speedy wrote:
Anzac wrote:
IMO Xhaka represents the worst of AW's conservative risk adverse possession style post Fabregas/Cazorla, and as such is a tiki-taka player of possession for possession's sake without other intent or purpose.
Not for me he's a player to hit the early wide long ball. The opsite of that tiki-taka approach. We'd swapped to counter attacking which is why he was brought in. He'd be brilliant under fergusan hitting ronaldo beckham giggs ect super early on the counter. Scholes hit that pass all day.
But he simply doesn't = he seldom plays an early pass let alone a long ball unless it is to the FB standing in space and unmarked. Vary rarely does he look to go long and vertical = Laca used to make runs into space ahead of the ball all day and Xhaka would look at him, pass the ball sideways and then put his hand up and/or point for the other player to get it forward into the opposition half.
IMO he wasn't brought in for the counter attacking play = he was signed because he dictates tempo in transition from deep, which was mistaken as meaning he was/is a deep lying playmaker, but he's simply not.
Carrick is the player who did that for SAF, and Xhaka isn't anything as assertively progressive as him IMO.
