RacingPhoton
Established Member
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.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.