now it's 2022 and the fans were singing his name so loudly, that Xhaka said on live TV that their support was ****ing amazing.
Sums up how unpredictable and amazing life can be sometimes.
One of the best players in a title challenging team, respect.
Now it's 2022 and the fans were singing his name so loudly, that Xhaka said on live TV that their support was ****ing amazing.
Sums up how unpredictable and amazing life can be sometimes.
One of the best players in a title challenging team, respect.
Country: Bangladesh
Player:Martinelli
boonthegoon
Arteta In by November
Country: USA
Player:Ødegaard
He has made Kovacic his biatch
razörist
Soft With The Ladies, Hard With The Mes
Country: Morocco
Gotta love Xhaka, he don’t take sh¡t from anyone. Last minute of the game he was waving his arms riling up the arsenal fans, Jorginho tried giving him **** for it and Xhaka told him kindly **** off, those are our fans I can do what I want.
He's playing like he loves the game atm and his partnership with Partey has been awesome. His little smirk as he wound up Jorginho made me laugh. For me, he looks and plays a lot less rigidly than he did before and I'll watch with interest how he goes at the WC.
I think he was good last year and my opinion of him definitely increased, but hes on another level this season. He's been on the edge of world class, not really put a foot wrong and every decision he makes is the 100% correct decision.
He's one of the best midfielders in the league and in Europe this season.
But anyway, I of coure disagree with those people who dont want to change their opinion on him, even more... if anything those are the people who need to follow what I said RE giving credit where its due. But they are letting things which happened in the past cloud their current judgement.
What’s funny is that I was a Xhaka supporter for much longer than most on here, but actually for different reasons than what he’s now displaying. I always championed his distribution from the base of midfield, but I didn’t expect him to excel in a box to box role the way he has.
I did always think though that we just never gave him the right partner, I wanted Zakaria cos they worked well together, Partey fills that role but actually way better than Zakaria could.
I did always think though that we just never gave him the right partner, I wanted Zakaria cos they worked well together, Partey fills that role but actually way better than Zakaria could.
Country: England
Player:Saka
Way more than a hot streak. He's unshacked by Partey.
Melquiades
Active Member
He was dire when we were struggling in 20-21.
Profoundly negative play, major mistakes leading to goals, poor discipline and red cards.
He really turned it around last year and now has been a totally different player playing in a completely different way this year.
Credit to Xhaka for digging down and finding something better in himself and credit to the manager for finding ways to get the best out of the player and his strengths.
BergMan
Betrayed by Xhaka
“Absolutely dire” says @Melquiades when statistically he was one of the most progressive passers in Europe that season.
This vid is taken from that season.
Errors leading to goals in that season: only 2
Red cards in that season: only one
Negative play? Do I need to show you the progressive passing stats?
You were saying?
BergMan
Betrayed by Xhaka
The funny thing is, goals and assists aside, this has actually been statistically Granit’s worst season in terms of overall play since he’s been at the club. Passing, distribution, defending stats etc they are all at their lowest. You can check his crab stats this season, it’s not been good whilst in previous seasons it was amazing.
It’s very interesting. To me it just showcases people’s lack of ball knowledge (of premier league fans), all they see in football is attacking play, they don’t understand details. If Xhaka played in Spain or Italy he would be seen as one of the very best midfielders of all time even 5 years ago.
It’s very interesting. To me it just showcases people’s lack of ball knowledge (of premier league fans), all they see in football is attacking play, they don’t understand details. If Xhaka played in Spain or Italy he would be seen as one of the very best midfielders of all time even 5 years ago.
Blankety Blank
emoji merchant
Fair point I have been pretty supportive of Granit as he always gave his all & had qualities. Sometimes he made rash decisions but as you say he was definitely a scapegoat.
Same can be said of Arteta. In his 1st full season he had some really tough times pre xmas & many wanted him sacked.
When the main problem was a lot of the team/squad were either on the slide or simply not good enough.
AbouCuéllar
Author of A-M essays 📚
Yeah, while he suffered like everyone did in the early 2020 part of that season, he was one of our standout performers on that team. That season he convinced me I was wrong when I debated with you at the beginning of the season saying that Ceballos was better.
One of the big differences now is that he's cut those errors, so far, out of his game (it will be interesting how people react when one does happen...I do think he's got enough credit in the bank at this point that it won't matter too much, but let's see). Such does our memory worked that these big errors linger more heavily in our memory for the emotional reaction they provoked in us that they bias too much our global analysis, if we don't check ourselves.
A lot of this is role defined, mate. For instance progressive passing distance you can obviously see why that would be, considering in the evolution of our play and the quality of our build-up he is now receiving it higher up the pitch than he ever has on average as an Arsenal player. Defensively it's clear as well, as Xhaka's role is more of an intelligent zone controller than an aggressive presser or tackler like others (dribbled past comparisons from earlier seasons to later give a good insight into his role, I think). Statistics need to be taken in context and if you're watching the game with detail I feel very comfortable in saying that this is the most mature, best decision making, most consistently focused, and intelligent version of Xhaka I have seen, ie his best consistent level.
This is where you go OTT. While it's true that the average level of appreciation for detail among those following British football, don't think that ours (and definitely not the Italians, haha) is that much better. While it's true that we don't have such an exaggerated tendency to over-emphasise the importance of physical traits as the average follower of British football, the average fan here still really likes them, probably more than outsiders realise. Meanwhile our average football fan is every bit as fickle, emotional, and probably more unforgiving than the average follower of british football. The reality is Xhaka wouldn't have survived more than a year or maybe maybe two at any of our big clubs (Madrid, Barça, even Atléti) the way he started here in his first couple of years and the memorable mistakes he made, and maybe even at some of our lesser big clubs.
I do agree that his last couple of seasons would've received far more appreciation here than in England. For instance here you would never have a majority rating a player as poor as Torreira over Xhaka (or Flamini over Arteta, always a really good example for me--even my 22 yr old girlfriend at the time just needed one watch of Flamini to know that he was **** and hid more than a boy playing hide and go seek), that's definitely a uniquely English phenomenon because of the kind of things that the british football follower gets off on. But yeah, let's not romanticise our football understanding either, Benzema was thought of as **** and not good enough for Madrid by a great majority for 75% of his Madrid career, with polls preferring Morata at times, Özil at near Balón d'Or levels was oft-criticised as too inconsistent for Madrid...the average football fan wherever you are just isn't that intelligent or doesn't have a great eye or interest for detail, the only thing that really changes is a bit the tendencies in preferences and what is deemed respectable with regards to certain traits and personality traits on the pitch.
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AbouCuéllar
Author of A-M essays 📚
Yeah, I too only thought he would be interesting as a deep lying playmaker and never agreed with Wenger's suggestions (even if it wasn't really applied, much) that he was best as an 8. Just goes to show that if you are a top class passer as a central midfielder, with a good defensive sense (this is something Xhaka has always had--having a tendency for isolated mistakes is a different thing, just as Gabriel has a very good defensive sense but a tendency for isolated mistakes), and a great drive and professionalism to succeed, there is always hope for you.
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