Özim wrote:Average midfielder, how any manager can make him a regular is beyond me, has always been a liability, Arsenal seem to specialise on 1st team era that are a liability!
Its not just i disagree. I'm going to repeat so people really wake up to the true sorry shit state the club is in midfield.
WE HAVE WON 1 GAME IN THE LEAGUE THIS SEASON WITHOUT HIM,
JUST ONE SINGLE GAME!!!!
This is NOT a coincidence. Xhaka is flawed, makes one mistake usually per match, slow and is not the most intelligent human being or a quick thinker(Hence the mistakes) He doesn't have impeccable vision or super flair skills or nothing.
What he has is a elite passing range few players can touch. His best attribute is his range passing. Luiz also has a good passing range, Ozil was all about precision and through balls but neither can hit a ball as quickly and accurately as him from anywhere on the pitch. It's the same thing Kroos/Scholes/Gerrard/Xabi Alonso have. These players could and did kill opposition with just one mistake, striker makes and run and BOOM pass and goal. This is a serious weapon, not many players can execute to that level. BTW Xhaka can do this with both feet. Not just his favoured left.
He's also by far our strongest and most disciplined midfielder, way, way ahead of the rest of the squad in this aspect. His positioning is excellent despite how poor his actual tackling ability is. His leadership skills are obvious on the pitch, he manages other players positioning and aggressively helps initiate the press. This is much more than i can say for any other midfielder, even favourite Torreria, he's not as effective or as good as Xhaka.
I'm happy for Xhaka to leave as its clear the transfer has not panned out the way we all wanted but we cannot be stupid and we need Partey at the very, very least if he goes. He is the perfect Serie A player so if we do sell him we should be looking a serious quality replacement. If he does go to Serie A he will be awesome there.
If he stays, this guy is our most important midfielder. He's is the only player as mentioned before off the ball on defence who is disciplned enough to hold our shape. He needs like I said with Matteo a quality attacking mid ahead of him. Then maybe his talent which he has in good abundance will be more clear, rather than the scapegoat label he is chastised with despite being our best midfielder.
Emery lost his way totally at Arsenal when Xhaka had his hissy fit, Arteta hasn't won yet in the league without him, infact i think we have only just beaten Bournemouth in the Cup without him.
I like Xhaka, i love playmakers and players with his passing range. These players define football skill. So I feel the need to disagree with you strong here to show everyone the benefits of having a player like Xhaka because we all f***ing know his flaws but we are totally unaware of how many strengths he has.