Granit Xhaka: Xhak Off?

[Erlis]

Xhaka lifting the PL trophy this season and haters still hating on him

"Not good enough for top 4"

 

[Entropics]

Should try shooting more, sometimes he's in a good position to do so and wastes his time sending a meaningless ball to Martinelli instead

Was our only shot on target until the first goal IIRC

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

Consistent as always him getting rid of those anger issues is amazing to see

 

[BergMan]

 

[db10_therza]

Anyone else I’d say this was an accident but the positional intelligence that Granit has you know he meant this

 

[BergMan]

That was our most important goal in the game. It’s an even bigger contribution than the assist he got in my opinion. Not the thing players get credit for though.

 

[pigge]

Xhaka have become so good since last season.

 

[Maybe]

Should try shooting more, sometimes he's in a good position to do so and wastes his time sending a meaningless ball to Martinelli instead

Was our only shot on target until the first goal IIRC

You one of those guys who shouts "shoot" every time he gets the ball and there are 3 defenders who could block his shot?

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

I'm starting to wonder if some of Xhaka's crazy moments were down to pressure / stress.

Obviously since he's moved further forward he's expected to do different things but I've not even seen any hints of a 'Xhaka moment' where he loses his cool and does something silly. He seems so composed these days.

 

[vigante]

You one of those guys who shouts "shoot" every time he gets the ball and there are 3 defenders who could block his shot?

He is not wrong. Just to avoid further criticism from his own fans when he misses a shot, I can see he opts to pass the ball. Quite frequently, and unnecessarily too.
He should definitely shoot more, and we should cheer more.

 

[OnlyOne]

This guy is moving like prime Ramsey. Can't believe it.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

I'm starting to wonder if some of Xhaka's crazy moments were down to pressure / stress.

Obviously since he's moved further forward he's expected to do different things but I've not even seen any hints of a 'Xhaka moment' where he loses his cool and does something silly. He seems so composed these days.

I think everything's changed tho, because now we've got a team full of composed players who can receive the ball under pressure before when he was playing as a 6 he had the likes of Holding behind him, Luiz prone to crazy moments, Leno in goals, maybe Bellerin or Cedric at RB, sometimes Ceballos alongside him. Now if he's under pressure he can give it to much more assured players in Partey, White, Saliba, etc. As well as positional it's probably mindset too. Before there might have been a reluctance to give it to someone closely marked because you know they're likely to lose the ball, now he's got much more confidence in his teammates. It's been a gradual thing tho, last season he was playing pretty well without being as high as he is now, he was still playing sort of in line with Partey. But as things progressed everything has been getting better and better for him an the team. Everyone has confidence in themselves and their teammates.

 

[Maybe]

He is not wrong. Just to avoid further criticism from his own fans when he misses a shot, I can see he opts to pass the ball. Quite frequently, and unnecessarily too.
He should definitely shoot more, and we should cheer more.

He definitely shouldn't, just like Tierney shouldn't cross more. All that wishful crossing and shooting would break our tempo, and we have such a nice fluid attacking system that we really don't need to change.

We control the game, we are scoring goals, we are creating chances all the time, we defend well... I really don't see why you guys want to change his game, especially with how well he plays now

 

[Mitch]

Another very good peformance by Xhaka.

 

[Maybe]

I think everything's changed tho, because now we've got a team full of composed players who can receive the ball under pressure before when he was playing as a 6 he had the likes of Holding behind him, Luiz prone to crazy moments, Leno in goals, maybe Bellerin or Cedric at RB, sometimes Ceballos alongside him. Now if he's under pressure he can give it to much more assured players in Partey, White, Saliba, etc. As well as positional it's probably mindset too. Before there might have been a reluctance to give it to someone closely marked because you know they're likely to lose the ball, now he's got much more confidence in his teammates. It's been a gradual thing tho, last season he was playing pretty well without being as high as he is now, he was still playing sort of in line with Partey. But as things progressed everything has been getting better and better for him an the team. Everyone has confidence in themselves and their teammates.

That's also a sign we don't depend on Xhaka, he will go within a year or two and we can replace him easily with a player who fits the system without taking a hit.

In the past, the moment we've lost players like Fabregas and Cazorla, our football crashed to new lows, all because our system was broken and we couldn't replace like for like. I don't think that will be the case once Xhaka or Partey leave us

 

[RacingPhoton]

I'm starting to wonder if some of Xhaka's crazy moments were down to pressure / stress.

Obviously since he's moved further forward he's expected to do different things but I've not even seen any hints of a 'Xhaka moment' where he loses his cool and does something silly. He seems so composed these days.

I think we just made a big mistake trying to shoehorn him into a DM or DLP role for over five years when his strengths clearly lay elsewhere. Even Arteta was playing Xhaka behind and Partey forward for sometime. I wonder what made him realise that switching both would work wonders for the team.

 

[BergMan]

I think we just made a big mistake trying to shoehorn him into a DM or DLP role for over five years when his strengths clearly lay elsewhere. Even Arteta was playing Xhaka behind and Partey forward for sometime. I wonder what made him realise that switching both would work wonders for the team.

Xhaka in the DLP role was one of the best DLP’s in the league, every season. As for the reason for the switch, it’s as Arteta said in his interview with Carragher, where he repeated what he said before, it was to take our attack to another level, and Xhaka adapted very well to the role and it worked our attack is much better as a result.

 

[Riou]

 

[Nunowoolmez]

Xhaka in the DLP role was one of the best DLP’s in the league, every season. As for the reason for the switch, it’s as Arteta said in his interview with Carragher, where he repeated what he said before, it was to take our attack to another level, and Xhaka adapted very well to the role and it worked our attack is much better as a result.

When you think about it, Arteta must have been planning this for some while & had clearly seen enough from Xhaka to know he could really perform in the role..

We could have easily bought Guimareas before he ended up at Newcastle a year ago & we didnt really have any obvious players to play the position.

It's not just lucky, i'm convinced Arteta must have had him as part of his system plan. The same reason we didn't buy Tielemans.

 

[Red London]

I'm starting to wonder if some of Xhaka's crazy moments were down to pressure / stress.

Obviously since he's moved further forward he's expected to do different things but I've not even seen any hints of a 'Xhaka moment' where he loses his cool and does something silly. He seems so composed these days.

I think the 2 factors are the fact he's been moved further forward and the pressure/stress aspect - and these 2 things have been really playing into eachother and building up momentum. They have both been as important as eachother for what we have seen from him.

The role change alleviated his mistakes (which was already reduced last season compared to previous years) and the confidence boost from this + the very positive reception from the fans has removed the pressure on his head and let him really enjoy his football here for the first time maybe ever...