I see both sides of the Xhaka argument, but I think the discussion calls for a bit of nuance here: 1. Xhaka does bring a fair bit to the table - he's a ball progression machine, and there's been an enormous drop off in attack whenever he doesn't play. Arsenal started playing a lot better after he returned to the team. He's also mostly good positionally in defense and good at recovering possession. He's the best CM we have, including Partey. There's a reason that, if fit and available, he plays. 2. We've all seen his flaws, and they tend to be magnified because of the situations he finds himself in. Bad things happen when Xhaka is the last man or is defending 1v1 in the box. He's really, really slow, and that causes more than a few problems. And his split second decisionmaking in defense isn't always the best, and he's a bit of a hothead. There are flaws here. 3. I think Arsenal should upgrade (and, frankly, the way someone like Guendouzi is lighting it up at Marseille would make him the logical successor if he wasn't such a twit). But until Arsenal actually upgrade (and Xhaka's skillset isn't all that easy to replace), Xhaka should be the third name on teamsheet behind Saka and Ramsdale. 4. Xhaka's been left defending 1v1 enough times that this is a tactical problem - the team needs to be setup so that there's cover for Xhaka in the box. Xhaka should be defending Bernardo Silva 1v1 in the box - it's suicide.
I'm not so sure. If you watch the replay, Gabriel is pushing up tracking Firmino and does force him backwards. So the question is: was he free lancing or did he have instructions to shadow Firmino. I'd doubt he was instructed to follow him that far, but obviously I don't know for sure. https://arsenalist.com/f/granit-xhaka-red-card-2022-01-13.html
When a player is trying to volley, in this case back over his head, for the last one or two seconds their focus has to be exclusively on the ball, so during that time Xhaka wouldn’t know exactly where Jota was. If he looks for Jota in the last instant and then tries to refocus on the ball, he’s going to screw up. He wasn’t off balance or out of control as he was trying to clear the ball, and went down because his foot hit Jota’s chest.
Now I’m going to take the other side of the argument. Arsenal’s improved play has been because they are moving the ball much more quickly. Their best moments recently have been when they, including Xhaka, have played a lot of one touch or quick two touch passes, but that’s never been Xhaka’s forte. Playing the ball more quickly has not been driven by Xhaka.
If he wasn’t supposed to go so far then it speaks to @mebeSajid ’s point that Gabriel was way out of position. If he was it speaks to @mebeSajid’s point that there are tactical issues if Xhaka is constantly finding himself in these scenarios. Also, I think Ramsdale’s role has gone with little scrutiny but was a factor. He got really far out before backing off and Xhaka was clearly looking for some guidance from him before realizing that Ramsdale was in the weeds.
The team has played faster and progressed the ball better with Xhaka in it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I’ve said many times that I think we have to find a way to move on from our reliance on Xhaka, but we haven’t got the personnel to do so. We can’t do it until we replace his skill set with a player who is definitely not on the payroll now or change what we do entirely or both.
The issues are due to our team being built to hide Xhaka’s limitations. And he doesn’t pay attention defensively and often gets himself in trouble. He sucks and need to go.
From BBC Football Daily: * Ben White said of Xhaka (paraphrased): “It’s not ideal, he’s looking at the ball and doesn’t know where his man is“ * consensus is that Xhaka will receive a 2 match ban due to: a) DOGSO, b) having a prior red this season.
Arsenal’s recent form is probably the best it’s been under Arteta, they have been moving the ball quicker than they have in a very long time. Xhaka has two years under Arteta, but we’re only seeing the quicker ball movement now. In fact, during his time at Arsenal he has often been one of the players that slowed play down, taking two or three touches until he could find a runner or decide to switch play. He may remain a key player, but he is not responsible for this uptick in form.
some fun bits from orbinho: - Sambi Lokonga made the most successful passes of any Arsenal player today - 12. - Arsenal's passing accuracy tonight was 48% - the lowest on record for an Arsenal game in our database. - Arsenal with 20% possession in the first half.
i mean, i can remember people wanting tavares to replace tierney earlier this year, calling odegaard a waste of money, and being tired of partey. they all just coincidentally had an uptick in form around the time as he returned. i'm not saying we must keep xhaka at all cost - his flaws have consistently shown to be costly - but, until we get someone on the squad who has the qualities to unlock those players - seems like a distributor from that left-midfield who can also contribute defensively - xhaka is what we have. based on what little highlights i've seen and what super llama said earlier, bruno might be that guy? maybe danilo is potentially that guy? but none are here.
That seems a little odd. IIRC our possession was about 33% when Xhaka was sent off at 24’. And we finish the entire match with 22%. Which reminds me of something I’ve been wondering about recently: are there any free websites which list possession for Increments smaller than an entire match?
There were people on the Arsenal Australia page who, when I said I was annoyed we hadn't sold him to Roma and bought someone new, had the temerity to tell me how he would prove me wrong. Still waitin.
Arsenal have 15 points from the 10 league matches in which Xhaka has started this season and 20 points from the 10 league matches when he was suspended or injured. This isn't entirely fair to Xhaka as I'm sure one could pick apart the difficulty of each schedule (Xhaka played vs Chelsea and 2x vs City, for example, but he also avoided Liverpool), but it's not like the team falls apart when he isn't around.
Apparently if you can't field 13 outfield players the match can be pushed? Depending on what happens with Mari, Tomiyasu, Cedric, Odegaard, ESR, and Saka, we might have as few as ten?
I count 11 if we assume Saka and Cedric are out and Smith Rowe and Tomiyasu aren’t sufficiently recovered to play. This also assume Mari is recovered from covid. The irony is that the only covid case is Odegaard. Holding White Gabriel Mari Partey. AFCON Lokonga Xhaka. Red Card Elneny AFCON Tierney Tomiyasu Injured Tavares Chambers Cedric. Injured Aubameyang. AFCON Lacazette Nketiah Pepe. AFCON Saka. Injured? Martinelli Smith-Rowe. Injured Odegaard. Covid Kola. Injured
Hell yes, push it back. Would much prefer a deeper pool of player options, plus there's the bonus of adding to S***s fixture congestion down the line.
The opposing view is that you only have ONE positive Covid player .. plus you’ve let a couple of players go in this window and in talks about moving a third player out in the coming days ..