Granit Xhaka: Managers Love Him!

When did I call Auba crap? He is one of my favourite players ffs. & as for Xhaka, I've said many times he's mid table quality hence why he shouldn’t be playing for us. Making up stuff out of thin air

 

He's played nearly 200 games for us, more than enough for us to know exactly what type of player and person he is. He's a great professional, he's mentally strong, he doesn't listen to criticism, he's respected within the club, he's capable of playing very well, and he's capable of playing absolutely terribly and doing very stupid things on the pitch that cost the team dearly.

Xhaka isn't gonna change, he is what he is.

 

Xhaka’s bad games are few and far between. He has been a great player for us since joining, and one of the best midfielders in the league.

Look at these. Top quality shots, so many of them!

You don’t score so many like that without being a top quality player. One or two lucky ones maybe. It’s not luck it’s skill. Power, placement, technique. All from a defensive oriented player.

 

45 goals in 9 years for a striker isn’t a spectacular return. Is Xhaka a striker? No he’s a defensive midfielder/deep lying playmaker who often plays or covers as a centre back or fullback too.

 

One thing i'll praise Xhaka for is how confusing he is. Arsenal seem to specialise in confusing players, players that require years of study and yet still cause people to scratch their heads. I grudgingly respect that.

Is he terrible, is he fine, is he good, what sort of midfielder even is he...it's a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside the body of an angry Albanian man.

 

Bendtner played less matches than Xhaka. But that is not the point. The point is goal compilations will make anyone look good and we have had this conversation when you were Manberg. Do you erase your memory every time you create a new profile?

 

How is it the same? Many of Bendtner’s goals are tap ins. Many of Xhaka’s goals are world class attempts. Xhaka doesn’t play in the box to score tap ins he’s a defensive and transitional player.

 

Your video is not just goals. It also includes assist. It also includes stuff from EL and cup matches. Many of them are not really that great. It is funny when you say he is a defensive player when the argument goes in the direction of goals/assists and attacking player/DLP when people talk about how poor his defensive statistics are. That's because he is good at neither. Anyway, you would go back to calling others agenda driven.

 

Yep. What an agenda merchant would say.

I hadn’t watched the video I thought it was just goals, so you got that right

Some of the assists are spectacular too I guess. He’s a number 6. It can count as both a DM or a DLP they are similar, but he is a dlp. I don’t need to go on about his quality as a dlp (passing accuracy, long balls etc.) because I’ve previously posted the stats that suggest he’s one of the best at it in world football, never mind the league. But you guys are convinced he’s poor or average and focus on the 5% of passes he misses, despite nearly everyone else missing a whole lot more.

 

A beacon of mental fortitude.

 

I mean yeah there's different interpretations of what constitutes mental strength, but tbf if a stadium of 60,000 people angrily booed at me I'd probably curl up in a ball under my duvet and call a therapist.

 

Xhaka has moments where his passing is crisp and his tackling is awful. The last few games it's been the opposite. Tackling great passing slack. His limations will always be there. But knit the passing, tackling together alongside Partey he could be an asset. Not necessarily as first choice hut certainly a key squad player.

 

If Partey stays fit it's going to make Xhaka look better. Playing next to a WC player does that. That's a positive for us.

I hope he performs well till the end of the season but you can never relax watching him play. It's just a matter of time before he makes a big mistake. The weirdly errant pass under no pressure that exposes our defence. The lunging into a tackle on the edge of our own box etc.

He's still doing all these things even when he's playing okay generally. They're just not being punished so fans aren't focusing on them as much.

However you want to slice it he's a player with massive flaws. You can't afford that in a pivotal position if we want to get back into the Top 4.

 

Plays half the passes back to GK and pads up the pass % stats. But this simple mathematical fact won't be visible for Manberg.

 

I would at least like to see Ceballos tried next to Partey. Maybe they can link up a bit more with classy touches and passes.

 

Forget about that, he plays the safest passes possible from his point of view. Then there is the fact that the receiving player usually can't do anything with the ball because it was overhit, underhit or they were just plain in a bad position for progressing the play so the ball is recycled back to Xhaka. Thus allowing Xhaka to make another pass.

 

I don’t know if anyone else noticed but Partey kinda showed everything wrong with Xhaka’s willingness to not pass forward. Partey being someone who is always tryna progress play made me really realise how content Xhaka is to pass sideways or backwards.

Maybe it can have a good effect on Xhaka because I really do see him do it out of habit these days. Maybe Partey can snap him out of it a bit.

 

One successful pass added to his stat.