we had more than enough possession.
what kind of control you are looking at?
wondering…
sound like Xhaka is a ball dominant player, which he never was.
We have Jorginho on the bench and Arteta not even using him for a single minute.
If Xhaka is the answer then we’re really in trouble.
He was an average player who was volatile, inconsistent and lost us more points than he gained.
Take away his last season, which was his best, and you have a very underwhelming player.
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Possession is not control. Agree about Jorginho, if there was anyone we could currently use to help our midfield control it’s him.
Expected him to come on at half time or 60 mins tbh.
I am sure a lot of the fans still believing our attacking football last season was because of Xhaka
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Possession to create chances. Arsenal managed 5 shots in that second half and a lot of that was down to the lack of balance in the midfield. Xhaka plays from the left side and wants to receive the ball.
I’ll probably watch the game again and point out specifics
More than it just being about Xhaka, it’s the well oiled unit we had last season we’re missing. We’re basically starting afresh and having to build towards that again. But will the parts we’ve got click as well?
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with Ode and Saka dominating the possession on the right, how many touches would Xhaka get?
Come on, just move on from last year’s performance and tactics.
we are playing different this season
Why would you do that? That’s what we’re comparing to since it was just last season and this team is as close to that as any can be. Not the same, but as close as any will be.
All true and that’s why we don’t miss him. He’s got a decent pass and a long shot in him, mainly with his left foot. He’s reliable enough to play 50ish games per season and has a good head on his shoulders(when he doesn’t lose his rag).
He does have a lot of deficiencies though too.
When shit is going good and the players around him are terrorising oppositions then Xhaka will manage to shine, done that plenty last season.
What happened when Odegaard dropped off and Partey was struggling with injuries? Xhaka couldn’t raise his game and neither could he raise the game of the others.
Would he have been useful player if he stayed? Probably. Would he change any of the games we didn’t win? I doubt it.
That right-sided dominance doesn’t happen with Xhaka there. That’s the point
Xhaka impacts the performance of players around him. Whether that’s through technical facets of the game through the passes he provides them, or through the fact he was a leader on the pitch.
We’re dropping points in games we won last season. Is that all to do with the absence of Xhaka? No, but there has been an impact. The fluidity of the team is at its lowest in a very long time.
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Accept the fact that we play a different style and tactics now.
Xhaka won’t do much with this team (2023-24) and could do anything different for today’s game.
Move on.
If that style is pure right-sided dominance with no wish to access the left side of the pitch or he middle, then I’m not accepting that.
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I am not 100% sure but there are enough evidence to tell.
Our left side is used as an outlet from the right.
We overload the right to leave our left open.
I get that. But it’s too much and the opposition has figured it out. On the right side there’s only so much we can do purely because of personnel. Both Odegaard and Saka want to attack the same space for one. Odegaard doesn’t want to make runs in behind so the play is predictable and stale.
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I think Xhaka would help, but so would Partey have and so would Jorginho. Our slow and predictable play is to me an unrelated issue, at least mostly. It also doesn’t help when everyone takes 7 touches and then telegraphs their pass. We were just bad.
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I certainly lost a lot of time watching him.
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.plain BS
1/ did we play any kind of long ball this season? The only one I can remember of, was the game against City, Partey pass to Tomi.
2/ To have a dig on Kai, please ask Martinelli why he did not fucking pass to him all season long. So many games so many times Kai was in a good position but fucking Martinelli chose to either ball hog, or went for a glory pass/shot. 99% of the time, he fucking chose to ignore Kai.
If you want to use this Video to bash Kai, it was Martinelli’s issues actually.
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