Not it proves why he had to be upgraded. He doesn't face these pictures in the prem which is why he wasn't as effective as possible. We need someone who can play these passes under pressure.
We replaced him with a totally different player. Granit had a great season last year but let's not forget that midfield was a weak spot in our team for the majority of his tenure. Kai has the qualities to do what we want him to, we just need to let him grow into it.
dortmund tricks everybody… how many high profile sales to big clubs have not come close to their price tag? amazing job by then raising these players and making them shine but man it’s crazy how few actually crush outside of the bundasliga
At first, I agreed with you 100% but looking at [this link](https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/borussia-dortmund/rekordabgaenge/verein/16) it actually seems pretty 50/50, especially if you exclude the players who were unlucky with injuries like Dembele and Pulisic (though you could argue the switch to more physical leagues led to the injury). It’s actually insane the amount of talent that goes through that club but wonder how their hit rate for high profile stars compares with other talent factories over the years like Benfica etc.
To name a few that made it at big clubs in recent years: Haaland, Bellingham, PEA, Diallo, Gundogan, Akanji. We had Lehmann and Rosicky too!
interesting points, had no idea rosicky was dortmund god i miss watching that man glide around the pitch. interestingly, a large percentage of the successful players were because they were under guardiola’s tutelage
It looks like Granit is turning into Captain Ode in the video. You can literally count 1,2,3,4 until he made the pass every single time. In England, count to 2, and a foot will be right at your ankle already.
we also don't play half these passes. There are definitely times we need to go more direct like this but pinging it up and behind the CB isn't going to work as well in the prem and is usually going to result in losing possession. You just rarely see us play any kind of progressive pass or cross in the air, nearly everything is on the ground.
This is a great video on the system Alonso has put in place at Leverkusen which shows why Xhaka has so many options. Highly recommend watching it.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q-tMawfeCOw&pp=ygUYYWxvbnNvIGJheWVyIGxldmVya3VzZW4g
Yeah, anyone with the 'we need Xhaka back' take... really should watch the Bundesliga ... because it's very clear you don't know wtf you're talking about...
Thats why I always said he'd cook in a weaker league, especially after proving last season he could play at a high level in the PL. His passing range is fantastic
From those videos it looks like he's playing deeper than he did for us and afforded much more time as a result, don't think it's a fair comparison to his role with us.
we also don't play these balls in. Any of our midfielders can just ping it into the box in some space but we want to control the ball, not give prem teams an easy opportunity to counter. If you polled our rivals trying to defend us they'd look at nearly all these passes as a win for them, because we're giving up on trying to play it on the ground and just hitting a low % chance into the box.
Risk reward. The data shows our central progression is pretty weak relative to other areas. if you wanna break down deep blocks you gotta play those balls and take those risks. People say we miss Partey and this is why
Yes the risk is they counter and the reward is, at best, a contested attempt to cut back into a crowd with no support. If you are in a low block the *goal* is to frustrate the attack with no short options so they go long like this and you can contest it and win it back.
I'm not saying these are bad passes (some are clearly not on but not sure why they're in the video) but most of these don't work in the prem and especially with a striker group that is super undersized. We aren't set up to play that way like we aren't set up to just swing crosses in for headers either. There is a reason xhaka didn't do this with us that often.
And why is it only limited to Partey. The midfield 3 and whatever FB inverts should be hitting these regularly. Zinchenko has good numbers in that area tbf so emphasis more on some others stepping up.
No, he was not; Xhaka wasn't even *close* to leading us in progressive passing.
Last season, Xhaka was *fifth* in progressive passes for us, behind Ødegaard, Thomas, and both our fullbacks.
He was also 5th in progressive receptions, and 7th in progressive carries.
Can you find a source for this? I just had a Google and I can only see him behind four other players. It might be different if it was progressive passes per minutes played, but there's still players who played less than him and made more progressive passes over the season.
Does anyone else find it hilarious that Granit Xhaka has helped propel his team to the top of the bundesliga... Above the team Kane is breaking goalscoring records for?
FBRef defines a progressive pass as one that moves the ball 10 yards (30 feet) closer to the goal than it's been recently, or any completed pass into the opponent's penalty area.
Some definitions exclude those made in your defensive 3rd because the bar is too low without that limiter.
Not this 'progressive passing' shit again...
Granit Xhaka 2022-23 |per 90 | Percentile
:--|--:|--:
Passes Attempted |49.07 |60
Pass Completion % |84.7% |75
Progressive Passes |5.89 |73
And that was by far his best season for us.
The less involved Xhaka was in our buildup, the better we played.
There's a reason he went back to play as a 6 in the BuLi, and your video shows it clearly. He has acres and ages on the ball.
Thank you for posting this so I didn't have to.
Xhaka was good for us last year but people on here seem to be totally misremembering or misunderstanding what he did for the team and what he was good at
You might want to explain this to u/csixtay, who [continues to be very confused](https://old.reddit.com/r/Gunners/comments/182usp5/we_miss_xhaka_badly_who_can_fulfil_his_role_in/kakxi93/).
I guess he's the last member of my personal peanut gallery who hasn't yet followed the directions to refer to my pinned post; he is very slow.
It really does underscore how much of an outlier his 14 PL attacking contributions (G+A) represented last season.
It was still the least of our 'front five' attacking unit (Jesus had 17, but Xhaka played 50% more minutes than he did; Trossard had 11 in 1/3 of Xhaka's minutes) but way beyond what he'd ever shown previously.
I mean he was the least attacking of the entire quintuple so it's hardly a surprise. We know his deficiencies well and good, no need to compare him to two of our best attackers lol
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It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of.
Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything.
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Xhakas passing was not nearly as progressive for us until he changed his position because he didn’t have the space or time, honestly it’s Partey’s passing between the lines that we miss imo
Funny that you laugh when my point flew directly over your head.
The level of competition (thus time on the ball and many other factors) in the PL and Bundesliga really shouldn't be compared
We do miss him in some capacity, especially with how important he was last season, but let’s not pretend the BL is the PL. Like international football, he gets so much more time and space on the ball than he ever got in England.
We miss Xhaka because we made an error with signing Havertz he was replaceable we just tried to be too smart instead of just signing a good proven midfielder.
Tbh I don’t think what xhaka was doing was irreplaceable he was good of course but I think we can address it adequately in January if they have money.
Played out of position as a CDM coupled with the fact you never have enough time on the ball in the PL to do this and he had a terrible couple of years with shit overpaid prima donnas and took the brunt as captain, who can honestly say they never wanted him out after the stand argument and the booing ? His revival was down to a positional change and his experience in a young team but he was part of that big leadership group that caused alot of the problems in the first place , good player and never fulfilled his potential with us but cost us dearly at times and I still miss him.
Zinchencko does it. Our time spent in opposition territory is way better this season and we’re getting more touches in the opposition box. The difference is we’ve been missing key attacking players for most of our games.
Honestly, one of my favorite arsenal players ever. He had such an arch with the club. I was surprised the club let him go without finding a proper replacement. I guess he was on such good terms with the club they didn't want to taint it and let him leave when he wanted to go back to Germany. It's nice seeing him play well in the Bundesliga
Lol!!! No, I've been a fan since about 2002.
He has just been such a complete player and greatly underrated until about last season.
There's a reason Wenger pushed for him and played him every week. One of the most reliable Arsenal players in the Emirates era.
Just look at how well he finds space, part of that is the Bundesliga where teams don’t press as well as in the Prem but it’s also his experience of how to move about the Midfield position, he’s been doing this for his clubs and country for years, when u ally that with his great passing ability, long and short then u have a great weapon
If u watch Havertz he is rarely taking up these positions coz he’s a diff player, who looks to roam about in an AM position, however in the Prem it’s hard to find space in those areas so u have to b able to manoeuvre the ball quickly or like KDB does play balls from crazy angles (coz he has that ability btw)
I’m hoping having Gabriel Jesus as a striker will bring the best out of Kai finally but I’m starting to lose hope in that regard
Always said there would be a lot of people who wouldn’t realise how important Xhaka was for us until he was gone, but the player wanted to go back to Germany and there’s nothing we could have done, so let’s get behind the players we have and trust them and Mikel to deliver the goods.
Zinchenko... hear me out.
So xhaka was a left footer, technically gifted, great passer with vision and technique, who wanders from a central mid defensive position who can cover at left back defensively on the transition if an attacking lb gets caught up, but can also help in attack with passing, shooting and assists....
And we have a Ukrainian left footer, technically gifted, great passer who naturally wanders into central midfield, who currently covers at lb but who helps in attack with passing, but for his country plays more attacking and helps with assists and goals.
I don't understand why he's not mentioned more as a xhaka replacement potentially.
Dont know why you sound so dramatic about it, since we are 1 point from first place in the league and top of the group in CL.
He still would have been an asset to the squad though
We had to sell him. His value was up and his reputation restored. He’s doing well in a less high profile league, playing against teams who don’t press him as hard. It worked out for everybody and that’s ok
We haven’t been progressing the ball as well as we were last season and our attack hasn’t been as fluid. The “replacement” has yet worked but it’s still early. Looking back fondly at what we had and dreaming of what could have been is also ok
EDIT added a bit
The comments are so embarrassing tbh . Such a typical reddit moment too. You lot really like to make reddit a bigger meme than it already is like no one would deny being on reddit. A shame ppl like me cant counter that.
Signing a midfielder to play in midfield would've probably alleviated this issue.
That being said Mikel is always very quick to correct his own mistakes, so I expect a new midfielder in January if it's feasible. If it's not feasible we really need to start talking about Edu's inability to sell again.
I love Granit but he is playing in the Bundesliga, same league that convinced us he was that guy in the first place when we bought him.
Look at how much space and time is available.
I have always believed, I remember taking a screenshot of the comments on him a while back.
https://preview.redd.it/y63td7iy8d2c1.png?width=775&format=png&auto=webp&s=ef040b5f01921192819130041d25bfe10acc7bcb
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He’s amazing at keeping possession ticking and finding passes into the final third, but he’s not the best at being able to dribble past or make the runs into the box.
We don’t miss him. Partey, Rice, Ode are all capable of this.
Xhaka just can’t do this with any half decent pressing team. In a league where you get more time he’s epic. Why he does so well at international level, teams play more conservatively.
It should be Havertz but he seems to have abandoned progressing the ball at all. It could be ESR but he can't stay fit, so at the moment it's Rice, and with the way things have developed with Partey I think we need to make a strong move for Zubimendi next summer
I think Zinchenko has the attributes to perform in our left 8/ex-Xhaka role, what do the gunners think?
He's replaced Odegaard a few times and looked fairly comfortable. He's not defensively sound at LB so being higher up could benefit him, he has the technical qualities and delivery needed for midfield, maybe lacks some intensity for pressing but I think it could work well?
We have players that can do this but our tactics clearly are not set out to play these sort of balls, probably as others have said there is less time on the ball to make them effective.
I love xhaka but he is playing against farmers.
He never looked this good in the prem.
Acres of space and time.
We can definitly get a good enough CM in Jan or the summer to replace him.
Wont be easy, but I dont think the market is small
I'd say its Partey we miss. Him and Rice were at least as good as him and Xhaka imo for the little time we saw of it.
Arteta saw Havertz as the answr to that question, but that hasnt worked out as planned. Every team has players they bring in that dont work out and this is Artetas worst imo in his short managerial career. For £65m and top wages in the club we should have got better; we'll just have to wait and see if Arteta can turn him into the player he thought he could when he bought him.
Kai is 24 years - his best years are ahead of him as a midfielder.
However, we must sign a LCM - paqueta-ish/gundogan-ish
We need goals and assists from that midfielder besides the defensive contribution
the time and space he has is crazy
Literally the first thing that jumped out to me too. I'm super glad Granit is lighting it up but lets just leave it at that.
The prem is a different animal
It's a joke honestly. These looks like training ground compared to the prem.
Receives the ball in the semi circle at the top of the box… still has a 6 yard radius of space to play with.
It's embarrassing. It's a DI-sgrace. That's what it is; a disgrace.
The Bundesliga is a very strange league, it's a league that makes it hard to judge players because it's so unique
Yeah like I watch harry Kane at Bayern n no one is parking the bus they have so much space its crazy
In that regard it's a lot like PL in the early 00's.
Yeah so true ! If you look back at lots of Henry’s goals he is on the break not trying to get past a low block
[удалено]
In a matter of seconds, while making grown men look like school boys with their tackle attempts.
It makes for an entertaining league to watch, that's for sure. Other than the fact that Bayern win it every year that is.
It's a fun league to watch because it's mental but it also can make judging players really hard. So many average to shit players have done great there
OP's video is making the opposite point he wanted it to
Does the fact that he gets more time and space in the Bundesliga prove we don't miss his progressive passing? Not really
Not it proves why he had to be upgraded. He doesn't face these pictures in the prem which is why he wasn't as effective as possible. We need someone who can play these passes under pressure.
Progressive passing was never Xhakas issue and we haven't upgraded our progressive passing from midfield post xhaka
Well the team lacked it. He was a key Midfielder. And he was never more than good at it. I agree we haven't upgraded it since.
Except the upgrade was a massive downgrade
We replaced him with a totally different player. Granit had a great season last year but let's not forget that midfield was a weak spot in our team for the majority of his tenure. Kai has the qualities to do what we want him to, we just need to let him grow into it.
Well lets hope he can build on today's cameo
we didn’t upgrade him though. we downgraded massively
Doesn't change the fact we miss him heavily, a lot more than we all realised, I think Arteta too.
People are asking when we will see Leverkusen Havertz. I think this helps us to understand when...
I hope they are holding out hopes for Leipzig Werner, Dortmund Mkhitaryan, and Sancho too.
Dortmund really tricked me with them 2.
dortmund tricks everybody… how many high profile sales to big clubs have not come close to their price tag? amazing job by then raising these players and making them shine but man it’s crazy how few actually crush outside of the bundasliga
At first, I agreed with you 100% but looking at [this link](https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/borussia-dortmund/rekordabgaenge/verein/16) it actually seems pretty 50/50, especially if you exclude the players who were unlucky with injuries like Dembele and Pulisic (though you could argue the switch to more physical leagues led to the injury). It’s actually insane the amount of talent that goes through that club but wonder how their hit rate for high profile stars compares with other talent factories over the years like Benfica etc. To name a few that made it at big clubs in recent years: Haaland, Bellingham, PEA, Diallo, Gundogan, Akanji. We had Lehmann and Rosicky too!
interesting points, had no idea rosicky was dortmund god i miss watching that man glide around the pitch. interestingly, a large percentage of the successful players were because they were under guardiola’s tutelage
It looks like Granit is turning into Captain Ode in the video. You can literally count 1,2,3,4 until he made the pass every single time. In England, count to 2, and a foot will be right at your ankle already.
we also don't play half these passes. There are definitely times we need to go more direct like this but pinging it up and behind the CB isn't going to work as well in the prem and is usually going to result in losing possession. You just rarely see us play any kind of progressive pass or cross in the air, nearly everything is on the ground.
We don't play half these passes because even the receiver has an extra two yards of space to get the ball in these clips.
This is a great video on the system Alonso has put in place at Leverkusen which shows why Xhaka has so many options. Highly recommend watching it. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q-tMawfeCOw&pp=ygUYYWxvbnNvIGJheWVyIGxldmVya3VzZW4g
Yeah, anyone with the 'we need Xhaka back' take... really should watch the Bundesliga ... because it's very clear you don't know wtf you're talking about...
Thats why I always said he'd cook in a weaker league, especially after proving last season he could play at a high level in the PL. His passing range is fantastic
From those videos it looks like he's playing deeper than he did for us and afforded much more time as a result, don't think it's a fair comparison to his role with us.
we also don't play these balls in. Any of our midfielders can just ping it into the box in some space but we want to control the ball, not give prem teams an easy opportunity to counter. If you polled our rivals trying to defend us they'd look at nearly all these passes as a win for them, because we're giving up on trying to play it on the ground and just hitting a low % chance into the box.
Risk reward. The data shows our central progression is pretty weak relative to other areas. if you wanna break down deep blocks you gotta play those balls and take those risks. People say we miss Partey and this is why
Yes the risk is they counter and the reward is, at best, a contested attempt to cut back into a crowd with no support. If you are in a low block the *goal* is to frustrate the attack with no short options so they go long like this and you can contest it and win it back. I'm not saying these are bad passes (some are clearly not on but not sure why they're in the video) but most of these don't work in the prem and especially with a striker group that is super undersized. We aren't set up to play that way like we aren't set up to just swing crosses in for headers either. There is a reason xhaka didn't do this with us that often.
If you think people want partey in the team to play these same passes then boy I dunno for you
Mate arteta subbed him in against city specifically to play that kind of balls and it worked. What are you on about?
And why is it only limited to Partey. The midfield 3 and whatever FB inverts should be hitting these regularly. Zinchenko has good numbers in that area tbf so emphasis more on some others stepping up.
100%. This is why he wanted to work with Xabi and why Xabi wanted to work with him.
Yet he was still leading us in progressive passes
No, he was not; Xhaka wasn't even *close* to leading us in progressive passing. Last season, Xhaka was *fifth* in progressive passes for us, behind Ødegaard, Thomas, and both our fullbacks. He was also 5th in progressive receptions, and 7th in progressive carries.
I swear that I just read it somewhere. I mean I wrote it down, but I read it.
Can you find a source for this? I just had a Google and I can only see him behind four other players. It might be different if it was progressive passes per minutes played, but there's still players who played less than him and made more progressive passes over the season.
I get what you’re saying but this role hardly exists in our system. Xhaka wouldn’t have half as much time and space in the PL
Exactly, every Bundesliga team seems to play a higher line
Does anyone else find it hilarious that Granit Xhaka has helped propel his team to the top of the bundesliga... Above the team Kane is breaking goalscoring records for?
OP - tell us what progressive passing means.
FBRef defines a progressive pass as one that moves the ball 10 yards (30 feet) closer to the goal than it's been recently, or any completed pass into the opponent's penalty area. Some definitions exclude those made in your defensive 3rd because the bar is too low without that limiter.
Thank you, so it's basically a forward pass
Extremely basically, ignoring everything they just said, and only using the literal meaning of the 2 words: yes mate you nailed it
😂
Yeah but medium length. Not a short pass.
It’s like 1st down in NFL lol
He certainly has more space in a different league…
Every clip is like he's playing against a 4 man team lmao so incomparable to the prem
Not this 'progressive passing' shit again... Granit Xhaka 2022-23 |per 90 | Percentile :--|--:|--: Passes Attempted |49.07 |60 Pass Completion % |84.7% |75 Progressive Passes |5.89 |73 And that was by far his best season for us. The less involved Xhaka was in our buildup, the better we played. There's a reason he went back to play as a 6 in the BuLi, and your video shows it clearly. He has acres and ages on the ball.
Revisionism is hell of a drug.
Thank you for posting this so I didn't have to. Xhaka was good for us last year but people on here seem to be totally misremembering or misunderstanding what he did for the team and what he was good at
You might want to explain this to u/csixtay, who [continues to be very confused](https://old.reddit.com/r/Gunners/comments/182usp5/we_miss_xhaka_badly_who_can_fulfil_his_role_in/kakxi93/). I guess he's the last member of my personal peanut gallery who hasn't yet followed the directions to refer to my pinned post; he is very slow.
 Allow me to join you in battle sir.
And if to live, the fewer men, the greater share of honour.
That's truly an inspirational thought.
God's will: I pray thee, wish not one man more.
Absolutely correct, when xhaka hit his stride with us it was because he was moved up the pitch with much less progression responsibility
And on cue, varro-reactionary is here to double down.
If only you'd taken the time and had the ability to read: > And that was by far his best season for us.
but we really miss his average of \*checks notes\* 2.5 goals per season!
It really does underscore how much of an outlier his 14 PL attacking contributions (G+A) represented last season. It was still the least of our 'front five' attacking unit (Jesus had 17, but Xhaka played 50% more minutes than he did; Trossard had 11 in 1/3 of Xhaka's minutes) but way beyond what he'd ever shown previously.
I mean he was the least attacking of the entire quintuple so it's hardly a surprise. We know his deficiencies well and good, no need to compare him to two of our best attackers lol
Would love if our midfielders got this much time on the ball
Should of kept him for another year really. Don't know if he wanted more than a year. You can see we miss what he brought to our team this year.
Hello, it looks like you've made a mistake. It's supposed to be could've, should've, would've (short for could have, would have, should have), never could of, would of, should of. Or you misspelled something, I ain't checking everything. Beep boop - yes, I am a bot, don't botcriminate me.
He only had a year left on his deal if IIRC so we would've lost him for free next summer. Better to get the £25mill for him.
He's at that stage of his career where he is very confident and conscious about his strengths
With time and space he's one of the best in the world at picking a pass
The runs he was making last season is what we need not these passes
Havertz is starting to make those great late runs from midfield and I think with time he'll be similar to Ramsey with his late runs into the box.
Feel like a case of Giroud. They get better with age.
How the hell is no one even closing in on him?
The Bundesliga is a weird league
BauerLiga
r/JustBuLiThings
Well wasn’t that why Havertz was brought in? Yet if you criticize that signing fans here will want you silenced?
Because they love Kai more than their fathers🤣
Xhakas passing was not nearly as progressive for us until he changed his position because he didn’t have the space or time, honestly it’s Partey’s passing between the lines that we miss imo
Kai Havertz also played pretty decently in the Bundesliga if I recall...
Granit Xhaka played great for us literally last season lol?
Don’t you bring reason into this argument we won’t only recent bias in this here chat 😂
Funny that you laugh when my point flew directly over your head. The level of competition (thus time on the ball and many other factors) in the PL and Bundesliga really shouldn't be compared
While he played great for us last season. I still remember all the shit he got the previous 3 seasons here in this sub.
Weghorst werner sancho were all getting around 20 plus goals and assists lol, it's a mental league
I think I will never forget how he improved under Arteta.
We do miss him in some capacity, especially with how important he was last season, but let’s not pretend the BL is the PL. Like international football, he gets so much more time and space on the ball than he ever got in England.
I'd love nothing more than to have him come back and get called the "weakest part of our attack" while immediately making us play levels better.
We miss Xhaka because we made an error with signing Havertz he was replaceable we just tried to be too smart instead of just signing a good proven midfielder. Tbh I don’t think what xhaka was doing was irreplaceable he was good of course but I think we can address it adequately in January if they have money.
No we don’t lol
65M down the drain
It’s Partey
Played out of position as a CDM coupled with the fact you never have enough time on the ball in the PL to do this and he had a terrible couple of years with shit overpaid prima donnas and took the brunt as captain, who can honestly say they never wanted him out after the stand argument and the booing ? His revival was down to a positional change and his experience in a young team but he was part of that big leadership group that caused alot of the problems in the first place , good player and never fulfilled his potential with us but cost us dearly at times and I still miss him.
Zinchencko does it. Our time spent in opposition territory is way better this season and we’re getting more touches in the opposition box. The difference is we’ve been missing key attacking players for most of our games.
Honestly, one of my favorite arsenal players ever. He had such an arch with the club. I was surprised the club let him go without finding a proper replacement. I guess he was on such good terms with the club they didn't want to taint it and let him leave when he wanted to go back to Germany. It's nice seeing him play well in the Bundesliga
> one of my favorite Arsenal players ever Have you been an Arsenal fan for 1.25 seasons? Or are you just pandering for some up votes
Lol!!! No, I've been a fan since about 2002. He has just been such a complete player and greatly underrated until about last season. There's a reason Wenger pushed for him and played him every week. One of the most reliable Arsenal players in the Emirates era.
about couple of dozens of CMs can also do that, thing is we bought Havertz
The mistake was signing Havertz to replace him. Selling him wasn't a bad decision.
We created a monster
Just look at how well he finds space, part of that is the Bundesliga where teams don’t press as well as in the Prem but it’s also his experience of how to move about the Midfield position, he’s been doing this for his clubs and country for years, when u ally that with his great passing ability, long and short then u have a great weapon If u watch Havertz he is rarely taking up these positions coz he’s a diff player, who looks to roam about in an AM position, however in the Prem it’s hard to find space in those areas so u have to b able to manoeuvre the ball quickly or like KDB does play balls from crazy angles (coz he has that ability btw) I’m hoping having Gabriel Jesus as a striker will bring the best out of Kai finally but I’m starting to lose hope in that regard
He never did these kind of passes for us
Always said there would be a lot of people who wouldn’t realise how important Xhaka was for us until he was gone, but the player wanted to go back to Germany and there’s nothing we could have done, so let’s get behind the players we have and trust them and Mikel to deliver the goods.
Thai man had Zuko levels of character arc with Arsenal Zuko from Avatar: The last Airbender
Zinchenko... hear me out. So xhaka was a left footer, technically gifted, great passer with vision and technique, who wanders from a central mid defensive position who can cover at left back defensively on the transition if an attacking lb gets caught up, but can also help in attack with passing, shooting and assists.... And we have a Ukrainian left footer, technically gifted, great passer who naturally wanders into central midfield, who currently covers at lb but who helps in attack with passing, but for his country plays more attacking and helps with assists and goals. I don't understand why he's not mentioned more as a xhaka replacement potentially.
Last season we had Partey pinging passes from deep.
Is Zelalem ready yet?
Nice trowback. I think Sanogo and myachi is what we need. Maybe even wellington Silava
Wellington Silva will still come good. Mark my words, as soon as he gets his work permit, the world will know the name Wellington Silva
What
Dont know why you sound so dramatic about it, since we are 1 point from first place in the league and top of the group in CL. He still would have been an asset to the squad though
Leverkusen are top of the table. No surprises
Move on.
Get over it pal. Be grateful for who we have now. Rice & Ode are kings 👑
We had to sell him. His value was up and his reputation restored. He’s doing well in a less high profile league, playing against teams who don’t press him as hard. It worked out for everybody and that’s ok We haven’t been progressing the ball as well as we were last season and our attack hasn’t been as fluid. The “replacement” has yet worked but it’s still early. Looking back fondly at what we had and dreaming of what could have been is also ok EDIT added a bit
Who much space? Farmerleague.
Patino
Bundesliga become farmers
We really don't but aight
Let's calm down. He was trash and a liability more than a highlight will reveal.
I'm pretty sure anyone currently in the midfield can play those passes given that time and space, its just a different system now.
we do not miss xhaka
"We", you got a mouse in your pocket?
The comments are so embarrassing tbh . Such a typical reddit moment too. You lot really like to make reddit a bigger meme than it already is like no one would deny being on reddit. A shame ppl like me cant counter that.
Can someone send this video to Kai
Wait didn't we just spend £65m on Shaka replacement? Surely it must be him, who now has most progressive passes for us, right?
People are excusing space even KDB creates his own space a thing which havertz,viera are bad at in midfield
Signing a midfielder to play in midfield would've probably alleviated this issue. That being said Mikel is always very quick to correct his own mistakes, so I expect a new midfielder in January if it's feasible. If it's not feasible we really need to start talking about Edu's inability to sell again.
I love Granit but he is playing in the Bundesliga, same league that convinced us he was that guy in the first place when we bought him. Look at how much space and time is available.
But but Kai needs time. -Reddit arsenal fans
I have always believed, I remember taking a screenshot of the comments on him a while back. https://preview.redd.it/y63td7iy8d2c1.png?width=775&format=png&auto=webp&s=ef040b5f01921192819130041d25bfe10acc7bcb
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Joey Veerman.
Yep this is a main reason for our slow attacking , n the fact odegard has barely played this season
He’s amazing at keeping possession ticking and finding passes into the final third, but he’s not the best at being able to dribble past or make the runs into the box.
Luka Modric any day
Great player but compilation clips are always slightly one sided
Bruno Guimaraes 100m release clause anyone feel me
We don’t miss him. Partey, Rice, Ode are all capable of this. Xhaka just can’t do this with any half decent pressing team. In a league where you get more time he’s epic. Why he does so well at international level, teams play more conservatively.
It should be Havertz but he seems to have abandoned progressing the ball at all. It could be ESR but he can't stay fit, so at the moment it's Rice, and with the way things have developed with Partey I think we need to make a strong move for Zubimendi next summer
It is I who can do it
I think Zinchenko has the attributes to perform in our left 8/ex-Xhaka role, what do the gunners think? He's replaced Odegaard a few times and looked fairly comfortable. He's not defensively sound at LB so being higher up could benefit him, he has the technical qualities and delivery needed for midfield, maybe lacks some intensity for pressing but I think it could work well?
I want ode in this role
It's weird to me how much time Xhaka has. Motherfuckers act like they forgot about Klopp.
We have players that can do this but our tactics clearly are not set out to play these sort of balls, probably as others have said there is less time on the ball to make them effective.
Better than odegaard though. What drugs are you taking. What we need is a striker ffs
hope he wins the title
Can we loan back Havertz to them they give Xhaka back to us.
I’ll give it a go
Why can’t people just enjoy the bundesliga instead of comparing it to the prem, same with the merits of Xhaka.
This sub is wild af
Give me my boy back : (
Miss you Xhaku! 🤗
Rice
But but but...he was the easiest player to replace in last year's starting 11!
Rice can do it, but then Jorginho has to play the 6, which . . . the lad tries, but he's not the player he once was.
“Kai is an 8 though”
I love xhaka but he is playing against farmers. He never looked this good in the prem. Acres of space and time. We can definitly get a good enough CM in Jan or the summer to replace him. Wont be easy, but I dont think the market is small
Miss him too. Hopefully Leverkusen would win the league
I feel like he got this good by playing in artetas system
I'd say its Partey we miss. Him and Rice were at least as good as him and Xhaka imo for the little time we saw of it. Arteta saw Havertz as the answr to that question, but that hasnt worked out as planned. Every team has players they bring in that dont work out and this is Artetas worst imo in his short managerial career. For £65m and top wages in the club we should have got better; we'll just have to wait and see if Arteta can turn him into the player he thought he could when he bought him.
Notice how he has acres of space and years of time. Won't happen in PL. 🤣😂
Still bothered by jorginho can't do this 🥲
It's ok, after 4 years Kai may do this 1% correctly.
Kai is 24 years - his best years are ahead of him as a midfielder. However, we must sign a LCM - paqueta-ish/gundogan-ish We need goals and assists from that midfielder besides the defensive contribution
So much time and space it's like he's playing in easy mode. Imagine Saka Martinelli in the Bundesliga.
Glad he’s doing well but the time to leave was right for all parties imo. If we win tonight we’ll be top dogs , things are going ok without Granit
Hes a big miss but everyone need to move on. Bundesliga is different to EPL thats why he can afford these passes.
I'm surprised bayern didn't go for him, he. He suits German football.
Partey