Is Xhaka trying to put blame on the forwards for Tottenham draw?

Granit Xhaka has responded to his critics claiming they only focus on the mistakes and not how many chances were missed.

I have to say that reading his comments I get the impression that he is trying to put the blame on the forwards for not beating Tottenham rather than his own massive blunder.

‘Of course critics are always here,’ Xhaka told Sky Sports. ‘The north London derby, I think we had a good game. I made a mistake with the penalty but if you saw the game, we could have won.

We had a lot of chances but this is football. Nobody speaks about the chances, nobody speaks about how many we missed. They always speak about the mistakes.

‘This is part of football.’

The thing is this, when Arsenal lost to Liverpool there was just as much after match talk about the missed Nicolas Pepe chance as there was about David Luiz giving away a weak penalty so not too sure that Xhaka is right about that part.

But to me, he is clearly saying that Arsenal would have won despite his serious misjudgement if the forwards would have taken their chances, I do not see any other way to read his comments.

One-off errors are forgiven but the thing with Xhaka is that he just keeps on making these mistakes and they are damned costly most of the time.

I would suggest that there is nothing to come from from trying to blame others in public, even if he is right in his assessment.

Xhaka needs to cut out the mistakes it is as simple as that and then the criticism will stop, it really is not rocket science.

20 Comments

  1. Any player that publicly accusses his colleagues no matter how open a mistake they make then isn’t work a team player. A captain accusing his teammates rather than accepting the blame for the sake of his teammates regardless of the situation, will miss my respect. Wenger would die with any players’ back regardless of the situation. It’s not rocket science as you put it. In this case, he would have focused on what he did wrong and ignored the rest.

  2. Its difficult playing at premiership level and everyone makes mistakes but when an individual constantly makes the same errors over and over then supporters, pundits and the public in general has every right to be critical. Its widely reported that Xhaka has committed 5 fouls in the box that has led to penalties but to be really critical he has had countless others even though they have not been in the box. With this reckless streak one wonders why he is constantly being picked by Emery even when thee are other players available. Xhaka’s problem is that he is one dimensional in that he can deliver the exceptional long pass (as demonstrated a couple of times in the second half in the NLD) if given adequate time. However the premier league is so fast paced he is rarely afforded such luxury and when pressed he doesn’t have the requisite ability to be able to beat his opponent whether via speed or skill. Xhaka certainly isn’t the only player guilty of repeated fouls but unfortunately his always seems to result in something detrimental to the team and as such he must understand the constant criticism.

  3. This guy he shouldve been off after so many fouls i think hes gone in the head if he think he had nothing to do with the loss hes a muppet.

  4. A leader gives the credit to his team but takes the blame himself, this inspires others.

    Perhaps it would serve the team better were he to forego his rashness rather than blame others.

    His knucklehead decision cost Arsenal points, again. Not to mention his numerous fouls, again. Would be interesting to see how team performed if he was dropped for several games.

    Now that Mustafi is not longer in the spotlight for blame, his mistakes are even more obvious.

    Over to you Mr. Emery

  5. I call that arrogance, this man will never improve, get him off the playing 11 asap.Auba missed a penalty last season, what did he do? He focussed and kept banging in goals, not babble nonsencelike this chap.He has lost my respect and I have lost my respect for Unai too who keeps playing this calamity.Luiz apologised this man doesn’t. The three calamities on the pitch – Xhaka, Socrates and Saed Kolasinac.Every team will fancy this trio to grind results against us.Let us focus on our “top 6 trophy” with Unai

  6. Some of those so-called chances are very difficult to be converted by our attackers at the Emirates. Only Guendouzi provided clear chances with his sharp through balls, whereas Xhaka, Torreira, Kolasinac and Maitland-Niles didn’t create good chances

    Xhaka can brag about his forward passes stats all day long, but most deep-lying playmaker can create similar stats. If he thinks he is creative by making a lot of mindless forward passes, he can compete with Ozil in making those so-called chances

    I prefer deep-lying playmaker that can dribble past the defenders and the ones that have excellent ball control, like Guendouzi and Willock

  7. If Emery can not get this team to a Top 4 position then he should just accept he has failed and leave. Manchester United is worse a team than us. Chelsea has a new coach and is relying on academy young talents. Emery has no excuse whatsoever.

    1. count how many internationals those teams have compared to us before you say we have a better team than them

      1. Having Internationals doesn’t mean they’re better than what we got. lucazette doesn’t play for France while Rashford does. Being an international player depends on the competition in your country. Who isn’t an international player in our team that played against Tottenham?

  8. It might well suit the agenda of those who want Xhaka out of the club to think or say he is blaming others for the draw , i.e missed chances. I do not KNOW whether or not he IS blaming others but either way it is irrelevant. Fans almost all of us, myself very much included, desperately want to see the back of Xhaka, simply because he is a clear liability time and again. Let us though be honest and up front and not hide behind accusations of him blaming others, whether they be true or false. Let us just continue to say plainly that he is not of the standard we need. THAT is the reason he should leave and ASAP. AND THAT IS THE ONLY REASON. It is almost as though some are looking for excuses to want him out. We are ALL Gooners and passionately want success for our beloved club, so no other reason, other than his uselessness as a player is needed. I detest evasions and half truths. I dislike conspiracy stories and possible red herrings even more.

  9. Guys, this man is talking about the NLD, because that was what he was being asked about…not any other game.

    I’m NOT sticking up for him, just reading what he said about this one game.

    He admitted his mistake, not very apologetically I admit, but he acknowledged it.

    Then he says that we had many chances to win the game…that’s perfectly true as well.

    He is giving his views and answering questions during a discussion – nothing more and nothing less.

    Does he deserve to be dropped for a catalogue of errors ? In my opinion yes.

    Does he deserve this hysterical analysis for answering questions on the NLD? In my opinion no.

    1. Hysterical? It was literally a question thus the question mark. As hysterical reactions go…… I best leave it there.

      1. Admin Martin, I wasn’t referring to your piece, I was referring to the remarks posted ABOUT your piece… but you might want to read what is being said and…no I best leave it there also.

  10. The first action required to improve, is to honestly admit that you made a mistake. The second action is to learn from the mistake and thirdly modify behaviour to reduce the chances of repeating the mistake.
    Xhaka does not appear to take any of these actions and as a result the mistskes recur.

  11. It’s not the first time Xhaka has called out the team when he is the one who made the error which cost us points,, he did it after the game against Brighton.
    He should stop blaming his team members and blame the manager instead for picking him

  12. Xhaka is not good enough to play for the club.look the statistics when he played the club dropped points.after he joined the club ,the club is out of champions league.so UE use willok ,torriera and ceballos.

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