Granit Xhaka

The state of football journalism in the UK and the world is just so shocking.

I’d be embarrassed to be a football journo these days. I’ve got a few mates who work for squakwa and stuff and I can’t help feel bad for them.

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Yeah this is stupid. He had a few shockers last year and he didn’t really take the league by storm, but he has quietly showed efficiency and definitely has the long-pass in his locker, not to mention the bomb shot. My biggest fear for him is that he doesn’t really have the mobility to make up for AW’s tactical flaws and/or the pairing of him and Ramsey seems like it will struggle in some games. I’d also like to see a bit more composure and skill under pressure, but maybe that is simply something we have to work around with quick passing, movement, and fast counters (again, tailored to his long-passing skills).

We really haven’t had anyone with that potential skillset (long-pass-wise) since Fabregas, although in his pomp Song displayed it at times.

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Xhaka has been quality for a long time now. The only people who would disagree are those who don’t watch Arsenal regularly.

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Xhaka has been good since the change in formation. Prior to that he looked shocking in a lot of games. Was very poor under pressure, passing wasn’t as composed as we’d expected and looked very slow and lacking in athleticism.

The formation change has definitely brought the best out of him but let’s not act like he’s been quality for ages.

I mean he’s only been here for one season so it’s a relatively small pool… middle period of last season he wasn’t great, neither was the team. Think you’re being unnecessarily critical.

I said he’d been quality for a long time - we’ve been playing with the new formation for a pretty long time.

I think its fair to let players have a season to bed in, different league, culture and team mates. The system has helped not only him but our defence as a whole look more sturdy. Also allows wing backs to push on without worrying too much about gaps.

Arteta suffered the same fate (although his legs were gone anyway) being exposed in the 433 whereby only the 2 CBs and DM were basically the only players staying back.

This is semantics maybe, but was it really a long time? Wasn’t it probably about 15 games or so?

I think he’s had more good games than terrible games as suggested. People tend to remember the bad, I guess…

Rough start to the season for him. At fault for two of the goals.

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I don’t think he was comfortable with Moh next to him.

He was much better as soon as Ramsey came on.

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Bad start but made up for it with 2 assists. Leader

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He started off well, then got mad sloppy but finished strongly.

Weird ass performance but he came through in the end.

Outstanding tonight

Two assists. Big season incoming

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Him and Elneny were our worst players on the pitch, they fed us three goals but fed Leicester two or three as well. And they weren’t even pressured in the slightest, at home and in full control of the pace. Desperately need improvements from both of them or a new guy in, or someone else to take their place I feel.

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He had a pretty poor game but ends up with 2 assists, obviously helped by really good finishing.

I feel like Xhaka and Ramsey is the best partnership I want to see, but Xhaka could be left high and dry with his lack of athleticism once Ramsey goes roaming forward every 2 mins. Do you split the partnershio to get the best out of either one?

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in theory the extra centreback makes up for that tbh.

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Ox might have been a better choice at CM, he seriously could have done better tonight. I wasn’t too upset with Elneny but Xhaka’s passing while under pressure in our own half was something that is just not forgivable imo. I was ragging on this guy for the first 3/4 of the season last year. Then we changed our formation and the pressure was off and he did better. Seems like he’s reverting. It was just one game so we’ll see if this bad form continues.

Tbf he did assist 2 goals too, so it wasn’t all bad. That pass for the second goal was also set up slightly by the ball he got played into him by Elneny. It’s hard to really tell what should have been the ideal option there as he really just could have either dribbled it out of danger which given his lack of mobility could have lead to a turnover too or passed it out of bounds.

That doesn’t excuse the other shortcomings though. He’s still to find his form and it will be important for him to do so. One can only hope that it won’t take too long for him to get going.

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As sloppy as he was, he still played a part in all 4 of our goals last night.

https://streamable.com/41gki

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