Granit Xhaka: Swiss Army Knife or Blunt Tool?

[Manberg]

Mate, I don't need a statistics summary about the game that I watched. Hitting the ball to find Kolasinac is not something that's very important to me. Most of his long passes are used for finding a free player on the left, but you're making them sound like a defence splitting passes. Look at Henderson's pass today for Mane, when was the last time Xhaka did something like that? That's a pass that breaks defence, pass with purpose and fairly accurate.

If you want to mention someone with standout long forward passes, I would rather mention Gabriel, probably Luiz as well

First of all, playing those balls over a defence to find players in space is an important part of his role and easier said then done. It is an important pass to make. His primary role is to transition defence to attack, not to assist. Secondly, he made a pass like that to find Auba in space against Fulham. Not possible yesterday because West Ham were so deep.

 

[Ash10]

First of all, playing those balls over a defence to find players in space is an important part of his role and easier said then done. It is an important pass to make. His primary role is to transition defence to attack, not to assist. Secondly, he made a pass like that to find Auba in space against Fulham. Not possible yesterday because West Ham were so deep.

West ham played the whole game with a high line wth:rofl:

 

[Maybe]

First of all, playing those balls over a defence to find players in space is an important part of his role and easier said then done. It is an important pass to make. His primary role is to transition defence to attack, not to assist. Secondly, he made a pass like that to find Auba in space against Fulham. Not possible yesterday because West Ham were so deep.

Again, he is not playing passes over a defence, he is playing them sideways to LB's. Playmakers role is not only to make a couple of long passes, it's to organize the game throughout 90 min which includes short passing, long passing, breaking the press, taking the ball under pressure and keeping it safe.
All that stuff is expected from every playmaker at the top level, but somehow long passing is the only thing needed from Xhaka.
Take a good look at Kroos, Modric, Tiago, Verrati, analyze their game and compare it to Xhaka, only then you'll find where Xhaka is.
But even if you lover the bar for him to a tier 2 playmakers: Kovacic, Rakitic, De Jong, Arthur... It's an absolute joke to consider him anywhere near the top 4 quality, all of them are miles better than him and more complete in their game. Xhaka can't even match Ceballos at Arsenal, that tells a lot.
Who do you want to compare him with to say that he is what we need to progress? Willock? Elneny? Mustafi? Yeah, his better than them, I'll give you that

 

[Manberg]

West ham played the whole game with a high line wth:rofl:

Mate do you even watch the games?

 

[Ash10]

Mate do you even watch the games?

The question we usually ask ourselves when you cream yourself over anything that Xhaka does

 

[Manberg]

Again, he is not playing passes over a defence, he is playing them sideways to LB's. Playmakers role is not only to make a couple of long passes, it's to organize the game throughout 90 min which includes short passing, long passing, breaking the press, taking the ball under pressure and keeping it safe.
All that stuff is expected from every playmaker at the top level, but somehow long passing is the only thing needed from Xhaka.
Take a good look at Kroos, Modric, Tiago, Verrati, analyze their game and compare it to Xhaka, only then you'll find where Xhaka is.
But even if you lover the bar for him to a tier 2 playmakers: Kovacic, Rakitic, De Jong, Arthur... It's an absolute joke to consider him anywhere near the top 4 quality, all of them are miles better than him and more complete in their game. Xhaka can't even match Ceballos at Arsenal, that tells a lot.
Who do you want to compare him with to say that he is what we need to progress? Willock? Elneny? Mustafi? Yeah, his better than them, I'll give you that

I do not see the issue with passing sideways. He's patient when he needs to be rather than making hasty decisions, waiting for spaces to open up.
Xhaka constantly picks out players in space with passes that bypass several players. Whether it's on the left or the right, it's his job and he does it very well. He does penetrating short passes that bypass midfielders too, I noticed that a few times yesterday.
I honestly think he's one of the best deep lying playmakers in the premier league. His competition is Jorginho and Henderson. He's just as good as Kroos too. Not having an athletic runner goes against Xhaka and makes his job much harder. The fact that he can hold his own despite all that is very impressive.

Edit: Forgot about Thiago. We'll have to wait and see how he gets on but Thiago is excellent too.

 

[Maybe]

I honestly think he's one of the best deep lying playmakers in the premier league. His competition is Jorginho and Henderson. He's just as good as Kroos too.

Well, you see, this is the kind of c*** where your posts just lose all the value. I could try to digest your comment that you compared Xhaka to a PL player of the year, even when it's laughable, but saying Xhaka is as good as Kroos is just :frustrated:

 

[Ash10]

I do not see the issue with passing sideways. He's patient when he needs to be rather than making hasty decisions, waiting for spaces to open up.
Xhaka constantly picks out players in space with passes that bypass several players. Whether it's on the left or the right, it's his job and he does it very well. He does penetrating short passes that bypass midfielders too, I noticed that a few times yesterday.
I honestly think he's one of the best deep lying playmakers in the premier league. His competition is Jorginho and Henderson. He's just as good as Kroos too. Not having an athletic runner goes against Xhaka and makes his job much harder. The fact that he can hold his own despite all that is very impressive.

Why was he passing them straight at west ham players in the first half then? Yeah they were penetrating some defence alright but sadly it was our defence. But you'll somehow blame it on other players

 

[Manberg]

Well, you see, this is the kind of c*** where your posts just lose all the value. I could try to digest your comment that you compared Xhaka to a PL player of the year, even when it's laughable, but saying Xhaka is as good as Kroos is just :frustrated:

Did you watch the recent Switzerland vs Germany game?

 

[Manberg]

Why was he passing them straight at west ham players in the first half then? Yeah they were penetrating some defence alright but sadly it was our defence. But you'll somehow blame it on other players

Yeah because 3 or so misplaced passes = failure rofl.
90% passing accuracy go check.

 

[Ash10]

Well, you see, this is the kind of c*** where your posts just lose all the value. I could try to digest your comment that you compared Xhaka to a PL player of the year, even when it's laughable, but saying Xhaka is as good as Kroos is just :frustrated:

He knows nothing about football but will just keep popping up with crap like that. Then will devalue others by saying they are ignorant & he is some football expert

 

[Ash10]

Yeah because 3 or so misplaced passes = failure rofl.
90% passing accuracy go check.

95% of them were back passes or sideways but yeah go cream yourself like you usually do

 

[Maybe]

Did you watch the recent Switzerland vs Germany game?

No, of course I didn't, I only saw this video. Do you want me to find a video of Mustafi playing a game of his life and claiming that he is the best CB in PL? As I'm saying, I saw enough of games of Xhaka to avoid highlights opinions of him, but if you really insist on it, did you watch this game? Move it to 1:02 and enjoy your highlights

 

[Manberg]

95% of them were back passes or sideways but yeah go cream yourself like you usually do

First of all that's not true. Most of his passes are forward passes. Second of all, if you dismiss backwards and sideways passes as useless then you don't understand football very well.

 

[Manberg]

No, of course I didn't, I only saw this video. Do you want me to find a video of Mustafi playing a game of his life and claiming that he is the best CB in PL? As I'm saying, I saw enough of games of Xhaka to avoid highlights opinions of him, but if you really insist on it, did you watch this game? Move it to 1:02 and enjoy your highlights

I was showing you a Switzerland vs Germany game where Xhaka clearly had the beating of Kroos. What's the relevancy of your video? Xhaka can and does make passes like that too.

 

[Maybe]

Second of all, if you dismiss backwards and sideways passes as useless then you don't understand football very well.

Why ever investing in Xhaka when we've had Elneny for that

 

[RacingPhoton]

For the last time, we’re not attacking through the middle in our present tactics by design. The midfield’s main job is to provide support by transitioning defence to attack in the wide areas. We are purposefully playing through the flanks, that’s where we want most of the creativity. If you brush up on your football knowledge and pay attention to our tactics you’d have noticed this.

As for Xhaka he’s always been a good midfielder. But he needs an athletic midfielder beside him and he hasn’t had it since he’s been here. That‘s not a criticism of Xhaka, the best Xhaka type midfielders in the world need such players beside them and get exposed without them. Pirlo without De Rossi or Vidal for example would have been just as exposed. Likewise Alonso without Khedira, Jorginho without Kante, Henderson without Wijnaldum or Fabinho etc. They would all be exposed without that player doing the running.

Usual football knowledge bullshit I see :rofl:

 

[Shadow Moses]

Surely manberg guy is trolling

 

[Manberg]

Why ever investing in Xhaka when we've had Elneny for that

El Neny's a tidy player, I never hated on him. But Xhaka has more ability. We don't get to see his full potential because he's being asked to be more limited, and because he doesn't have a physical presence next to him.

 

[Ash10]

First of all that's not true. Most of his passes are forward passes. Second of all, if you dismiss backwards and sideways passes as useless then you don't understand football very well.

Anytime you comment on anybody’s understanding of football should be taken as a bad joke. Flamini an Arsenal legend, Özil was never world class; was just a good player, Xhaka would walk into every team in the world.... Need I go on?
Oh btw keep making up crap to defend your mediocre hero/god/cult leader/whatever the hell you see him as