Definitely agree with this point.
Not seeing him as world class player at all and I donāt give a flying f*ck what role he is supposed to play, my primary issue is that he does the basic things, technically and decision-making, wrong too often to be a very good player for a top club, period.
Obviously our whole set up is a shambles right now and it exposes the worst of a lot of our players, including Xhaka, and that isnāt his fault but that doesnāt absolve him of making shambolic first touches, passes, or tackles.
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In my opinion he can be a very good player for a top club, but sincerely 35M were too high for him.
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Many seem to allude to that. Like heāll be good if the team is set up to suit him and if he had a decent coach. You could make a similar argument for many midfielders though. Does he need a 3 man midfield? A hardworking partner? Someone that knows how to use space so itās easy for him to find a pass other than struggle under pressure? A team that has 70% of the ball every game? And then whatās the upside? Above average long and mid-range distribution? Youād imagine the team would have to be setup in a very one dimensional way to truly take advantage of that.
Iām struggling to see where a top player is hiding in there. If he had been the 5m Egyptian from the Swiss league I think people would care as little about him as they do Elneny. I really think itās his pricetag and maybe playing for a half decent German club thatās giving people hope that one day weāll see something very good from him.
I think if you take their first 15 or so appearances for the club then Elneny has been a better midfielder but nobody has any hope for him being great in the future.
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I havneāt given up on him yet, but my experience as been when those sorts of very basic weaknesses are revealed so early and often, on top of his obvious physical limitations, it tends to be a bad signā¦ I hope he turns into a great player b/c we need them.
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Brilliant today. Love Xhaka.
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Where was this passion this year. Looked more like the Xhaka we were promised today.
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I really like him. Shift out the walking calamity that is Ramsey and get him in a proper partner for next season.
Better performance however that could be said of the entire team, liked the fact there were no stupid rash challenges and kept calm when tackled. Needs to speed up though, still too slow for my liking.
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Good read. At least someone understands heās not some shit flop
a nice read, but some of those stats are a bit meh.
āXhaka does ____ more than any other arsenal playerā is hardly a thumbs up given how shit we have been this season.
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Heās been shit. But heās gotten better and the new formation certainly seems to help him and protect him a bit more.
But you can throw a thousand stats at me. Heās played poorly so far and not come close to justifying his price tag.
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Yeah this is pretty much itā¦ he has gotten better in a few games, games where the team has overall functioned slightly less shambolically. He is better than Ramsey, but I am better than Ramsey tactically so that isnāt saying much. Our options in CM are actually pretty meh right now and that is sad as it used to always be one of our strengths.
Speaking of stats, Denilson often showed up really solidly in stats because the way we played and his style/role were always going to produce those inflated numbers - it is such lazy analysis to take stats like that out of context without the bigger picture.
The one thing that all our players need to learn to do better is micro-positioningā¦ Xhaka has adopted the Arsenal habit of just managing to get on the wrong side of the opposition player on a regular basis and we donāt seem to know how to avoid that or react more intelligently when we do - we often then tackle from behind, nip on the side, or generally bounce off the opponent because we donāt have a good angle on the ball or a way to steer them towards defensive support. Ramsey is perhaps the player who does this the worst I have ever seen at the top level - it is farcical how reliably he gets wrong side.
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If you torture stats long enough theyāll tell you anything. See Theos superior stats to KDB and the mess that was Cuellar trying to prove that Giroud wad better than Ronaldo 
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imo itās an outdated mindset to not rate a player like Xhaka. Heās always been class.
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No he hasnāt. For most of the season heās look very poor. Heās lacked composure under pressure, been very slow, often out of position and his passing hasnāt been what we expected (at times). Not to mention his horrible tackling and disciplinary record.
His improvements are positive. And many of us still have faith in him. But saying heās always been class is a massive massive overstatement.
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Proof youāll get approval for any old shit as long as youāre a girl
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Adblocked that stupid xhaka face. will never see it again yessssssss
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Was good against the Foxes but they didnt really close him down or harrass him, be interesting to see if he can cope and WHL on Sunday.