Xhaka - worst buy in recent history?: Page 3 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Xhaka - worst buy in recent history?

Clrnc

He actually had a pretty decent game, but everytime he loses the ball we were at risk of conceding.

The goal he conceded was purely down to him, lack of awareness and concentration. Poor.

Qwiss

Usually he's good overall but he has too many of those moments in his game.

Bold Tone

Clrnc wrote:
He actually had a pretty decent game, but everytime he loses the ball we were at risk of conceding.

...

That's what makes him a poor DM.
The two things keeping him in the first team are the Cazorla injury and Wenger needing to justify spending £35m on him.

GooneriC

He is not a DM. Wenger needs to flush that idea right away.

Sicario

Xhaha does make errors but he is a wonderful football player. We need to stick with him.

goon

He actually had a very good game aside from the goal, where he was actually fouled. I’m actually more bothered by his lack of consistency with his distribution. If he plays like he did today every time I could look past the errors.

Sicario

He was amazing first half v Watford too

Clrnc

Football is not playing in halves, lets not be Wenger and his Bayern theories.

Gurgen

Wasn’t this guy supposed to be some kind of battling leader? Not only does he have the reactions of an oil tanker, but he is also an incredible wimp.

Bold Tone

GooneriC wrote:
He is not a DM. Wenger needs to flush that idea right away.

Everybody can see that and no amount of time/training will change the fact that Xhaka has not got the tools to play DM.
I think Wenger wants us to be able to build from the back and feels the pay-off of a weak defence is worth it.
It goes against the old adage preached at every level in every sport that "defence wins titles" which Wenger seems to have forgotten with old age.

goon

Pretty sure that there’s been plenty of titles won with amazing attacks and average defences.

Bold Tone

It's just a saying based on likelihood(?), not a science, so there will always be outliers.

goon

I don’t even think it’s that much of an outlier. It’s just often overlooked because teams with super attacks often don’t have to suffer much defensively as a result of their domination. There’s different ways to win.

Our main issue is that we’re not very good at anything in my opinion.

Bold Tone

The answer is in your second sentence as you state that attack is a method of defence.
fungus employed it to great effect for 2 decades in the premiership and Spain/Guardiola's Barca did the same during the tiki-taka era.

banduan

GooneriC wrote:
He is not a DM. Wenger needs to flush that idea right away.

I don't think Wenger plays him as a DM either.

Claudius

How would Xhaka look if he had Fabinho next to him in yesterday's formation?

goon

Ramsey was excellent yesterday, he's not the one I'd be looking to accomodate out of those two. Xhaka was good other than the errors and I don't think Fabinho or whoever would have done anything about that.

banduan

I can't say Ramsey was excellent, he fluffed so many chances. Our attack is miles better with him in the team though. We so need that extra energy and willingness to make things happen.

goon

Bit of an exaggeration, he fluffed one chance, forced an excellent save from another and scored with his third. Given that he's not a striker I think he deserves more credit for his excellent movement and positioning to get those chances rather than not burying all of them. Aside from that he got a nice little assist with the Sanchez goal and linked up brilliantly with others all game.

I mentioned Sanchez, Ozil and Ramsey in the 'envalope thread' because if those three play at the top of their game it really does propel us to another level going forward.

QuincyAbeyie

Don't think anyone other than Özil were excellent yesterday, but Ramsey was good.

Xhaka started playing really well after we changed to three at the back last season, but right now I'd really rather see a Wilshere and Ramsey duo. Maybe it's too offensive, but I it's worth a shot.

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