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.

No.

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.

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.

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.

y va marquer wrote:

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.

What she said. He's done a good job in a constantly changing midfield set-up. Let's not act like Swansea bosses and write-off our staff after 3 months. He's had a mix of excellent and not-so-inspiring games, which is perfectly normal.

Can't remember him having any excellent games.

But I won't write him off just yet

Bet you we'd be raving about him if he was at a Chelsea, for example, playing in a functioning system.

I bet your bookie loves you as i cant remember Flobaba raving about any other player of his standard anywhere.

Xhaka is much better player than he has shown for us and i agree our system has limited his effectiveness.
I get that Wenger wants the defenders to have an outlet pass but his lack of pace makes him a defensive liability.
To compensate, he ends up in positions that limit his ability to maximise his offensive effectiveness.
Combined with Coquelin up the pitch, we end up with the worst of both worlds.
I think we would be better off playing them in their natural positions as, for me, the positives outweigh the negatives.