Before kickoff it seemed that a win for Watford at Arsenal would prove them worthy of a 4th place title challenge. But by full time we learned that it takes more than just cojones to win against top clubs.
Watford followed their predictable game plan and attacked Arsenal from the start, pressing Arsenal’s defenders and forcing the back five into a 21/37 passing performance (57%) in the first 15 minutes.
Despite the shaky start Arsenal had the better of the two chances in the first 15. Lacazette picked up a lost possession by Ramsey in the 18 yard box and attacked through the lines, he was clearly fouled, lost his footing, but stayed on his feet and screwed his shot wide. Referee Anthony Taylor scissored his arms and waved off the Arsenal calls for a pen.
Ten minutes later, Lacazette pressed Cathcart and forced a neat turnover. Clean through on goal, Laca waited until the keep hit the deck and played a chip shot over him which skidded harmlessly past the post. It’s not often that you see a big chance taken from outside the box but that was one.
It looked like Arsenal were going to rue their missed chances and blown penalty calls when Watford had a golden chance swamped (twice) by Cech. It would have been the perfect Watford goal: a scramble in the box with everyone kicking an Arsenal player to try to force the ball over the line. But Cech did well to hang on to the ball, despite Deeney trying to kick him as he cradled the ball like a baby.
After the first 15 minutes Watford dropped deeper and targeted Torreira. He coughed the ball up four times in that first half but also completed 31/32 passes, keeping things simple and helping to build play. As usual, people confused this with Granit Xhaka “having a good game” and nothing could be further from the truth.
Despite making 80/92 passes, more than any other player, Xhaka contributed a paltry 0.10 to xG Buildup and 0.13 to xG Chain. He was on the ball constantly and doing nothing with it. Sound and fury and all of that. In contrast Torreira only completed 58/65 passes but his xG Chain was 0.55 and his xG Buildup was 0.55. How he fits Granit Xhaka on his back and carries him around the pitch, while playing football, is quite impressive.
In the second half, Emery tried switching the wide players, asking Auba to play right and Ozil on the left, possibly as a nod to the fact that his team (when play is dictated by Xhaka) almost solely play down the left. But just like playing on the right, Ozil looked useless wide left while Ramsey trundles around in the middle.
Watching Auba drop deep to collect and then try to make a cross which would sail over Ozil’s head was some of the most frustrating Arsenal football I’ve ever seen. It looked like it was going to be one of those matches. The ones where the Arsenal forward misses chances and fans notice that Ozil hasn’t done anything and begged for the German to be fired, out of a cannon, into the sun.
Thankfully, Emery finally dragged Ramsey off and replaced him with Arsenal’s most dangerous midfielder, Alex Iwobi. If Ramsey thinks he’s going to find a club that can afford to give him a massive payout he’s going to have to play a lot better than he has so far this season. Maybe it’s down to the fact that he’s being played too far up the pitch but you can’t really play him deeper, the way Wenger did, because he makes those runs into the box which leaves gaping holes in midfield. And the one thing we have learned from the last few seasons at Arsenal is that Granit Xhaka needs a constant chaperone.
Iwobi made an instant impact and Arsenal scored twice within 8 minutes of his introduction. The first was off his cross, a deadly ball right in to the front post, any touch on that ball was going to go in the net, and it was perhaps unlucky that Watford’s Cathcart was the one to provide the touch.
Three minutes later, Danny Welbeck (subbed on for Aubameyang) tackled the ball in midfield and passed to Lacazette. Laca made a one touch pass to Iwobi that was soft as butter. Iwo passed it back to Laca who put in his own perfect cross, this time for Ozil, who was playing in the Ramsey role and showing him how it’s actually done.
The scoreline perhaps hides how frustrating this game was to watch. Aubameyang as a buildup player is never going to work (he had just 0.06 xG Buildup). Ramsey as the CAM is never going to work (he had an atrocious 0.06 xG Chain and 0.06 xG Buildup). Playing Ozil wide is simply never going to work. And if Arsenal had lost this match, which they very easily could have done (the xG favored Watford), the blame would have fallen squarely on those three players and we would have to endure yet another week of the endless podosphere* harumphing about which positions these players are best in and whether Ozil is “shit”.
Thankfully Arsenal won and the Ozil discussion will probably not happen because the answers are clear now: play Iwobi, play Ozil in the middle, bench Ramsey and Aubameyang.
Also, trust the process.
Source: understat.com
*Which has replaced the blogosphere because there’s a lot less accountability for talking shite than writing it
“Thankfully Arsenal won and the Ozil discussion will probably not happen because the answers are clear now: play Iwobi, play Ozil in the middle, bench Ramsey and Aubameyang. Also, trust the process.”
Emery’s got big problems that better sides are going to expose and punish.
One, even playing him in the middle, we consistently do not get enough out of Mesut. I know that he has his defenders, but even they must see that. Maybe that’s why Emery doesn’t? He simply fades from games in the tough passages, for too long. He got a goal, but I hope Im not being unchartitable when I say that he really couldnt miss.
Two, Xhaka is medium to long term unsustainable. In other words, that’s something we’re going to have to rectify in a transfer window or two.
Ramsey was dull as a rusty knife offensively, but defensively, provided solidity. The ease with which they scythed through our midfield, time after time after the sub, was alarming. Bit it was a win-some-lose-some situation, because Iwobi (again) provided the cutting edge that we lacked. It’s like he’s had a body and mind transplant…he looks a completely different player. We probably wouldnt have won that game if Emery hadn’t made the change. We could just we well have lost it (so totally were Watford dominating us in midfield) of he had not. Agree that Iwobi deserves to start. Been saying so since Vorskla.
In the big scheme of things, 5 league wins in a row is a significant achievement, and Emery deserves credit.
1. You’re being uncharitable. It was a crisp finish, opening his body up on the run, and a nice sprint to show the desire to get on the end of the cross. People always complain Mesut isn’t enough of a goal threat as a number 10; well he did that today. If Ramsey had made that run and finish, his fans (not naming any names 🙂 ) would have been saying “that’s exactly what makes him so valuable to the team”!
2. Overall, I thought Ozil was better today than last week, getting on the ball considerably more and giving it away less (though I’d have to look at the stats). In the second half in particular he was getting on the ball; wasn’t doing much with it, but then neither was anyone else, as play was quite static, and the front four just look so unbalanced. Right wing in a 4-2-3-1, with Xhaka mostly building our play from the left hand side, REALLY doesn’t suit Mesut (I think this is different than saying he can never play wide in any system), nor does it suit any of our other attackers either.
3. I thought Ramsey was worse today than he was last week, when he was hardly thrilling but looked pretty solid to me. It must have been a really tough week for him, and I felt sorry for him when he went off, as I did for Auba, but both changes needed to be made. Interesting to see that several of the articles this week–presumably leaked by Rambo’s people–saying he feels he’s being played too far forward by Emery. Of course, the irony is he often played almost that far forward under Wenger (though I guess his starting positions were deeper) and many fans have been telling us for ages he’s really a 10. For the reason Tim says, we can’t play him in a midfield two, but I do hope we give him a run in a midfield 3 and see what he can do. Otherwise, if we’re set on going the ruthless route with his contract situation, then he should be benched. It’s not business, it’s personal. I would have given him a (reasonable, not huge) new contract, but if we’re not going to do that. and not going to play pretty much the only formation that suits him, then we need to bring in Iwobi or Miki in his stead, sooner rather than later.
4. I’m one of those dolts that thought Xhaka had a decent game and Torreira a very poor one. The Uruguayan looked too easily bullied in there, not dynamic enough in possession or in covering ground, and coughed up the ball too much. Still he’s gotta adapt to the pace and physicality of the league and all that (see one A, Lacazette). And even when Xhaka puts in one of his “better” performances his limitations still drive me crazy. Can’t wait for the future of Guen.
PS Lol, that line about Ramsey should read “it’s not personal, it’s business,” of course.
5. I DO trust the process, and I do think Emery is slowly improving things, if only in that he’s making us more resilient in these sorts of ugly games.
BUT, one thing that frustrates/worries me is some of his odd choices position-wise. Lots has been written about the unbalanced nature of our starting front 4, but what bothered me today is that even when he brought Ramsey off for Iwobi, he put AI on the left, keeping Auba on the right. Ozil has *always* been more willing and dangerous drifting left rather than right when he plays in the middle, yet with Iwobi and Monreal already over there, things were too congested. Meanwhile, Auba was still stranded on the right, with no chemistry with Hector and no ability to build up play himself. It made much more sense to switch Auba back to the left, where his drifting centrally would free up the space for Nacho and Ozil to work, and have Iwobi on the right, where he (a) is about as effective as he is on the left, and (b) has shown in the past to have a nice understanding with Bellerin. Maybe this seems like a small thing, but it’s the little in-game details that can make the difference, and I couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t notice it.
Of course, when Welbeck came on he did go onto the left, with Iwobi on the right (from which we then scored 2 goals), so I guess Emery should get credit for getting it right eventually. Hopefully he starts with something more like this next week, rather than only figuring it out in the last 15 minutes of the game. (I reckon if we’re going to go 4-2-3-1 I’d still persist with Auba over Welbz for the time being, but I’d give him freedom to drift in from the left, with Ozil drifting wide into the vacated space, and Iwobi or Miki on the right.)
Xhaka had a good game? Like, you mean, today? No, you’re not a dolt, pal. You’re clearly significantly above average intelligent. Your brilliance notwithstanding, lets say I’m with Tim on this one. 😊
Tim was kind, actually. No mention of Watford repeatedly harrying him into mistakes. Fortunately for us, they are now occurring further up the pitch, and not in our third. Torreira, who had a tough game today, was our boy with his finger in the dyke. The imagery of carring Granit around on his back is both funny and apt.
Agree that Emery is slowly getting the measure, and 7 on the bounce is an excellent return.
Emery needs to figure out his best XI. Aubameyang, Mikhitarian, Welbeck and/or Owobi might be in it. Ramsey just isn’t.
Thus far, the process hasn’t cost us a game.
The best 11 can be such a vague concept in the best of times and these can hardly be called the best of times.
Players have issues we don’t know about which influence selection.
Players have off days on match day after being brilliant in practice.
Also, predictability was one of the things we all hated most about Wenger.
Opposing managers could prepare their teams with near certainty for what Wenger would introduce on game day.
Maybe Emery knows his best 11 and it just isn’t that good.
After all there was more than Wenger being past it as a top manager why Arsenal finished on 60 plus points last season.
Agree. But Emery hasn’t been all that unpredictable in his lineups these last few weeks. Other than Sokratis being out, I think the lineup today was predictable. Only reason to doubt that he was going to persist with a front four that is unbalanced and makes little sense was the midweek news about Ramsey’s contract. One fears he will keep putting the same team out, regardless of turgid performances, until we lose.
I gave up completely on Xhaka early this season (a kind of lightbulb moment of blinding clarity, of the kind that I had with Arsene 4 years ago, that he’ll never be the player we want him to be), and Ive seen little to dissuade me. He may have the sweetest left-footed strike of anyone at the club, and credit where due, he won us a match because of it. But then again, Podolski and Vermaelen (the player he most reminds me of, situationally, not positionally), were also superb strikers of the football.
Watching him this season in Emery’s system, it is clear what we will go after in the market… a physically robust, imposing midfielder who can distribute. Ideally one who can cover ground quickly. Tim had spoken highly of Nzonzi, and said that his passing was underrated. That kind of player, hopefully younger. If football was like the football with special teams, he’d be our kicker.
Torreira did not have a good game, in because as Pfo pointed out, Watford successfully targeted and bullied him. But also in part because double pivot duties are not equally shared. Sure, he’s the team’s water carrier, but he’s also carrying a certain 180 lb Swiss bloke on his back (ooh I love that analogy). Who, as Tim’s stats show, isn’t even doing the other half of his job well.
Problem position No. 2 is Mustafi’s. Sure, he is the one Kosc is most likely to replace, but Kosc isnt getting younger. That needs a long term fix. Is the solution internal? Rob Holding was solid again today, even if his distribution is not as good as Mustafi’s. Can he and Mavro challenge? Mustafi has his good points, but if you watch closely, you’ll see 5 or so mistakes during a game, even if they don’t end up hurting us too much. Mistiming tackles. Positional brainfartery. Failing to see open colleagues when playing it out from the back. He’ll benefit from playing with Leno, whose calmness on the ball and ability to pick a free player are very good.
Problem position No. 3 is our No 10. The question of playing Ozil wide has been much discussed, but one of the blindingly obvious reasons is being overlooked — if the coach felt that he was getting enough out of him in the middle, he’d play him there. Emery isn’t stupid. He can see what we can, with greater acuity, that his setup isn’t working for Ozil, Ramsey, or the team (as we read in the Arsenal Review). So why is he doing it?
Because no successful team today plays with a 10 who doesn’t work hard off the ball. Eriksen, Coutinho, and Hazard (who also plays wide or free-range) are all hard working 10s. Mesut is not, and in a team that a coach wants to press, he is a passenger for long stretches, as he was today when Watford were outmuscling and outplaying us.
All of which means that we have to tip our hat to the coach for somehow making it all work. He was kind of unlucky to face the 2 of the best teams first up. But his results since then have been good, even if a bit of luck was a factor (conversely, we were unlucky against Chelsea and were worth a point). Make no mistake, Watford were tough opponents, and that was not a 2-0 game. Two years ago, we’d probably have lost or drawn that game.
Completely agree about Mustafi. I feel like I’ve seen enough to make me pretty sure he’ll always be an above-average player, but nothing more. He has his good points, and good matches (including already this season), but he’s not really superlative at any aspect of the game, not a physical powerhouse, and he makes far too many avoidable errors.
We must start Holding and Sokratis as soon as the latter is fit. Mustafi is a liability and has been in every game.
You’ll be shocked to hear that I don’t agree with you about Ozil:
1. I agree that the number 10 is a “dying breed”–though of course these trends change every couple of years–or, more precisely, that the 4-2-3-1 is. Which is why I’ve wanted us to play a 4-3-3 for ages, and have said repeatedly on here that Ozil can work as a wide attacker, and Ramsey as a midfielder, in that formation.
2. I disagree that Mesut doesn’t work hard enough. It’s more that he’s just bad at defending and tackling. I think he could still improve in this aspect of his game–and I for one have seen indications of this under Emery (witness the great tracking back he did right at the end of today’s game)–but he’ll never be particularly good at it. And you’re right that other “10”s (actually none of those you mentioned regularly play in that position) are better at this aspect of the game.
3. But the thing is, he’s better at being a creator than any of them are. And, more to the point, for our team, the benefits of playing him in a position that makes him central to our attacking play FAR outweigh the drawbacks of having him in there. The suggestion we simply cannot play anything remotely like a pressing game with Ozil at 10 (or thereabouts) is dubious at best, and hasn’t remotely been tested yet. It’s an empirical theory, so we won’t know until we try it for a good run of games. We’ve barely played Ozil centrally this year, and have barely high pressed as a team for sustained periods (in comparison to many other teams in the PL, at least).
4. I don’t get this “was a passenger” thing. Go back and watch the number of times he was getting on the ball. And that, for the majority of the match, while having to play from the wing (which, of course, makes your assertion that today’s game is somehow evidence of his unsuitability for playing in the middle quite strange). Are you talking about just in terms of when we tried to press? I’m sure he wasn’t blameless in that department, but I didn’t particularly see him ducking out of challenges, neglecting to get back, etc. Maybe I just missed it.
5. If the point is he was unable to drop deep and turn the tide when Watford were “outmuscling and outplaying us” then surely the exact same thing could be said for the other three members of our front four, no? The fact is, when we were losing the battle in terms of territory, the problems were occurring deeper on the pitch, with a back four and midfield two unable to cope with the press. (To a lesser degree the front four were also hurting us by looking disjointed when we did manage to get up the pitch, but that had nothing to do with Ozil being lazy or defensively weak.) In those kinds of circumstances, the front four of a 4-2-3-1 can only do so much to help out the back six (and as the first half wore on, Ozil did drop deeper to get on the ball more).
So, the apparent ease with which we often get bossed by rugged and more numerous midfields, and by a high press, may be a reason to not play with a dedicated 10 or not play a 4-2-3-1 unless the midfield duo is better and stronger than ours is at the moment. But I don’t see how it’s evidence for the claim that Ozil is a problem.
I felt like Ramsey’s removal opened the game up for Ozil. Like I say below, Ramsey’s presence seems to help in transitions and to nip their moves in the bud, but when we have the ball I think he plays right on top of the same areas without being able to make the same use of them. Ozil was certainly peripheral in the first half, but that’s also because we were funneling a lot of our play down the left flank. I would like to see Miki brought back in on the right wing. I miss the combination play with Bellerin that saw us give one of our best offensive performances against Chelsea. The point of attack cannot be too predictable and I think that was part of our problem here.
I think Miki and Iwobi should both be ahead of Ramsey in the pecking order now, particularly because of the contract thing.
The real question going forward should be whether continuing to pick both Laca and Auba, as opposed to one or the other, is the right move–given we’re seemingly dead set against playing a genuine two striker system–or whether *both* Iwobi and Miki should start.
I think it’s a big call to drop Ramsey. It’s a long season and everyone will make contributions but it was hard to think at the beginning of the season that he would not be in Emery’s best 11. If we do drop him, it will take another few games while the manager gets a sense for how the attack is functioning. I’m not a fan of changing too much at once. I’m also of a mind to keep as much firepower as we can out there while there are so many question marks about our ability to defend cohesively.
The Aubameyang Situation is starting to deserve its own capital letters. I do agree that he looks out of place on the wing, even though I think he’s more valuable there than the xG chain would credit. I say that because his presence alone forces teams to stay honest and he scares the daylights out of the fullback who is up against him. In some ways though, he’s become an expensive new Theo Walcott out there, not really consistently creative enough to participate in the buildup, definitely a soft touch in the duels, but does “get on the end of things” once or twice in a match. I think he also looks worse than he is there because the team as a whole don’t do a lot of good with the ball advancing it from back to front. Liverpool put on a clinic in that sense with their ability to find their forwards in good areas repeatedly. If Auba had that type of service paired up there with Ozil and Lacazette, I think we’re not having this conversation. Still, the numbers are what they are for now and they are showing that we are not getting the best out of one of the best strikers in Europe. That needs to change.
I didn’t think Watford outplayed us as badly as the xG suggests. Scott Willis has a nice breakdown of that over on arseblog. What troubles me more than the chances they had was the lack of cohesion in forward areas. The removal of Ramsey was a nice litmus test in that regard, but to me it had mixed results. All but one of Watford’s big chances came after he was substituted, which says to me that we lost something that kept their supply line in check. Correlation or causation? Prior to that they created very little and perhaps Ramsey’s hard work without the ball in advanced areas is why he’s still preferred to start by Emery, and despite the “poor form” from our forwards that people are buzzing about, this team is still scoring goals. N’Golo Kante is used in a more advanced role by Sarri for similar reasons, while the more static Jorginho sits in front of the back four as distributor in chief.
I’m pretty sick and tired of talking about Xhaka at this point so I don’t want to get into that too much. I will just ask the commentariat to consider that he has been undroppable in the eyes of two very good managers now, so clearly there is a disconnect between what we perceive and what they perceive as regards his value. I didn’t think he had a great game today but did anyone bar the keepers in an Arsenal shirt? I feel like there is so much negative attention on him that we forget he’s not out there on an island. At the end of the day he played his part in another victory.
“I’m pretty sick and tired of talking about Xhaka at this point so I don’t want to get into that too much. I will just ask the commentariat to consider that he has been undroppable in the eyes of two very good managers now, so clearly there is a disconnect between what we perceive and what they perceive as regards his value. “
Agree about the first part but maybe not quite the second, Doc.
At least not the way you meant it ( I think).
Wenger made the call to spend £40m on Xhaka and dropping him would mean admitting to a very expensive error in judgment.
Emery’s main objective in his first season is to try to get Arsenal back into CL and possibly out of the group stages which would guarantee about £35m of additional revenue. Destroying market value of players like Xhaka by dropping them would be self defeating from the financial stand point, unless it’s beyond any doubt he’s costing us points.
Regarding admitting an error of judgment: to me this doesn’t completely hold water. Certainly the club should be invested in his success and will give him every chance to succeed. But that’s different than starting him in every game, no matter what, don’t you think? As a counter-example, Lacazette started on the bench this season and he came with a bigger fee and bigger reputation. So did Torreira. Granit didn’t start the season but as soon as he was fit he has been the only midfielder who has not been shuffled in or out of the team at some point. I do think that speaks to a high valuation by his manager.
He was subbed off at half time against Chelsea despite having a good passing game because it was clear he was going to get a red card if Emery persisted with him. Not sure why you forgot that match.
That Xhaka is an “undroppable” for Wenger and now Emery is not an
argument that I find particularly convincing. Anymore than “trust Arsene, he knows what he’s doing” was. If you need a meal now and only have pasta, you cook pasta. Seems Josh was right on a particular point. Guendouzi is not Xhaka’s competitor in terms of how Emery wants us to play. He’s Torreira’s.
We dont need a coach — who knows far more than we ever will — to tell us what we can see and process for ourselves. If that was the case, we wouldn’t question Mourinho, and Arsene would still be on the sidelines. We can see with our own eyes, process with our own brains and see from the numbers. I’ve concluded, based on all that, that he’s on borrowed time, and as soon as we can find a fix we will.
His sense of developing danger is bad (this is the biggest indictment), his athleticism is non-existent, and his defending is awful. He is good on spraying passes (not this game), and is a very good dead ball specialist and long-ranger shooter. If Arsene and Unai want to tell me otherwise, they are welcome to 🙂 He’s got Serie A written all over him, and I think that’s a league in which his talents will flourish. I will concede a point to PFo… he gives us better aerial presence than Torreira, but that’s like saying Im better looking than King Kong. Duh*.
I watched him closely yesterday. On the free kick round minute 73, he was holding a Watford player back in the box by pulling his shirt. We were lucky that the incident wasnt spotted. It could have been game-altering.
Vermaelen progressed to the captaincy, and it didnt save his place once the unsustainable could not be sustained. We should be worried at the ease with which Watford drove a horse and carriage through our midfield of Torreira, Xhaka and Ozil in their second half period of dominance. That’s why Mesut is on the wing at the start of games. Him and Xhaka in the same midfield is like playing with 10 men.
I dont have anything against Xhaka. Ive just, after watching nearly every minute of nearly Arsenal game, come to the conclusion that he cant cut it in this league, or at least not with us. Yeah, harsh as it sounds, in a year I’ll be proven right. Nice bloke, great personal story, but I find him very, VERY frustrating to watch. But as long as he wears the shirt, I’ll be rooting for him. I dont need a coach to tell me what I can plainly see, anymore than I need legal training to tell me that Brett Kavanaugh lacks the temperament and honesty for the US Supreme Court.
*If Tom doesn’t tell me that that is STILL debatable, I’d be disappointed.
Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court is a natural consequence of Trump for President. Anyone who thinks Trump has what it takes to be President might look at Kavanaugh and think he’s suitably for the highest court in the land.
I took one look at his fake disingenuous grin and the evasive style of answering simple questions to realize he’s just another prep school a$$hole born into privilege, who would lie just about anything to get what he thinks is rightfully his.
The only really disappointing aspect of these conformation hearings for me was how lame the Democrats have been opposite the fake outrage and anger on display from Kavanaugh and Lindsey Graham ( another douchebag).
I think the FBI investigation returns nothing of significance and gives Flake the cover he needs to vote along party line to confirm.
I hope all those feminists Bernie supporters who stayed home because they found Clinton unpalatable can tell themselves it was worth it.
I don’t care: I’m tired of the fanboying over Xhaka. He’s an awful footballer. I can’t wait for him to be dropped.
As for this: “I will just ask the commentariat to consider that he has been undroppable in the eyes of two very good managers now, so clearly there is a disconnect between what we perceive and what they perceive as regards his value.”
The reason why he’s undroppable is because Arsenal paid too much for him. He’s never been courted by a good team. Why isn’t he linked to a move to Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Juventus, Man City? Because the idea that any of those teams would sign him is a literal joke. So, either Arsenal have to take a huge loss on him (which they won’t do) and shift him to a side like BMG, or they can just drop him to the bench (which they won’t do because he makes too much money), or they can find a way to make him look like a decent player by putting good players around him and hope to fool someone into buying him.
Arsenal went from Vieira to Fabregas to Arteta to Cazorla to Xhaka. More than any other player, he epitomizes Arsenal’s fall from grace. He’s our Denilson and the only thing surprising is that people keep gooing themselves when he makes a long pass.
I encourage anyone who thinks Xhaka is a good footballer to watch games away from England. Players like Xhaka are a dime a dozen, though I would also add that 90% of them can play some defense and are at least functionally two-footed. So, I guess he’s kind of unique in that way.
Granit Xhaka is a bowl of farts.
We also went from Wright to Anelka to Henry to Adebayor to van Persie to Giroud and latterly invested in both Auba and Laca. Clubs go through cycles and they don’t always have top talent at the same position, even if the rest of the team is more or less similar on talent, and I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that. It does feel as though you have an axe to grind against him or are simply taking out frustration on him. I get that to a point but the analysis you yourself have given hasn’t stood up to the level of criticism you’ve later handed out. The single game xG chain or any xG stat, as you know better than me, is not meant to be applied to make conclusions about a players overall value or worth in any way. You showed us numbers from prior years that pegged Xhaka as intrinsic to our best moves when considering his whole season xG chain and I’m not sure anyone has more assists than him at this point in the season either, so he has improved on that particular deficiency as well.
Again, I’m not blind to his chocolate leg or his occasional defensive lapses and I’m not saying you can’t criticize him. There’s plenty there to improve on. I just don’t get why his performances are microscopically dissected every week instead of someone like, say, Mustafi who has built a much better case to be dropped in my view. I also don’t quite understand why the view of him is so uncharitable and not just yours. We can (and will) disagree, and that’s fine. It just seems like your dislike of him is visceral and over the top, from this view, and I don’t get it.
No. I showed you numbers that show he passes a lot. That’s almost literally all that his xG Chain proves. He passes the ball a lot.
His assists are from free kicks. Congrats, he also takes a lot of corners. He creates 0.4 key passes per game from open play. 135th in the League.
Dude. Every player has deficiencies. Fabregas wasn’t great at defending (though he did tackle a lot and intercepted the ball) but going forward, Cesc was nearly unstoppable. Arteta did it all but was a bit slow and especially in his last two seasons. Cazorla was masterful going forward and tying play together with the other forwards and was a threat up front but was weak and small in defense. Denilson was a LOT like Xhaka (better passer, actually) but he could play defense and did tackle a lot and won the ball back a lot as well, but had Xhaka’s propensity for switching off on defense.
Granit Xhaka is the single worst midfielder I have seen at Arsenal in terms of being a defensive liability. He is worse than Elneny. His tackles are more likely to get a red card than win the ball. He lost his mind yesterday and flew in to a “tackle” that was crazy late. Had he been even a fraction on time, his studs up challenge would have mangled the player.
He’s also NOT GOOD going forward, he can’t handle any pressure, and I think he’s a mental moron. I literally can’t wait until we get rid of him, however, I also can’t see any team that will buy him for any price because everyone knows what a poor footballer he is.
Naveen warned us about Xhaka back when we were first linked to him, Xhaka hasn’t changed a bit in the three years since.
As for why I don’t say anything about Mustafi, there’s no need. Everyone agrees that he’s garbage on fire.
Anyway, I’m tired of talking about him. I may make his name a curse word in my filter. Make everyone call him Xh*ka.
My response to this in moderastion… much the same points, less well expressed.
If we keep grinding out these wins and continue this run through next month until the Liverpool match, it will be a monumental achievement for The New Guy and his charges.
This is beginning to be one of the longest streaks of uncomfortable wins in recent memory. Winning so ugly, I’m not surprised if the story that Wenger has yet to watch a single match of his beloved Arsenal this season is true.
My friend Doc, Xhaka isn’t singled out for criticism. Not liking the fact that he is criticised isn’t the same thing. Here, not necessarily in order, is a list of the Arsenal players who constantly receive criticism…
Aaron Ramsey
Granit Xhaka
Mesut Ozil
Skrodran Mustafi
Petr Cech
Bernd Leno
Hector Bellerin
And before them, Theo Walcott took a lot of incoming. In fact, I said to you on the last thread that your characterisation of Ramsey’s contribution to the club was uncharitable.
I get the same Denilson vibe. That thing he did where he was in tackling distance of a player, and just kind of trots alongside him (Mesut Ozil and Mohamed Elneny do that most of the time as well).
From the time that Arsene erroneously introduced him to us as a defensive, tough- tackling midfielder (scouting error?) to the time Arsene himself gave a withering assessment of his tackling abilities with shocking and unusual public frankness, I wanted to like Xhaka. He’s a good guy with a compelling personal family story. I was one of those fans who fretted, at the start of 16/17 about Wenger not starting our exciting new DM (remember that? ). Those raking crossfield passes are beautiful to watch, and his ability to shoot from distance and strike a dead ball are valuable to the squad.
But after watching him for a long time, I’ve come to believe that we can become a better side by upgrading on him qualitatively, and we need a more suitable replacement. A lot of gooners have.
I don’t “like” the level of criticism, not the fact that the criticism exists. I tend to leap to the defense of any player (or manager) who I feel is unfairly berated, but that’s not the same thing as ignoring that he has faults. Unfortunately my calls for temperance tend to be interpreted as “fan boy” or “blinkered” etc when in fact we are having a disagreement over the level of criticism that a player deserves.
I do also “like” Xhaka as a guy, but I also “like” Aaron Ramsey in the same way, if not more, and I am perfectly prepared to let him go having assessed his value to the squad under Wenger for many years and now for Emery. So I do not think that that is clouding my judgment.
Tim, I have a high respect for your opinion but I still think in this case you are going too far. I would love to see a side-by-side comparison of Xhaka with other players around the league who play similar roles, such as Jorginho, Henderson, Fernandinho, Dier, etc.
1. Surely Tim is being hyperbolic and overly harsh in his criticism.
2. Surely Xhaka is disappointing (given how much we paid and the hype surrounding his arrival) and *very* one-dimensional.
Both can be true.
i don’t have a problem with the criticism directed at xhaka. personally, when wenger tried to compare xhaka to petit, i knew we were in trouble. i had seen a little bit of xhaka but there was no petit there whatsoever. bottom line, arsenal got a lot of flack for not spending money on players so they overpaid for both mustafi and xhaka in the same summer.
i remember when xhaka first arrived, tim was going on about how he wanted to see his shiny, new, swiss player. i told tim to be patient and be careful what he asked for as there had to be a good reason xhaka wasn’t playing. when we saw an aging arteta and cazorla playing ahead of xhaka, that was the writing on the wall but i didn’t write him off yet. soon, it was plain to see why he wasn’t starting. xhaka was no manny petit, he was a red card waiting to happen.
he’s been at arsenal for 3 years now so he’s had time to learn the arsenal way and the bpl. he’s simply not a very good player. everyone was ogling over his plays at the end of last season and i said his performances were only good against poor opponents. i was surprised when arsenal extended his contract this summer.
my disdain towards him pales when compared to ramsey. with xhaka, it seems he simply doesn’t know what he’s doing when he doesn’t have the ball. to paraphrase the late, great johan cruyff, you only have the ball on your feet for 3 minutes in a game so what are you doing the other 87 minutes? this is where xhaka kills arsenal. with ramsey, he seems to know what to do but simply refuses to do the right thing. he’s fixated on scoring but he’s not very good at it and his inclusion in the team always baffles. xhaka just appears clueless but he’s trying to fool people into believing he’s solid.
i predicted the type of performance torreira had on saturday back in the summer. sadly, there are more of those days to come.
my gripe was that his stature would make it exceptionally difficult for torreira to compete with his bpl contemporaries. smaller players who’ve thrived in the bpl have had a certain amount of guile to their game. torreira lacks the guile of a cesc fabregas, luka modric, gianfranco zola, santi cazorla, or even n’golo kante. he is all fight, which is lovely to see, but he’s trying to physically compete with bigger, stronger, faster, world class athletes. it’s like roller blading uphill. physics is what it is; you can’t coach mg. he has to be at 100% just to keep up and that’s simply not sustainable. torreira is a decent player but the bpl doesn’t suit him. there will be more of these type of performances to come, especially as teams discover that they can target him.
mg (mass x gravity).