Per Mertesacker has moved to talk up Arsenal’s capture of Granit Xhaka from Borussia Monchengladbach this summer.
The defender is reported to be in line to be announced as captain for the upcoming season, despite being in-and-out of the first-team in the previous campaign, sharing the role alongside Laurent Koscielny with Gabriel Paulista.
Mertesacker has now moved to praise the leadership skills of new signing Granit Xhaka, who expected to rival Francis Coquelin for the holding role within the base of the midfield.
“I don’t know him personally but that doesn’t matter, we will get along with each other very quickly because he is a good player and has done so much for Borussia Monchengladbach,” Mertesacker said.
“He can speak German as well, so it will be joy to get his first year going and help him bed in as a player.
“He’s a leader and that is really important, especially in midfield. He has got a very good attitude, is very composed on the ball and contributes a lot.
“He is a good passer as well, so he will set the tempo. I am looking forward to how he does it, how composed he will be in training and in the games. He will be the perfect signing for us.”
Xhaka showed off his great passing skills for Switzerland during the European Championships, and having captained his former club side, could bring some much needed leadership to our relatively young side.
David Seaman recently called for a Patrick Vieira type signing, but could Xhaka prove to be of a similar mould? Maybe Xhaka could be a future Gunners captain, and do a job we have been lacking for some time…
Xhaka is a really good signing. He was fantastic at Euro 2016
(wasn’t a priority really, but quality midfielder)
But we NEED a Top scorer and Reliable quality CB at least
Been reading a lot of transfer activity comments, like everyone was expecting a miracle. Haven’t we seen enough of this already to know better. I said it last season and I’ll say it again. I lost all my hopes with Wenger after 2009. The best he has been able to do since that time is to finish 2nd in a league run where all our big rivals flopped, the path was paved and we lost to Leicester. And surely that deluded fool sees it like an insurmountable achievement.
I’ll reiterate that it doesn’t take a tremendous amount of degeneracy to stoop to the lower echelons of the EPL (Chelsea). Don’t be surprised if you find Arsenal slumping at 12th by the end of this year because we didn’t have enough quality cover for our ever injured players.
Interesting to see the level of protests then! God Save The Arsenal!
Former Arsenal player H Nordveit actually had better stats than Xhaka in the bundesliga season and they play alongside in Borrusia. Nordveit is also more defensive minded, originally a defender becoming a DM. I think what differs Xhaka from Nordveit is his mentality, the fact that his a captain at such a young age. For those who doesnt watch bundesliga, Xhaka is not a disciplined player on the pitch, he does commit alot of foul.
That’s a DM s job. Whenever u see that the opponent is counter attacking u foul the opponent to stop the play and give ur defence time to settle. Remember the barca goals we conceded? Those were perfect examples of arsenal defending. Noone trys to stop the fast barca players with a foul. That’s why ppl say arsenal isn’t dirty enough. And xhaka is a tough tackler who knows when to put in a tactical foul (just like arteta but arteta was slow so he had to foul alot).
Good player.
But typical Wenger in signing players in positions that do not require strengthening and neglecting the positions where we do need players (strikers in particular)
Its painful to watch the likes of Guardiola and Mourinho signing players and then watch our “manager” sit on his hands and do nothing.
Never learns…
He is composed on the ball and plays those long balls with ease, he’ll be a great signing.
OT: He might not have costed us a fortune, but Rob Holding is a decent CB and at 20 he’ll only become better. just hope Wenger gives the lad some game time
Average blokes who get to the top usually do it the old fashioned way, there`s a few in every firm and Arsenal is no exception. It also answers a lot of confusing questions.