Granit Xhaka

He didnt do anything right either. Totally useless player

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I think people are pissed because he now sticks out due to his immobility.
Emery will be happy with his performance as he did exactly what was told imo.

This I agree with haha

He was one of our better players, was our best passer from deep, one the ball several times and didn’t make any mistakes I remember. Willock, Luiz, Maitland all made major errors

Issue with Xhaka is he’s slow, had plenty of opportunities to release guys down field and launch counters early on but was continually slow with his decision making. He also covers zero ground so it only makes the rest of our midfield work all that much harder. Poor Willock a 20 year old kid is always dead after about 60 minutes because he’s having to do the work of two midfielders.

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Not true. He made a couple of mistakes too. None of them led to much though.

I don’t remember any serious mistakes, he made the most passes and had the highest ball retention in our midfield, 91%, most long balls. He was a wall blocking everything in the first half too

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Wasn’t the best, but he didn’t put a foot wrong just don’t think he’s the right player for the way we want to play imo. He slows the game the down. This should be his last season for us imo.

No serious errors but he’s too slow thinking for Emery’s playing out the back philosophy

That Emery continues to play him despite that is foolish.

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He is just shit shit shit shit shit shit shit shitty shitty shitty shitty player

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That’s the problem, I hope as the season goes on he’s fazed out of the first team. Have my doubts as Emery seems to fancy him but I didn’t think he played that bad today just isn’t the right player for this team.

Wasn’t his classic misplaced pass but he was caught being very clunky on the ball in dangerous areas which usually led to him being dispossessed or picking the wrong man which invited pressure.
Again, not major mistakes but in general I didn’t see any major mistakes from the team in general apart from Luiz. Probably a different story if Liverpool punished us for them though (Ceballos and Willock mistakes come to mind).

Weird how Emery can show a ruthless streak (Mustafi/Elneny) yet not include this muppet on his ā€˜not-wanted’ list.

It really does look plain to see right now that we need a mobile midfield to play this sytem and we actually have a good assortment of midfielders (excluding Xhaka ofc) to execute this better. Playing Xhaka on the merit of being captain will seriously hinder Emery’s chances at Arsenal if he persists with him (he won’t drop him).

Luiz quarter-back pingers sideline the Albanian Mark Noble.

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Do you think Arsenal are trying to recoup a lot of the money they used to sign Xhaka when they sell him (a la Lukaku going to Inter?)

It would be extraordinary if we sold Xhaka for 30mil, and I think that might be what the club are holding out for, but it won’t happen

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Xhaka could have gone for upwards 50m this summer with this market. Missed our opportunity. Should have pulled a Lukaku ffs. Start leaking shit to piss him off then make him act like he is bigger than us and he wants to leave.
Regardless, I feel Xhaka falls into the category of players that Emery will straight up block the move as he is his captain and an integral part to his plans.

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I’m not exaggerating when I say I have more pace than he does.

Yeah but players like Ceb, Willock, and Guen at least offer the possibility that they can carry the ball through the press when needed and then release, whereas Xhaka literally can’t - he just has to pass back or if he has time, he can find those nice, measured passes…

His positioning out of possession is also not great and well… f*ck, there are many, many things wrong with him, the biggest being his brain.

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Quite agree with the concensus on here

He’s not going to help us create a better future

Sooner he goes the better

Players like Guendouzi Torreira and Willock (and Ceballos if we keep him and he can learn from today and the fast Liverpool press) are much more like it but even then feels like we are a bit short

We’ve been on him since last year even after some gave him a clean slate with Emery coming in and Torreira to partner him in double pivot, I haven’t forgotten.
I certainly feel he has improved but ideally I would prefer he does his thing elsewhere and especially not filling the Arsenal skipper role while at it.

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He reminds me of a Soccer Aid charity match type of player

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