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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.