Granit Xhaka has defended his actions which led to his sending off against Liverpool, claiming that Arsenal fans would have had further questions if he hadn’t made the decision to lunge in also.
The Swiss midfielder has been a talking point on too many occasions, getting himself a number of red cards since joining the club along with other mistakes in big games also, but he appears to insist that he cannot change.
Xhaka appears to claim that he is forced into taking risks due to his role in the side, whilst claiming that he feels as though his actions are questioned regardless of the outcome.
“I’m in a position where I have to make a 50/50,” Xhaka can be seen as stating on Twitter. “It’s a risky one, of course. People will say ‘Why do you always risk?’ This is who I am. I can’t change myself.
“I need to improve and I need to improve. But in this moment if Jota takes the ball and he scores, they will say ‘Why didn’t you stop him?’ Now I stopped him, and people say ‘Why did you get the red card?’
“After the game, everyone is smarter than in the moment. Myself as well. It’s a moment where I have to make a decision and this time I took the wrong one.
“I feel sorry for the team and the supporters.”
His red card may or may not have denied us a place in the EFL Cup final, and while in hindsight we don’t believe Jota had any chance of scoring after his connection with the ball in this instance, he only had milliseconds to make his decision on this occasion.
That being said, not all of his red cards and errors have been as the last man in defence or such intense situations, and I think it is an easy out to simply claim ‘this is who I am’, because that simply isn’t good enough in usual circumstances.
While I agree that he had limited time to make his decision against Jota, whilst also believing he should not have been the player forced into making that decision as the last man, I think he is giving himself too easy an out here.
Do you agree?
Patrick
Watch Mikel Arteta talk about Arsenal v Burnley and the pressure on the race for Top Four
What narcissism from a below-average player, he is a liability and will continue to be one every time Arteta picks him, the sooner he goes the better, how can the team trust him with crass comments like this? The players must be sick and tired of him, a lot of fans are, he doesn’t fit in with the style we seem to be aiming for
Like it or not hes a starter in that team….atleast u won at home to liverpool and anoda 3 points agains bottom table burnley……keep saying all you like.
People like you hide behind your key board and say what u like…. have you ever played football?
Do you have anyone better than him on bench? Or a replacement…. So when u say trash get a bin
If arsenal have a better player use em and stop complains
As of now hes still an AFC player
Whilst he has been foolish at time Xhaka has been quite harshly treated on some reds. Take today Soton player v City escaped with a yellow with a high tackle equally as risky as Xhakas red on Jota.
However Xhaka fails to learn from his mistakes and if he is now saying he cant then he is too much of a liability , even if he is a significant influence in mf. Liabilities we don’t need, he ahould be sold in the summer
Get him sold to Roma or whoever & buy Bissouma this window, if we’re being legit beefing up the middle then Zakaria aswell to add to Lokonga & Azeez.
We are very short here in quality for midfield. Matteo, Lucas, Niles & Elneny all be gone come the summer too.
It’s baffling that we don’t seem to be interested in signing one of Bissouma Guimaraes or Renato Sanches when they instantly improve our midfield.
“I can’t change” but I “need to improve”….how exactly does one marry these two contradictory notions…I feel like the first comment was a more guttural and honest response, which is highly problematic, and the second comment came as a result of someone elbowing in the side, as they understood the negative implications of his statement, which led to the more PR savvy “improve” comment
Do you even understand The English Language? Just because u can speak it does not mean u have d wisdom to understand…..peace be with u
please expound oh great master of the English language…I anxiously await your response so that I might be enlightened by your considerable wisdom…some how I highly doubt you will provide anything further, as it’s clear that you’re way out of your league
Tbf to him he makes some valid points in respects of ‘dammed if you do, dammed if you don’t’ margin for error, however Granit you seem to be on the wrong side of it more often than not which is telling.
To be fair if strikers were red carded for missing easy goals that would put his action into context. Its like a bowler in cricket can bowl 3 wides 3 no balls and be hit for 3 successive 4’s yet but can always bowl again in the innings. Whereas a batter if he makes one mistake can be dismissed and thats it for the innings. He could also say if he were playing for Liverpool/Man City he could afford to let the player go because his strike force would likely find an equaliser whereas Arsenal are less likely to.
Wait,xhaka is right at this instance take a look at jotas second goal which is very similar to the one with xhaka, he is with Ben white he has the time to chest the ball and finished it with the second touch,the only difference here is that we are already one nill down if not we will have got into Ben white saying why didn’t he take him down.
Xhaka is right, he doesn’t put himself in the starting line-up…MA does.
Arsenal has turned to a Club that accepts mediocrity. How on Earth have they not find out that Xhaka is more of a liability than a hero. How many times have this guy costs us points.vRemember since he came Arsenal has always miss out of the top four. As far as I’m concerned he is an average players and Arsenal need an Upgrade.
I really want to know how many arsenal players are absent?
Auba…complains
Pepe…complains
Elneny….complains
Party…..complains
I come in peace
If arsenal have a better player use em and stop complains
As of now hes still an AFC player
I come in peace