Granit Xhaka is here to stay, so; Fingers crossed! by Lagos Gooner
Happy new week Gooners around the world; hope we are getting set to give our full support to the team tonight, when they play against Leeds United in the FA cup? Arsenal, with 13 FA cup trophies, are looking to add another FA cup to their trophy collection, and if we are to believe the words of our new manager, then winning the FA cup seems to be a priority for the club. Come on gooners! Let’s support our team in full tonight.
Friends, while we await kick off today, I want to ask, have we noticed that there is one particular player who seems to feature in any of our coaches’ team? Have we noticed that Granit Xhaka, despite his obvious flaws and temperament, seems to always feature in the first team of any coach? At the national level, he features regularly for the Switzerland national team. At club level, he has hardly missed any game, no matter the club he plays for. So, what is about Xhaka that these coaches know but the fans don’t know?
I see Xhaka as somebody who has charisma and knows how to lead people. He is the captain of the Swiss national side but when it came to sacrificing for the team, he offered his captainship to Xherdan Shaqiri in an effort to get him to return to the national side. Only a man, who thinks about the general cause can do this, in my opinion. Is it his willingness to sacrifice for the team, that endears him to every coach he has ever played for? What is it about Xhaka that makes him an integral part of any team?
Under Emery, he was made captain of the team; his team mates deemed him worthy enough to captain them when Emery asked them to vote for their captain. What did the team mates see in him what the fans are not seeing? This young obviously knows how to make himself likable, and that is a good trait of a leader. If a team with so many good players could decide to choose Xhaka as their captain, then I think it is normal for any coach to include him in his plans to move the team forward.
When Xhaka was bought by Arsenal in 2016, one of the qualities many football analysts believed Arsenal were going to enjoy from Xhaka was his ability to make a long pass from the back to the dangerous area of the opponents. We have seen a bit of this skill from him, although we expect him to be doing this on a more regular basis. His hard tackling style cost us games in the past; and this didn’t go down well with the fans, with many of them openly confronting him off the pitch. Late last year, he was stripped off the captaincy and he was taken out of the team for a while, to cool down the tensions between Xhaka and the Arsenal supporters; a tension that was majorly caused by the Swiss international.
When he was stripped off the armband, Emery was still coach of Arsenal. Emery later brought him back into the team, before he was sacked. Ljungberg made use of Xhaka In almost all his games while he was coach of Arsenal. Now, Mikel Arteta, our own future Guardiola, is coach of the team and if there is one thing so certain, it is that Granit Xhaka will play a huge role in Arteta’s plans. Xhaka may even have the captaincy given back to him by Arteta, according to a quote from Arteta in Football London. The Boss was asked if Xhaka could get the armband back, and he replied: “I don’t know, time will tell that. Now he’s happy to stay here, he’s completely committed and that’s a big plus today.”
However it pans out for Xhaka, I still ask myself the same question, what is it about Xhaka that I don’t know but the coaches do? All we can do is get behind him, and hope that he proves his coaches right in the end.
Sylvester Kwentua
Big big mistake.
Absolutely catastrophic … and no I won’t be getting behind him
Afternoon Transfer Window Lickers 😆
One of the first things Arteta said was that all the players would be given a clean slate, so as a supporter who has been pro-Arteta all along I can only get behind Mikel and give all the players a clean slate aswell and that includes the likes of Xhaka, Mustafi and Socratis!………………………with Arteta`s philosophy who know`s…………Xhaka could become XFactor…………..Mustafi…Mustard…..and Socratis…….Socrates!
Le Coq. And you and I could both become flying pigs if you are right. Lots of statements are issued for hoped for good effect. Thta does not mean they are what those who issue them REALLY think will HAPPEN. Speaking only for myself, I am too long in the tooth and too sceptical to take as GOSPEL every public statement made by football people. Arteta has litle choice but to, PUBLICLY, back those currently here; how could he do otherwise , considering the Scrooge who owns us! Please note the “PUBLICLY” and then think more deeply! BTW, there is a good reason why politicians and even managers, and coaches lie to us’ It is because we will not like nor accept the plain unvarnished truth. To deny that is to fool ourselves and I NEVER DO THAT.
Hahaha Jon…………………..more tongue in cheek really, I still believe in my gut instinct that the afore mentioned players are a bit shite!
Great question to ask in the article. I firmly think I speak for most Gooners, though not all obviously, when I say I cannot see a thing that this player brings on the pitch that helps us. I never have done. But what will be will be and so we MAY, just have to put up with him. I crave that we don’t have to though! If he stays, I still don’t expect to ever change my mind though. Even God Almighty cannot make him mobile, swift to think and swift to act. If Arteta does achieve this, I will assume he is better than the Almighty then! But he WON’T!
I agree. One big problem with UA was that he developed a tactic and tried to fit players in, whereas MA looks at player strengths and weaknesses and builds tactics around that. Xhaka has never had the skill range to play at the base of a midfield three. However, under MA he is being asked to act as a third wide CB to cover for the LB and pick out players breaking into space. As far as we’ve seen, he is not just suited to this but maybe more suited than most other CMs in the league. In short, MA is playing a tactic that requires a player like Xhaka.
This is not to say that a better player could not improve the squad using a different set-up, but given that lack of funds, I can see why MA considers him integral.
I’d love to see him try to properly address the breakdown in relations between him and the fans, but he certainly has my support.
If we cannot get champions league this season Arsenal will be forced to sell all the high earners at the club in the summer due to financial reasons
The same question.
We don’t rate Xhaka but any manager going back to wenger has rated him.
Wenger
Emery
Ljungberg
Arteta etc..
And to top it off his own peers in the dressing room rate and trust him, hence why he was voted for unanimously by them to be their leader and Captain.
What are we missing that all the managers and his teammates seem to see in him?
Xhaka is a good footballer who is very much at home when given time and space to link up play with his educated left foot.Being a lefty, he brings balance to the Arsenal side and without being outstanding he is intelligent and good in possession.However,he is playing in a League which demands high energy from every team member,especially from midfielders,and unfortunately he simply does not have the pace nor stamina to compete in this physically demanding arena.Defensively,he can be a liability as he tends to be reckless and fails to track opposition players when he needs to.The apparent rebirth of Ozil since the arrival of MA is most welcome and if our Manager can do something similar with Xhaka I for one will be delighted.As they say in Scotland “I hae ma doubts” but I will be pleased to be proved wrong on this ooccasion .Certainly Xhaka is a bigger asset to Arsenal than the likes of Mustafi and Socratis and this has already been proved by the genuine interest shown by Hertha Berlin..
Keep him for this season as we will not get the price we need for him plus no one is available for us to replace him but as soon as summer is here…sell him to the highest bidder, use that money to buy a good CM. But as long as he stays at the club I will get behind him n all the players. We should not boo or look down on our own players. It does nothing good for the team n their moral. Having an opinion about certain player n discussing it is fine but when we are out in numbers in stadium then don’t bash your own players. Support them.
The problem is we have no money to go out and buy players that would actually improve areas of the pitch that need improvement.
I was angry just as many of the Arsenal faithful were with Xaka’s reaction against palace and all that followed.
We have what we have at the moment due to poor investment in players but we have what looks like a decent direction under Mikel, Ozil, Xaka, torreira, Sokratis and even Luiz looked like they had some real drive and purpose over the last few games and I loved it I really did, they all worked extremely hard for the team and we got the result we deserved against UTD and hope this focus, drive and determination continues for the rest of the season.
What the team needs is our support, that goes for every player, even Xaka, Mustafi and co.
Get behind them and stop moaning about this that and the other player its not productive.
Let’s lift the roof off the emirates tonight, support, sign and chant, lets give them the extra energy to smash leeds all over the shop
A clean sheet is a clean sheet and if MA is prepared to do it, so should every fan who supports the club.
Not only is it a clean sheet, MA has gone out of his way, it seems, to persuade Xhaka to stay and be part of his plan.
My only explanation for the managers, coaches and players seeing things that we as fans, do not, is that I don’t have one!!!!
But when he wears the shirt, he will get my full support.
As a footnote, the fact that he could have left the club, but despite all the previous troubles, has decided to stay, shows he has the mettle to prove his doubters wrong, in my opinion.
I think he is a determined type who will give his all and has probably already put the Palace business behind him. But the fact remains that he has worn our shirt for three and a half seasons to almost universal Gooner dismay and I personally do not intend to rewrite history now,. Or ever . It is not honest. He may well stay for a while and this may be well be because Kroenke will not back us. Arteta may also have bigged him up IN PUBLIC. But Ken, you and I have different philosophies on whether or not we take as gospel every statement issued. I also doubt he will be as useless under Arteta as he was til now but bad players do not suddenly become good enough, even when coached by a great coach. He is slow, cumbersome and thinks and reacts slowly. I do not accept for one moment that Arteta can change those facts.