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I agree with the opinion that our midfield is flawed and lacks balance in terms of both compatibility and options.
For mind we lack a player capable of driving forward on the ball to use strength on the ball to resist the tackle.
That said I suspect that Xhaka-El Neny is our best balanced pairing on paper currently.
Holy shit, if you guys are critical about our CM options, let me know your thoughts on ManCity, MU, Chelsea, Spurs, Liverpool midfielders.
"Xhaka bottled it in the last 16 of Europe, will fit right in at Arsenal." Got to admit ... that is funny.
He'll be alright. Whether he is our MF messiah .... is still to be seen. He has 30m reasons to be under pressure. Just the way it is.
Xhaka missed a penalty but he had a pretty great tournament. One of the best looking mids in it so far. And so was Ramsey so I find the worry about our midfield quite OTT.
Yeah, both of them would arguably get into the best XI from the group stages. Maybe Özil too when I think about it. Our expected midfield core has had a good tournament so far.
There was a facebook feed of him being shown around the stadium yesterday. I watched a minute or two. It was very cringey, a couple of cameramen snapping photos and two cameramen videoing it too. It's a bit overkill, you'd think we'd signed Messi the way they were fawning over him.
We do that with all our new signings - gives the media team something to put out during the summer.
I thought as much. Did remind me of bumping into Charlie George last month when I did the tour though!
Dillinger wrote: "Xhaka bottled it in the last 16 of Europe, will fit right in at Arsenal." Got to admit ... that is funny. He'll be alright. Whether he is our MF messiah .... is still to be seen. He has 30m reasons to be under pressure. Just the way it is.
The internet football fans do love using the word 'bottled'. Suppose you could say Messi bottled it for Argentina, or the whole England team bottled it yesterday. Such a stupid phrase which gained a lot more popularity in recent years. They love judging players based on one game, ignoring everything before!
Mostly agree with that. England spursed it up more than bottled it.
Good summary of Xhaka's role for Switzerland at the Euros.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jun/24/granit-xhaka-switzerland-talisman-euro-2016-poland-arsenal
Clrnc wrote: Good summary of Xhaka's role for Switzerland at the Euros. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jun/24/granit-xhaka-switzerland-talisman-euro-2016-poland-arsenal
Key point perhaps being that he plays with a more conservative / defensive partner whilst he takes the playmaker role. Would suggest a more balanced 2 with the likes of El Neney or Coquelin in the 4231, or perhaps even as the 1 in a more attacking 4141 playing behind a central midfield pairing of Ozil & Rambo, which may help to solve the Rambo dilemma with the FBs supporting the DM rather than looking to constantly get forward in attack.
Not read that article, but if it suggests that Behrami is a more defensive/conservative player than Xhaka, then I call bs.
Behrami was playing deeper than Xhaka in the Euros for sure though.
You know an article is bad when it opens with three paragraphs inexplicably discussing a pun from Gary Lineker that has zero relevance to the rest of the text.
Clrnc wrote: GooneriC wrote: We really should have gone for Krychowiak , but Xhaka will have to do now At the 45m Sevilla is apparently asking for? We got a much better deal at 30m for Xhaka IMO.
GooneriC wrote: We really should have gone for Krychowiak , but Xhaka will have to do now
We really should have gone for Krychowiak , but Xhaka will have to do now
At the 45m Sevilla is apparently asking for? We got a much better deal at 30m for Xhaka IMO.
Krychowiak to PSG for 22.5
