I haven't watched Xhaka enough to form any kind of opinion, but I don't think it's that difficult to be better than Gündogan was last season. People are still waiting for him to recapture the level he held before the big injury, and instead he has gone and damaged the knee again. I think Dortmund were pretty content with the £21 million they got for him.

We certainly could do with his qualities if they are as they're made out to be, and any top signing is good news.
But I'm puzzled as to why a DM was signed, as we have Coquelin and Elneny this was not a priority area and we all know what is, of course other signings may still arrive but if they don't we will again question Wengers sanity.

Need a strong pool of midfielders and effective he's replacing one of Arteta or Flambo

Elneny's defensive stats are ridiculous. They're worse than Cazorla's even.

I very much put him in the squad player category at the moment and certainly would not use him as a basis to not make a signing.

@ Dules, if we were changing to a more defensive 4-5-1 it would make sense and I would be delighted.

@ G89, don't forget he's only played for a few months and has so far been encouraging.

Elneny hasn't been encouraging defensively. I don't think he wins any tackles at all.

If we win games and Elneny plays them, whether he makes a tackle or not, I'll be happy enough. Other ways to win the ball back as well. We've got Granit and Coq for the blood and thunder, Ramsey and Elneny for the running power and movement, Cazorla for the skillz.

His defensive stats are not any worse than Santi or Aaron at all unless you count making 0.2 tackles fewer per game significant. He makes marginally more interceptions and quite a few more blocks. Then you have aspects that are not quantified such as him slowing down counter attacks by the opposition by being everywhere on the pitch.

The option of playing both Xhaka and Coq in big away games is a tasty one.

I think so too, especially in Europe. We need to make ourselves hard to beat in the CL more than anything.

Coq's stats in terms of reading the play and winning the ball are always stellar. But Elneny would top all those players in completed passes.

The big difference with Xhaka is that he plays a large number of key passes (albeit not as many as Ramsey or Cazorla) while being defensively dominant. He's going to be a great asset.

Yeah I think some people have the wrong ideal of Elneny. He not a very defensive player but he is a very consistent passer and a potential pace setter. Thats where I'd be focussing his development.

Wenger has always preferred more rounded players than specialists which is fair enough, but I suspect that this might be a contributing factor to our consistent mediocrity

Feels superb having too many options in midfield. Hasn't been this way in years.

Qwiss! wrote:

Yeah I think some people have the wrong ideal of Elneny. He not a very defensive player but he is a very consistent passer and a potential pace setter. Thats where I'd be focussing his development.

Yeah but his energy and hassling is very important in disrupting opponents. If he could add abit of muscle and win physical duels he will be quite a complete player.

I smiled when I saw Cazorla's 0.07 aerial duels won. I also tried to remember which poor sucker lost an aerial duel to Santi. Drew a blank there. 🙂

Clrnc wrote:
Qwiss! wrote:

Yeah I think some people have the wrong ideal of Elneny. He not a very defensive player but he is a very consistent passer and a potential pace setter. Thats where I'd be focussing his development.

Yeah but his energy and hassling is very important in disrupting opponents. If he could add abit of muscle and win physical duels he will be quite a complete player.

TBH I'd prefer Kante for 20m to partner Xhaka than either Coq or Elneny.
For mind essentially Coq is an upgrade on Flamini, and Elneny an upgrade on Denilson and is a better supporting CM than Rambo.