Don't disagree with Titi to be honest. Xhaka is not good enough for the Premier League. Too slow with his feet, too slow mentally.
Yo, the football community have to get Evra off the air. Titi ain't wrong though. These senior players are pathetic, did Laca have any completed passes today?
Yes - Arse are much much worse than those days It's interesting to look back at how bad that squad was actually. I remember Wenger had to buy Arshavin in a panic in Jan 09?
He has said more since, but I was listening to his post-match comments on the radio and he must have been watcing a differetn match to me. He has since said he his disappointed with Willian.
he is also fairly slow with, like, his action. i do not mean running or turning speed, that we have well established. but, like, the deliberateness with which he takes action can - not always but can - leave him vulnerable in this league against an active pressing team, i think. i can see him doing well in italy or spain, though.
xhaka was left out of the united game and, i think, in some of the EL was used in the backline? i can see validity in this (however we feel about him or the situation). i mean . . . arteta never rated sokratis. the few times he saw action last year, if i recall correctly was out wide even. right or wrong, i think it is easy to see that arteta wants mobile centrebacks who are comfortable on the ball and sokratis is the absolute opposite of that. that said, he was a locker room presence - i think amy lawrence mentioned last year that, even when he was not playing, he could be seen encouraging and rooting on guys. if that communication was handled poorly, i can see how that could have an effect. as much as fans shit on him, i think his teammates tend to be on ozil's side? or at least accept him, however his "body language" is. i think the most recent was leno defending him in one of the papers. if they see him training doing whatever is needed and the squad lacking exactly that type of players, it could be awkward. i think torreira is a fit issue. i do not think his style of play just does not match at all with what i think he wants from that position. guendouzi could have fit - something like a more talented elneny maybe? and arteta did play him before he went and shot himself in the foot with his attitude (whether you agree or disagree with either side). saliba not being played purely because he was an emery signing would be weird. i have a tough time seeing someone cutting their nose to spite their face like that when their job is on the line.
The problem as I see it is that in each specific case, there are reasons why it was time to ship the player out. The trouble is, at squad building level, we shipped out 6 critical midfielders in just over a year and that means all the midfield experience is basically gone except for Xhaka who just isn't good enough. Mkhi, Ramsey, Iwobi, Ozil, LT, Douzy I mean if we could have Partey and Elneny plus Ramsey or Partey, Ramsey, Ozil or Partey, Ramsey, Iwobi Any of these midfields is far better than what we have
I can't stand Xhaka and have wanted him gone since at least his stupid PK foul against Brighton that effectively knocked us out of contention for top 4 that season. But I think this is really poor form from Evra repeating something like this in public. I can't imagine Henry is happy about him disclosing this.
Evra is pathetic for that. He's behaving like a clout chasing social media demon not a seasoned professional looking to build a serious media career. Sharing personal anecdotes that are sensitive like that WITHOUT permission is just some Instagram model pillow talk bullshat. What a clownshow.
He was also very disparaging towards an ex England female star who was on the panel at the 2018 WC. I don't know how he got away with that.
Evra is not worth my time... certainly not watching any video of him talking or singing on the Internet. Period.
finally watched the highlights and, again, not defending xhaka - because that shit was legitimately brainless and the red was all but inevitable - but, damn, whoever the commentators on NBC were were fucking slanted as hell. xhaka commits a (not going to lie, cynical) professional foul to stop a break. as . . . y'know, every single player on every single team does. commentators started berating him and how burnley players were right to be upset. bullshit. westwood rushes in from NOT. BEING. REMOTELY. INVOLVED. OR. AT. ALL. NEAR. THE. PLAY. and, basically, takes xhaka down in the same motion and their reaction was a congratulatory westwood-trying-to-break-it-up. WTF?[/I]
also, i don't really understand playing lacazette as the nominal 10. he's always led the line and been the goalscorer (albeit currently struggling). you don't just . . . . . suddenly become a 10. WTF?
Arsenal have two natural 10s, Smith-Rowe, who has been injured and hasn’t earned Arteta’s trust yet, and Ozil who isn’t registered. There are other players Arteta has tried, or can try there, but they haven’t worked out. Willock can score goals and presses well, but he’s not a distributor, he’s much more 8 than 10. Emery occasionally played Ceballos as a 10, but that’s never been his natural position, he is more 6 or 8 than 10. When Willian arrived we were told he can play as a 10, but we haven’t seen it. The only time he played in the middle was as a false 9 and that may have been his worst game in an Arsenal shirt. Maybe Saka could play there, but it would be an experiment. So Arteta’s options at 10 are all experiments and since he has recently said he needs more goals from midfield, his current experiment is Lacazette.