After a big money move Xhaka came here with a great reputation as one of the finest midfielders in Germany. A young, combative midfielder, great passer and a real leader. He ticked so many boxes and Wenger moved for him unusually swiftly and determined early in the Summer before the Euros (where he was one of the best midfielders of the tournament). 

But here we are and it's fair to say that he has not lived up to expectations. He's as slow on the turn as a super tanker, rash in his challenges and he can't keep the ball under pressure. Surely he's better than what we are seeing now, right? 

So what do you think? Is he a flop or should we be more patient with him and trust that with more adaptation time he'll become the midfielder that we need?

he's a liability when we're on the backfoot, which has happened a lot. looks as mobile as arteta in his twilight years. im surprised at how he has no body swerve or feint in his locker to evade pressure. sometimes it looks like he's receiving passes while standing in cement

when we're imposing our tempo, he's able to showcase his quality much more

really not sure how good he'll turn out, but imo he will definitely improve on what we've seen

Too soon to say he's a flop, it took Ozil a season to cope with the pressure better and he's also young. I think he'll definitely get better, what's in question is whether or not he's ever going to be the top centre mid we've been looking for. We will find out by May I guess.

No my patience is not running thin with Xhaka.
It is running thin with the drive towards writing him off after just over half of his first season here complete.

Do we have any other choice than be patient with him? We bought him for 30m and it's not like we can replace him with Busquets in this window.

His passing ability is very good. He's intelligent and reads the game well (though he does sometimes acts very foolishly).

On the other hand his ability on the ball, close control, etc. is never going to be good enough. He may find better ways to deal with pressure, but he's never going to be a Santi replacement. And we sure need one - we need a top player in midfield. I don't think Xhaka is going to be one.

But I agree the verdict is too early.

I remember that the people on this board who had seen him play in Germany thought he was good at dealing with pressure and using his body to shield the ball. I suspect his form is a combination of taking time to adapt to the league (apparently he had an equally tough time of getting used to the Bundesliga in his first season there) and our dysfunctional Wengerian hydra of a 2-man midfield.

I think he's being a little hamstrung by Wenger. His passing has become more conservative as the season has gone on. He needs to up his concentration levels though and cut out the silly mistakes.

Think he needs to play at the base of a 3 man midfield with two workhorses in front of him. Not going to happen though, unless Ozil is shifted wide.

Xhaka was never even meant to be a "Santi replacement". He was meant to be what Arteta was, but more physical and act as a partner for Santi/Ramsey. Its only normal, that this position takes a lot of time to get used to. He has lots to learn, but he will surely only get better.

For me the surprising thing is that he has a fairly large body frame, yet he is fairly easily dispossesed. He should learn from Iwobi who has superb ball shielding skill.

I think he'll improve a lot over the next year or so. He's too talented to not find a way to apply himself.

I'm not sure he's ever going to be good enough to play the role we had in mind for him though. It's not about pace; Arteta was half as quick as Xhaka on a good day and still twice the midfielder. If he can't improve technically to the point where he's comfortable on the ball he's never going to cope with pressure in that position though.

Weird player. Some aspects of his game I absolutely love yet other aspects I absolutely hate

how long did it take Kos to fully bed in? guy has started less than half a seasons games for us.

Never really been too covinced by anything Xhaka has done over the time he's been here but yeah better players were given more time to actually integrate themselves into the team so he should come good. It's just the other midfielder who played next to him a couple of days back then against Swansea and has had like 200 starts already for Arsenal who I'm concerned about. Considering which league Xhaka came from and his age I'm ok with him.

Herbas wrote:

For me the surprising thing is that he has a fairly large body frame, yet he is fairly easily dispossesed. He should learn from Iwobi who has superb ball shielding skill.

More worrying for me is he turns like a milk float on an early morning run.

He'll come good but might take longer to adapt. Wenger rarely gets major CM signings wrong.

this will turn into a Xhaka player thread soon, but to answer the OP..of course not. How can you be impatient of a guy within a season when we have endured the likes of walcott, chamberlain, ramsey, wilshere not to mention the diabys and rosickys?
The skepticism on his future here is clearly growing though. Will wait to see if he has more qualities to his game.

arsedoc md wrote:

this will turn into a Xhaka player thread soon, but to answer the OP..of course not. How can you be impatient of a guy within a season when we have endured the likes of walcott, chamberlain, ramsey, wilshere not to mention the diabys and rosickys?
The skepticism on his future here is clearly growing though. Will wait to see if he has more qualities to his game.

Well, in recent match threads he's been called a flop and a dud and it's already been said on here that Wenger should just cut his losses. Based on this thread they are clearly in the minority though.

Match threads are always OTT anyway, especially nowadays since we're kind of a shit team at times.

But I do think Xhaka has glaring flaws, so glaring that they can't be worked upon. Like his lack of mobility, his one footedness and his complete inability to tackle without fouling. My patience isn't running thin with him, but I'm pretty sure he's not the answer to our midfield problems.