Granit Xhaka: 2019/20 Performances

[RacingPhoton]

The last couple of games I've done my own simple analysis of Xhaka's contribution/impact. I basically assessed all his times in possession as being positive (resulting in the opposition being put under pressure), negative (resulting in us being put under pressure - not including times where someone else's pass has put him under pressure) or neutral.

The first thing that struck me was how little he is actually involved, and especially how he doesn't make himself available when our defenders are trying to play out from the back.

In terms of his contribution (a total of 50-60 possessions), it is overwhelmingly neutral, safe sideways or backwards passes, occasional balls out to the flank but hardly anything incisive.

In each game his positive contribution was around 2 or 3, the negative contribution closer to 3 or 4.

The guy just doesn't have the positional sense, speed of thought or feet to be effective in the Premier League.

Rightly said. I didn't spend so much time focussing on his game. But after watching every match, I hardly remember a time he actually contributed. Ceballos in spite of his flaws is very much involved in the match trying to make things happen. Xhaka seems to be hiding most of the time. These are the types of performances for which Elneny gets slated. But apparently, if you don't say Xhaka is a good player you don't understand football, according to some armchair experts around here.

 

[Jae]

He's thoroughly, thoroughly average.

And that's about the best I can say about him.

 

[Tom349]

Xhaka has flaws but hiding isn't one of them. Only unreasonable fans with their heads that far up their ass think this is one of his flaws.

 

[Ash10]

Xhaka has flaws but hiding isn't one of them. Only unreasonable fans with their heads that far up their ass think this is one of his flaws.

Oh you're one of those who claim to have 'football knowledge' while thinking others are dumb just because they don't agree with your opinion.....what a surprise

 

[Erlis]

Hahahaha.... Dear Lord, is this a cultural thing to dwell in players threads without having to say anything new, or what the heck is that?

 

[Tom349]

Oh you're one of those who claim to have 'football knowledge' while thinking others are dumb just because they don't agree with your opinion.....what a surprise

Im not the idiot who can't acknowledge when someone is playing well. You have two completely different games between Sp*rs and Liverpool and the same people have gone from complaining about Xhaka lacking creativity when we controlled possession to complaining about hiding when the we got dominated in possession. How anyone can watch those two games and blame Xhaka for those things shows a complete lack of football knowledge. He hasn't put in perfect games by any means with a few misplaced touches and ill timed tackles but if you're going to pot the guy at least acknowledge his flaws not some imaginary flaw because you don't like the bloke.

 

[Macho]

Hahahaha.... Dear Lord, is this a cultural thing to dwell in players threads without having to say anything new, or what the heck is that?

Whilst I have zero time for Xhaka, this is absolutely true -hence why I stay away from specific player threads.

Think its a boredom/venting thing who even knows.

 

[Ash10]

Im not the idiot who can't acknowledge when someone is playing well. You have two completely different games between Sp*rs and Liverpool and the same people have gone from complaining about Xhaka lacking creativity when we controlled possession to complaining about hiding when the we got dominated in possession. How anyone can watch those two games and blame Xhaka for those things shows a complete lack of football knowledge. He hasn't put in perfect games by any means with a few misplaced touches and ill timed tackles but if you're going to pot the guy at least acknowledge his flaws not some imaginary flaw because you don't like the bloke.

Alright first of all I don't think most of the people care enough to dislike the guy. And as for him playing well....I guess the standard required here to deem someone to be playing good has significantly dropped in recent times. In case of him hiding....you have your opinion just like others have theirs. You can't go around calling people dumb based on personal opinion without any real evidence behind it just to feel smart or something. I mean you can but it would just seem pretentious.

 

[RacingPhoton]

Im not the idiot who can't acknowledge when someone is playing well. You have two completely different games between Sp*rs and Liverpool and the same people have gone from complaining about Xhaka lacking creativity when we controlled possession to complaining about hiding when the we got dominated in possession. How anyone can watch those two games and blame Xhaka for those things shows a complete lack of football knowledge. He hasn't put in perfect games by any means with a few misplaced touches and ill timed tackles but if you're going to pot the guy at least acknowledge his flaws not some imaginary flaw because you don't like the bloke.

What is wrong with that? Sp**s were sitting deep and letting us have possession and Xhaka couldn't do anything useful there. We needed some creativity to break Sp**s. Liverpool were all over us. Xhaka couldn't help us break out of our half too. What exactly is he capable of then?

 

[Tom349]

What is wrong with that? Sp**s were sitting deep and letting us have possession and Xhaka couldn't do anything useful there. We needed some creativity to break Sp**s. Liverpool were all over us. Xhaka couldn't help us break out of our half too. What exactly is he capable of then?

Why are you asking for our deepest lying midfielder for the creativity. His job is to link the midfield and the attack and he did just that against Sp*rs, its up the front three to be able to do more with the ball when they receive it off Xhaka. In saying that he literally created our goal albeit through a defensive action but also set up one of our better attacking positions which come to nothing due to a horrible touch from Bellerin.

Xhaka was the only player capable of finding a team mate with a pass. He wasn't on the ball often enough to be able to get the ball forward because the defence kept kicking it out of bounds or to Liverpools CB's. Xhaka occupied the exact same positions as he did vs Tottenham the only difference was Liverpool decided to press which limited Xhaka as an option but should have resulted in more opportunities in behind Liverpools defence but no one could keep a hold of the ball to create any opportunities. The few times Xhaka got on the ball, no one created an option for him. Don't know how you watch the game and say Xhaka was the issue with our inability to get the ball forward. Don't get me wrong his main flaw of not being able to receive the ball and turn with it does limit us to a degree but when the rest of the team can't pass the ball at a better rate than 60% than Xhaka isn't your main problem.

 

[Macho]

Lol man said
Why you asking our midfielder to be creative

 

[Tom349]

Lol man said
Why you asking our midfielder to be creative

His job is to get the ball into the final third where our 'creative' players should be. He literally did that with 13 passes into the final third and 2 into the penalty area. He is deep lying midfielder/part time defensive midfielder, his job isn't meant to be the one playing the final ball ffs.

 

[Dennis_Bergkamp_10]

Next up is City. This thread is going to be fun.

 

[HairSprayGooners]

His job is to get the ball into the final third where our 'creative' players should be. He literally did that with 13 passes into the final third and 2 into the penalty area. He is deep lying midfielder/part time defensive midfielder, his job isn't meant to be the one playing the final ball ffs.

Agreed with this but I can also appreciate that he is incredibly limited. In an ideal world I'd have Ceballos instead of him.

 

[RacingPhoton]

Why are you asking for our deepest lying midfielder for the creativity. His job is to link the midfield and the attack and he did just that against Sp*rs, its up the front three to be able to do more with the ball when they receive it off Xhaka. In saying that he literally created our goal albeit through a defensive action but also set up one of our better attacking positions which come to nothing due to a horrible touch from Bellerin.

Xhaka was the only player capable of finding a team mate with a pass. He wasn't on the ball often enough to be able to get the ball forward because the defence kept kicking it out of bounds or to Liverpools CB's. Xhaka occupied the exact same positions as he did vs Tottenham the only difference was Liverpool decided to press which limited Xhaka as an option but should have resulted in more opportunities in behind Liverpools defence but no one could keep a hold of the ball to create any opportunities. The few times Xhaka got on the ball, no one created an option for him. Don't know how you watch the game and say Xhaka was the issue with our inability to get the ball forward. Don't get me wrong his main flaw of not being able to receive the ball and turn with it does limit us to a degree but when the rest of the team can't pass the ball at a better rate than 60% than Xhaka isn't your main problem.

OMG
For a team that strives to be in top 4, the midfielder should have at least one of these skills.
1) Be quick and creative.
2) Be good at beating the press.
3) Be good defensively and win help win the ball back often.
Cazorla was good in 1 and 2. Coquelin was good at 3. Xhaka is good at none of these. We needed someone with creativity against Sp**s and someone with 2 and 3 against Liverpool.
If your expectation from a midfielder is just to ping the ball to someone in the attacking third, of course Xhaka can do that. He can just pass the ball to whoever is running on the wings. That's all he has been doing recently. Even Elneny can do that. And Xhaka can't do that if he is pressed. But that is the kind of performance expected from a midtable team. No wonder we went out of top 4 after Xhaka joined.

 

[Tom349]

OMG
For a team that strives to be in top 4, the midfielder should have at least one of these skills.
1) Be quick and creative.
2) Be good at beating the press.
3) Be good defensively and win help win the ball back often.
Cazorla was good in 1 and 2. Coquelin was good at 3. Xhaka is good at none of these. We needed someone with creativity against Sp**s and someone with 2 and 3 against Liverpool.
If your expectation from a midfielder is just to ping the ball to someone in the attacking third, of course Xhaka can do that. He can just pass the ball to whoever is running on the wings. That's all he has been doing recently. Even Elneny can do that. And Xhaka can't do that if he is pressed. But that is the kind of performance expected from a midtable team. No wonder we went out of top 4 after Xhaka joined.

Not going to bother too much with this rubbish as you're fuelled by hate. But what I will comment on is Xhaka was great defensively vs Liverpool but because of your prejudice you're not open to seeing that. If you're going to criticise at least be consistent and acknowledge good performances.

Also if you're trying to win an argument than "Elneny can do that" ain't the response to do so with champ.

 

[BigPoppaPump]

Xhaka haters are insanely bias, they also have no self awareness of it.

 

[UpTheGunnerz]

He has impressed me of late. Its too bad that he is so slow, otherwise he could truly be a PL-great me thinks. Lets see if he keeps showing up under Arteta.

 

[Riou]

they also have no self awareness

Like Granit, when he is on the football pitch then

Thought Xhaka dug in well against Liverpool tbf, we didn’t play well but were quite gritty at least throughout the game.

 

[albakos]

Next up is City. This thread is going to be fun.

Look at it this way.

While Xhaka was playing vs. City, the score was still 0-0.
Once he got out, we were thoroughly outclassed into a 3-0 loss