Speaking of that.
It’s similar to the Auba situation where he was the captain but it was often Laca, Xhaka and when he was still here Luiz doing the captain’s work on the pitch.
I do hope Odegaard doesn’t end up being undermined by Xhaka.
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I won’t be
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Well in a way, works out well for us.
Odegaard doens’t have to carry the entire pressure of being a captain. Xhaka is there to guide him.
I really don’t fancy him as our starting midfielder but he is definitely a positive personality in dressing room by all accounts
I think it’s the other way around. Odegaard is the one that will take the majority of the pressure from the media.
Meanwhile, players might eventually start looking at Martin and be like “He’s our captain but we don’t listen to him, we listen to Granit”.
I personally think the club played it wrong here. Should have put the armband on Xhaka. He’s the leader in the team, no point fucking around with it.
Just because he shouts a lot doesn’t mean Jack
Odegaard is the one who is clearly the coaches man and has his ear
Don’t think our guys are that stupid
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I personally think fans care way too much and the team dynamics will be the team dynamics regardless as to who has a band on their arm.
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That’s Xhaka and you know that.
Well clearly it isn’t isn’t anymore
Xhaka isn’t fit to lead this club
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Well, I hope it’s long term thinking from the club as they expect a new midfielder to come in which will start over Xhaka.
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Xhaka is damaged goods and prime to be moved on as soon as possible.
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I’ve been predicting he’ll fuck off for years now. I’ll believe it when I see at this point.
Bit like Draymond and Curry with the warriors
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Ødegaard has a lot of responsibility on his shoulders. He can put in a 10/10 one week and then the next he’s completely invisible.
Unfortunately, he was definitely one of the guys who disappeared during that stretch of poor results at the end of the season.
He needs to have a “wow” season if we want to break top 4. An average Ødegaard means we will miss out. A fully firing version propels us right up there. The way he performs (or doesn’t perform) will be one of the single biggest influencers of how our season pans out.
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I think the position he plays makes it hard to have an impact when your team is getting bossed. Even more so with the heavy pressing in the modern game.
It’s one reason why having a defender as captain can be a good thing from an optics POV.
If the team is getting dominated, a good leader playing at the back will still be in there battling for headers and brexiting the ball away down-field.
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Fair point but I’m more saying that he needs to find ways to still be making an impact when we are under a strenuous press or generally under the kosh. A shimmy away from a pressing attacker, winning a freekick or whatever it is - he has the tools to help in those pressure situations. But when we were getting hammered by Newcastle, we had no out and just got battered. He needed to have been the guy to slow the game down, or find space to receive and alleviate the intensity of the match.
I suspect we will be “dominated” less with more technicians on the field, and Jesus being an ever-present danger for opponents. But I do want to see more just because he has so much ability.
When all things go right, you won’t see the presence and the need of a captain, or whoever he is.
When there is tough times, we will see the importance of it.
So, let’s see.
I think this is all optics and Xhaka is still difacto captain but fans would riot if he got the arm band again.
Honestly it seems like who has the arm band doesn’t matter anymore and hasn’t for a long time especially at Arsenal where our captains always end up on the move soon after. Except for the Swiss-Albanian calamity.
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I really like him, but feck me is he bland when the game is fast paced, physical and cramped.
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Did make couple of clever passes but he does need to adapt his game for such matches
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Yeah. Every time he receives the ball I’m getting a mini heart attack.
He needs to get that Ozil-ism out of him as well.
He gets in some really good positions but he rarely looks for a shot nowadays.
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