Obviously not because again, Granit Xhaka was just handed a contract extension. You might want to change your name if this is the best you can do. Right now the hands in question look a bit like this:
No because he was still better than most of the players in the squad.
And we are at the bottom of the table ?
Xhaka is a favourite of the manager. You make it sound like its a fair competition they will get. Reminds me of when lukaku was struggling at united and mourinho came out and said he is my guy. He will always start and one match he benched him and the team didnt do too well. He said now you see why lukaku is the main guy. Some managers just love a player and there is never a fair competition. Arteta has weird obsession with xhaka
Tbh Wenger, Emery and Arteta all have "had an obsession with Xhaka."
He's a busy body player, points a lot, shouts at other player, says something motivational in the changing room, all to cover up his mediocrity.
While not commenting the truth of that matter, all I can hear is "Blaablaablaa..." which is repeated on this forum ad nauseum every day.
And Xhaka has been proving that we are right almost every season including the last match he played.
What I'm saying is that the subject might be worth discussing apart from the obvious.
That's a mid table or bottom table level midfield, tbh. Not nearly enough quality in possession, we would struggle mightily in possession and building attacks. Compare that midfield to any of the other big clubs and it looks pretty ugly.
What's your preferred midfield in the current squad?
Exactly. Not saying that Sambi or AMN are perfect players. They have their flaws. But on paper, there is a good chance they will work as a pair. We will know only if they are given the minutes. After giving all the speeches about youth project, it would be hypocritical of them to give minutes to Xhaka and Elneny all the time. But you captured how Arteta fanboys will react to any of these outcomes.Probably whatever Arteta would pick seeing as he seems to be up his as*hole
The truth is that we're going nowhere with Xhaka. All the comments I see that he was our best MF last season; and some people seem to want to align their judgement with Arteta when we know that Xhaka as a corner stone to our team hasn't taken us anywhere, or has it?
Someone tell me if we've finished 4th or higher with him in our MF, I'll wait.
He's alright, seriously he's not bad and I'm not saying he's bad because he's actually decent. However he's not good enough and on top of that will have a brain fart a few times a season.
AMN and Sambi being midtable or lower table? Well maybe, nobody with a modicum of sense will say it'll 100% succeed, and I know that's not what you are saying either.
But it's still something I'd like us to try, especially given the players out.
I don't get it with writing off players before they've been given a proper chance, people did it with Pepe and Willian and it turned out that Pepe was more effective for us when given more opportunities. NO SH!T!
Anyway, AMN will probably have one lukewarm game (understandably) and everyone (and Arteta) will just see it as confirmation that he can't ever work there.
I am hoping Lokonga takes a hold on the position while Xhaka is out these three games. So Thomas-Lokonga.
I think Thomas should be fit for the Norwich game, though, no? If not I would go with a 3-4-3 similar to the one chosen for City (but with better players now), with fluidity between who occupies the second midfield position between Ode and ESR of (with a more offensive formation, with Tierney in that LCB position which turns into LB in possession, and Saka and AMN helping out in possession in midfield, that is an interesting and balanced lineup):
Thomas Sambi partnership would be something that I would like to see regularly. But Xhaka is out and I would rather not rush Thomas in like we did last time. With the remaining options, I would rather test Sambi-AMN instead of giving AMN those minutes. If Thomas-Xhaka is still going to be our best pivot, it just proves our failure in the transfer window.
