Granit Xhaka

I’m probably one of the biggest Xhaka haters around but he did well today. Got some nice blocks in while we parked the bus and didn’t fuck anything up.

I could go on about how his utter lack of ability is one of the root causes of why we gave 70% possession to lolpool at home and never hardly had a sniff of control in midfield, but nah I’ll leave it alone tonight he was our key bus parker in this victory :joy::joy:

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I would say you and I rival for #1 and #2 anti-Xhaka brigade for sure…

Sadly, I didn’t get to watch today until final minutes, so can’t really comment… but just thrilled for the unlikely (and perhaps lucky?) result…

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He is slowly turning into our best player. You’re free to hate me. I even hate myself for saying this.

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I’m genuinely starting to feel this way too. He is quickly becoming the least of our problems.

But boy do we need a central mid who can help us retain possession in a game!

When Xhaka, Sokratis and Bellerin are becoming your best players, you have to wonder if we’re in another universe or just that our squad is very poor.

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The formation hides their deficiencies

I assume this 3-4-3 and more defensive style is all temporary. Hence Xhaka is on borrowed time. When Arteta is going to start implement more of his possession based idea’s, which I think he has, Xhaka needs to be the first to go.

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Agree he’s no longer getting sent off stupidly, giving stupid penalties away or gifting goals more generally so he’s ok now without looking class like a Santiago Cazorla or a Patrick Viera.

I think Arteta has made him a much better player. He would no longer look out of place in the Burnley or Wolves starting elevens.

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That part was correct :ok_hand:

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He did the exact same thing when Wenger went to the most miserable of 343s too. If this is what we’re striving towards then I don’t know what to say.

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We all know we still look miles off the pace, but if Arteta can keep getting performances out of the worthless guys on our team like Laca, Xhaka, and Musti maybe just maybe we can turn the tide of popular opinion and shed their dead weight this window.

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That is vintage Glads right there

:wright:

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100% this. If Arteta’s master plan is to build a pragmatic functional 3-4-3 or 3-5-2 around Xhaka in midfield then we should just fire him now. Sure we’ll play some okay looking football but there will always be games like Brighton or Spurs where our midfield is incapable of retaining the ball and pushing it up the pitch.

I actually preferred Xhaka in that weird midfield/LB role he was playing when Arteta first took over. I’m not sure why we’ve drifted away from that, maybe Roadman’s good performances?

He’s such a limited player that I really would like to see him jettisoned this summer. We’re not going places with him as a starter, I think most people can see that.

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4-3-3/4-2-3-1 with the current crop of players is to imbalanced. Ljungberg tried to fix that by benching Lacazette. Arteta chooses another set-up. Our flanks were still exposed. Adding that 3rd centre back protects the left flank when Tierney/Saka is overlapping. I think it also protects us better on the counter attack. Plus there is no attacking midfielder to play. Every third choice midfielder is rubbish or too similar in role. Question is will this be a short term fix or not…I don’t think it is but we’ll have to wait and see.

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Give Xhaka Alonso the #4.
Best player at the club since Arteta joined. He actually reminds me of Arteta when he played for us. What a transformation. I can’t believe he managed to change my opinion on him.

Come on lads, give Xhaka some credit. :xhaka:

Xhaka wouldn’t want the #4 as 34 is his favourite number and he changed to that number when Le Coq moved on. (Originally wore 29 with us)

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He was fantastic against City tonight.

Credit where credit is due, he’s been pretty great and reliable since the restart.