EliteKiller wrote:Arsene Nose wrote:Fenice wrote:The Tuesday Club was right, play slows with him on the ball and not in a good way. He just doesn't seem to be mentally quick enough. I like his grit, but the game passes him by at times.
He has one job. Pick out forwards making runs off the ball. The minute he receives possession he looks up and in most cases no one is making runs. Then he gets caught on the ball before passing it sideways. His weakness is when he doesn't spot a runner he can't carry the ball forward himself like cesc could for example. I think the reason Wenger plays welbeck so much is for Xhaka to pick him out.
So what's Ozil's job? By far the best passer in the team, the best creator in the team, the most assists in the EPL (last 3 years) in our current line up Ozil is the creator, it's very clearly not Xhaka's job ... can't he understand that? or is the truth more that it's the only part of his game that's any good? He can't defend, he can't run, he has lousy positional sense, and he couldn't out muscle my kid sister .... hmmmmmm
Trying to do to much not only makes Ozil look bad, but at the same time it highlights every mistake Xhaka makes, and he makes a few, he needs proper coaching and proper tactical instruction ... under Wonger good luck with that ....
or we need to realise that he's just not top four standard ... and get someone better ....
Ozil is a 10 whereas Xhaka is a deep lying playmaker. Ozil plays between the opposition midfield and defensive lines whereas Xhaka receives the ball from our CBs and begins play. One cannot do the others job. Xhaka is akin to Alonso or Pirlo in playing long balls out of the back. In the absence of a true b2b ball carrier like Vieira or Diaby we need this kind of player. When we played Cazorla and Coquelin we struggled to get the ball out of our half quickly because Cazorla despite being exceptional is more comfortable playing short passes. This meant the opposition had time to regroup.
But your point about him being one dimensional is true. He has no other worth or value other than dropping precision long balls into the opposition half. Wenger needs to find a way to exploit this talent while hiding his weaknesses or revert to getting a b2b specialist.
