House keys cunt
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I was prepared to give Xhaka another season but after Sunday this guy has to goā¦his performance at the weekend shows he has learnt nothing under Emery - you canāt coach out the basic mistakes he makes as a player. He was linked to an Italian club (forget which one) but if there is any sort of offer for him from another club in the summer we should seriously look to sell.
The other reason he really needs to go is it forces us to confront our issues in the center of the parkā¦ Torry is decent but not a star and needs time/protectionā¦ Guen is young and too raw but has interesting potentialā¦ we need technical quality and intelligence, but not sure we will have sufficient funds or the will to do what needs to be doneā¦ I hope I am wrong.
Granit Xhaka is the most important player of the team because no one is capable to receive the ball fron the CBs and pass vertically the ball on the wings.
This season did a great end product with 6 assists but makes so many mistakes who costed us a lot of goals conceded.
I trust in him but Iām not totally against the idea to sell him and find a better player.
He only does that first part when he is given acres of space and timeā¦ under pressure he is an absolute catastropheā¦ and he too frequently sprays his passes to the opponent or out of bounds when not under pressureā¦ one part of good team defense and protection is NOT giving the ball away cheaply and unpredictably.
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Torreira is being used completely incorrectly btw. The kid is being forced into a b2b role but heās more Kante than Cazorla. As youāve seen this season the absolute best dm in the world (Kante) struggled when being deployed incorrectly.
The most infuriating thing about it, is that Torreira is being pushed forward to accommodate the waste of space Xhaka.
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It is a symptom of the same problem we ended up with under big Weng. We lacked enough technical quality and ability in the transition to final third (other than Ozil), so we were forced to push more people forward to make up for it, causing other issues.
It is one reason some have argued that we need a proper top wing attack option to take that pressure off.
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I think it lies down more to not having proper #8s outside of Guendouzi and Rambo(who Emery seemed to prefer him as more of #10 or even CF). I reckon AMN could do a job there but Emery clearly doesnāt agree.
Fucking hate seeing #6s being wasted as b2b midfielders. It gives them bad habits. Coquelin, Flamini and Song severely suffered from it. Khedira someone outside the club that got ruined as well.
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Agreed. But thatās Emeryās philosophyā¦
Yeah could be this tooā¦ bottom line we have a massive lack of technical quality, composure, and general intelligence in getting the ball into final third from the back. God what I would do for a 17 year old Cesc right now - we would be just massively improved for nearly 15 years.
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Other ways around it sometimes though to make up for some technical ability, I wouldnāt say Liverpoolās eleven this morning has anywhere the technical ability of the opponents.
I would take no legs oldie Fabregas over current Xhaka. In fact, I bet Fabregas is still way more mobile than Xhaka. Xhaka does admittedly have a good engine but who wouldnāt with his style.
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They have a perfect mix though - and a fantastic trio of attackers and a solid defensive baseā¦ and a fantastic, just superhero manager.
If only we had jettisoned big Weng that year and signed him instead a few years earlierā¦ once he went to Pool we had no chance.
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13-14 was the summer, Wenger should have gone after the cup win vs Hull and Klopp should have been appointed.
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Cesc makes up for no legs with supercomputer football brain. He processes 100x what Xhaka does - I so miss that little darting head of his - he ALWAYS knew wtf was going on around himā¦ Xhaka looks at the ball into his feet, adjusts himself to control the ball, then starts to figure out wtf is happeningā¦ god I seriously f*ing want to poke my eyes out watching him in comparison to Cesc and Santi.
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Mentioning those two. What would I give to see Fabregas leading the team with a grown up Rambo and Jack, the magician Cazorla and Mr. Assist Ozil.
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Seri still should be our main target. Heās had a year to adjust to the Prem, and heāll be cheap after the season Fulham just had being relegated and all. Crazy thing is that heās still creating a lot of chances according to his stats, higher passing percentage than Xhaka, and he passes backwards less. Heās not a DM but his tackles and interceptions are right on par with Xhaka as well. He should be playing in an advanced role and Torreira as our DM tbh. Rumor is Monaco are trying to bring him back to league 1.
Itās a bit late for that matey. If youāre talking about Guenduzzi and Lucas thereās noway we can transition the ball with those 2. Youād need a new DLP, to covert Ozil to one or new guy coming in. Either that or a box to box who can dribble past 3-4 players to bring the ball up the field. Again we donāt have that and itās not easy to find.
So if we get rid of Xhaka who do we bring in?
How do you see that five man midfield functioning?
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Cazorla and Ozil in wings can work with that setup