Defender and goalkeepers play under a magnifying glass. More than most players on the pitch every mistake is often blown up into something more than a simple mistake. Mis-time a tackle and some fans will say “you’re shit”, do it more than once and you’ll have twitter accounts who go on long diatribes about how terrible you are. Or, if you’re Harry Maguire, a fan will have his girlfriend film you while he does a Gary Neville style breakdown of how shit you are in front of the TV. I once joked under Arsene Wenger’s system (which deployed a high line with poor pressure up top) “who would want to be a center back in the Wenger system? Only a masochist!”
I played CB quite a bit, though I prefered to play a bit higher up the pitch in the DM role, I wasn’t quite good enough to be able to demand that from my teammates. So, I have a soft spot for defenders and making mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes in football, some guys hang on to the ball too long and lose possession in attack, for example. That always pissed me off! Because it meant that I had to defend and I was rather enjoying just watching the game! The point is that it’s then the team’s job to win the ball back or at least make sure that the opponents don’t score.
I preferred to play higher up the pitch. It felt like a more secure place to play because I had defenders behind me and if I missed a tackle they could cover. Of course, it was much more difficult. Playing in midfield meant I had to run way too much and I could almost never have a poor touch. But at least I wasn’t exposed the way I was at CB. I would have loved to play even further up the pitch but no one let me do that apart from the pickup games where I would shout out “I’m going up top!” and then abandon my hapless teammates in defense.
Of course, professional football is nothing like a pickup game. For one, I’ve never seen a professional game played 12 on 13. I think we once had like 15 people in a team, that was pretty crazy. No one wanted to split the team up because what would happen is that all of the best players would stick together and make the worst players go play by themselves. Hey! Isn’t that like relegation? Maybe it is more like professional football than I thought.
Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, Granit Xhaka.
If the Arsenal defenders were under a magnifying glass, Xhaka was under a microscope. When Wenger signed him, he played Xhaka as the linchpin in his entire set up. Not just the guy who had to collect deep and shuttle forward, he was also often the last defender. It was awful. The team played a high line but was bad at pressing. Xhaka was completely exposed for many possessions in that final Wenger season.
Unai Emery tried to solve this with a double-pivot. The idea seems sound – put someone else near Xhaka and have him help out. But it didn’t work. In Wenger’s last season Xhaka had three errors leading to a goal, in Unai Emery’s first season he had 2 errors leading to a goal and also gave away 2 pens. Xhaka became a focal point not just for the football we played but for a lot of anger and frustration with the manager (Emery) and the dogshit football we were playing at the time. All of that boiled over and fans jeered Xhaka when he was subbed off against Crystal Palace in 2019.
Arteta tried to fix this problem with Xhaka being a focal point and also having a history of making big errors which was used to scapegoat the player. I was even caught up in it and said that Arsenal would never finish in the top four with Xhaka in the team and I begged the club to sell him when Roma came knocking. In retrospect, probably not my finest hour. But I think that early on, Arteta hit on a different idea: what if instead of protecting Xhaka with another player, what if he stopped making Xhaka the focal point of the midfield, taught him to stop trying to make tackles and instead just let his position and size do the defending.
It worked! Xhaka quietly and professionally went about his work and the team worked together to defend and progress the ball.
Then last season, Arteta tried something even more radical. He told Xhaka to play higher up the pitch. The stats are fascinating here as well.
He passes 22 times fewer per 90 than 2 years ago and 35 times fewer per90 under Wenger. His progressive distance passed is down almost 200 yards per90 from 2 years ago – it was 366 yards per90 two years ago, it’s now 196! This is a guy who was making 9.5 final third entries per90 two years ago and he’s now making 3.4. His defensive stats have evaporated, he’s more positional for defense than aggressive. He was never a bulk tackler but he went from 2 tackles per90 to 0.63 this season. His fouls per90 are down from 1.6 to 0.5. His pressures are down from 15 per90 to 7. And his final 1/3 pressures are also way down, 3 per90 last season, 1.75 this season. His progressive carries are also way down from 61 per90 two years ago to 40 per90 this season. Total yards carried: down from 313 per90 two years ago to 143 this season. Progressive carries down. Etc. Mikel Arteta stopped making Xhaka the focal point of the midfield, put better, more active defenders around him (Jesus and Martinelli lead Arsenal in pressures), and told him to attack.
There’s an article on the Times web site (this link jumps the paywall) where Martinelli details what Xhaka’s new job is:
“This is a move I do mostly with Zina [Oleksandr Zinchenko],” Martinelli explains. “Arteta always tells us that when a full back comes into a wider position, Xhaka should attack his opponent’s back, and I would have to find the right moment to roll inside.
I did it several times against Crystal Palace [Arsenal won 2-0 on the opening day of the season]. Zina gets the ball wide, Xhaka attacks someone’s back and I carry the ball to the inside. Now it just happened the same way with Thomas [Partey]. It shows that we are well aligned with our match plan.”
The numbers which are up for Xhaka are not really a surprise if you think about how you’ve seen him play this season and the remit above. Progressive receptions (him receiving a progressive pass) up from 0.93 per90 two years ago to 5.63 per90 this season. And of course his shot creating actions per90 are up from 1.43 two seasons ago to 3.77.
Xhaka is reborn. He’s no longer responsible for all of the defensive duties of the deep lying MFer. He’s no longer the focal point for progressing the ball. He’s now allowed to play between the midfielders and strikers, to attack the box, to provide overloads, to score, and to assist goals.
And he’s also apparently a leader in the dressing room. Martinelli says “Xhaka is an amazing lad, you see how much he dedicates himself to the team, how much he cares about the match and the players as well, he is definitely one of our leaders. Right after our first goal against Tottenham, he calls everybody into a huddle, asking us to stay calm and saying we will score more goals. That’s when you see how important he is to all players. For young players like me and Bukayo, it’s very important to have a team-mate like him.”
Sometimes a player has to go through a rough patch in order to figure out where he belongs on the pitch. And managers and teams have to adjust for a player’s talents and weaknesses. You don’t play Martinelli as a center back because – even though he would give 100% – he’s much more effective as a left-sided forward. And apparently, Xhaka’s best position is as a trequartista.
What’s wonderful about this story is that the fans are all now behind him. To go from that moment where he was the scapegoat for that Emery team to now playing an important role both on and off the pitch for Arsenal and being cheered and loved by most fans is a story that I didn’t think possible in modern fandom. I think if someone were to say that Xhaka should be sold now, they would be looked at askance. He’s clearly redeemed himself in the eyes of many, if not all Arsenal supporters. And we also need to give credit to Arteta here as well. The easy solution would have been to sell him. But Arteta valued Xhaka’s leadership, fitness, and commitment to the team. So, instead, he found a new place to play Xhaka and it has paid dividends.
The only thing I would caution here (and I’m talking to myself) is that he’s going to make mistakes again. He apparently apologized for the pass to Gabriel which led to the foul which gave Spurs a penalty last week. We don’t have control over him making mistakes. But we do have control over how we react to those mistakes. And I would recommend just letting it go.
It’s not really a new place…just a new place for him at Arsenal. He’s mostly been playing further up the field for Switzerland, and mostly been pretty good at it.
Arsenal just didn’t really have that option until Partey came along (and while he’s been uninjured).
This idea that this is how he plays for Switzerland is just wrong. He averages 129 touches per game in WC qualifications and 91 per game in the Euros. His heatmaps there are also solidly very central and much deeper than they are for Arsenal.
He also makes 2.8 tackles per game for Switzerland, he’s got just a small handful of assists for them and also just a few goals. The role he plays at Arsenal is truly unique.
Well put imothyt. Indeed he will make mistakes, just like all players do, but he has shown us why we should back him irrespective of those mistakes.
I have been as critical as anyone about Xhaka over the years. Never in a million years did I see this redemption coming. Huge kudos to the guy for persevering though all of the negativity. Also to you, Tim for picking up on Xhaka’s evolution early on last year. You recognized how much less the attack was going through him.
8 games does not constitute a renaissance for the club, but when results and underlying metrics both show strong performances, there’s a lot of reason for optimism. It appears that sticking with Arteta and backing Edu’s team building are paying off. If this continues, I might have to start consuming large amounts of crow and suggest KSE even deserve some credit here.
Last year was Xhaka’s best ever season at Arsenal. It wasn’t saying much, but he looked pretty decent, was contributing to midfield fluency, and didn’t look a calamity. Still looked like the person in the first XI most ripe for an upgrade (apart from our striker sitch). Tielemans looked nailed on.
This year… In the works of Thomas Frank describing Tequila, OOF. Can you imagine if we had spent 25m on Tielemans? To sit on the bench while the Xhakanator does his thing? In hindsight, so glad. We have Xhaka killing it, and Sambi and Vieira ready to step in as needed. Not wasting dosh on Tielemans means we can bring in that number 5 backup/replacement we desperately need, sooner rather than later hopefully.
I can tell you if he does make an error the Ashburton Army will not let his head drop. Different gravy these young fans
Thanks for the analysis of the significant re-imagination of his role, full credit to Arteta for imagining it and Xhaka for executing it. Beyond moving him away from his weaknesses, it’s actively playing to strengths I didn’t think he had – finding tight dangerous passes in/around the penalty area (including those dinked crosses) and constantly getting on the end of moves.
He’s probably not going to be Ljungberg but on unwavering confidence alone he’s in Henry’s league so long may he shoot.
Credit where its due and honestly, he is finally being given a fair chance to shine for Arsenal.
On the other hand, this role is not his role with the Swiss team. Xhaka has spent many years sacrificing his own development as a footballer for the benefit of the teams that he plays for. Since his initial days with the Swiss junior sides and Basel as an attacking midfielder, he has always been compromising himself and his game to be what the teams he played for needed, instead of being the best player he could be.
This is why he has been captain of every side he has played for. That willingness to sacrifice for the team. Every player who has played alongside him knows of his quality and they are probably surprised when he is so team focused, when he could have just leaned into his talents and had a great career.
Its not surprising that the moment that he is taken out of a position of responsibility for how the team plays/defends, he starts to shine. He now has the opportunity to not worry about dictating play or being the anchor of the side. The freedom has come a little too late for my liking, but he is going to make the best of it because his attitude will not allow him to over-indulge, get cocky/arrogant or slack off. He is more focused on bringing out the best of himself and the talents that he has (which people are still going to be surprised by).
Xhaka is an intelligent player so his decision making on the ball will be very beneficial in keeping possession in the opponent’s half, he has always had great movement into the box as an attacking midfielder and its coming back to him, he can spot a pass and has the technical ability to play it, having played as a DM means he is not lazy and will work hard to win the ball back, and his leadership will be far more visible to those outside as the season goes.
Xhaka has always been a massive talent and I wont lie, it was heart wrenching to see that his sacrifices were not only being ignored, but were used as a stick to beat him with.
Honestly, credit should go to Arteta for this one. He is the first coach to not be desperate enough to ask Xhaka to do a job, but instead, look into his talents and try to maximize what he can do, while minimizing his weaknesses. The responsibility is now on Xhaka to be consistent and contribute, he has no leg to stand on anymore when it comes to his game, he is in charge of how he will be perceived because he is finally being asked to be the best possible version of himself that he can be.
Now I can finally watch Xhaka play and properly critique his game, instead of the game-plan/tactics of the manager.
PS. take all the above with a grain of salt. I am very passionate about players I have been tracking for years (e.g. Ceballos, Nketiah, Ødegaard, Glen Kamara, etc), so this may all be a crap take.
Very nice piece, Tim. While I don’t think I will ever be able to (completely) forgive Xhaka for his outburst in the game against Crystal Palace that you mentioned, I do give him and Arteta credit for his “rebirth” so to speak as a professional footballer. It’s truly remarkable, and I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t enjoy watching him play right now. His assist to Jesus a couple of games ago (forget which one but it was a header that Gabriel scored, after which he pretended to polish Xhaka’s boots, similar to what Song and Van Persie did some years ago against Liverpool), and the goal that he scored on Saturday against Spurs (which I witnessed in person from the 2nd row at the Emirates) are just some of my favorite highlights in recent weeks. I hope he can keep this up for the remainder of the season, as well as for continuous duration of his Arsenal career.
My concern is that it’s easy to look good when, as you’ve derailed, Xhaka has no responsibilities here whatsoever. And as a result we are firmly into status quo bias territory: If Granit, for all his flaws looks this good in this role, what would a footballer who’s actually good look like?
Ugh… that typo🤦♂️
As you’ve detailed, obviously
COYG! What a game what a win! That Bukayo Saka penalty triggered my PTSD from him missing the Euros. What a man he is for taking it.
The boys were absolutely massive today! A very important win that was….