How many goals will Xhaka cost us this season

He has cost us 5 goals so far this season and i can see it continuing, it's like he has no defensive bone in his body which is shocking for a guy who plays in central midfield. He has No sense of caution or any common sense when defending. I understand that he is a deep lying play maker and his job is to dictate play but that doesn't excuse him from his defensive duties. The likes of Xabi Alonso all play this role but they at least they know how to defend and sense danger. I think he should be dropped for the next game so he can take a good look at himself and the way he plays or else he will keep hurting us and he won't progress as a player. For his own good, he deserves the bench

His form dropped hard, that dream combo ( Xhaka- Ramsey) from good run at tail end of last year was short lived. His defense job was always suspect, back in his old team and even Swiss NT. We just dont have anyone good to cover for him. I really dont know how to make our midfield work now,bunch of average players with no quality close to Santi.

Bring back Coquelin

Having just watched Madrid vs Valencia made me think, wouldn't Kondogbia have been perfect to play DM for Arsenal? He has pace and power, a true beast. He is what Arsenal need.

We have no midfield it is disheartening how Liverpool just eased from defense to attack yesterday

Know why Xhaka gives the ball away a lot?

Because this is what he's faced with every game:

It's like this:

Wenger wants both his CMs to push up the field when the centre backs have the ball, because he doesn't like encouraging other teams to press. He's said as much himself. He thinks if our CMs push into the opposition half it'll give space for the CBs to play.

But there are two problems with that:

1) He has three CBs but not of them are that great at passing through lines

2) He only has two CMs

Ramsey is instructed to push forward so whenever Xhaka gets the ball off the CBs, he has no midfield partner to pass to unless Ozil drops deep. So his only options are passing it back to the CBs, or hoping that one of the wing backs has space on the flanks.

What smart teams do, though, is leave Ramsey alone. Yeah, he can hurt teams with his runs, but he's useless if the ball doesn't get to him. So they push up and press Xhaka knowing he's not got an out. If it's a good press the ball will go backwards or be turned over. If Ozil drops deep as well, that's a bonus because it's one less attacker to deal with and Arsenal's dangerous playmaker playing in an area he can't hurt them.

It usually doesn't matter if it's Ramsey, Coquelin or Elneny. That second CM is asked to push up, while the other hangs back. Works when the opposition are dropping off and giving us space to play, but is a total disaster against good pressing sides aka most the top six in the Premier League and the best teams in Europe.

Xhaka has been careless with the ball too, which never helps. But it's tactics as well. Most passing teams in Europe either stagger their midfield to make angles or rotate who drops deep to receive the ball to get round pressing. We just leave ourselves open.

Jay29 wrote:Know why Xhaka gives the ball away a lot?

Because this is what he's faced with every game:

FennecFox7 wrote:https://i.imgur.com/D2hfkZx.jpg

Was going to post that. Look at this. Who is he going to pass to exactly?

Unbelievable stuff. Ramsey's role is just absolutely baffling

and another point, he wants midfielders who can pass and retain possession but in the squad only Santi and Jack can do this efficiently. The others struggle and look lost as soon as they are put under pressure. In my opinion he has two decision to make in midfield.

1. If Xhaka is going to be here for the long term then find him a decent midfield partner who will defend and help the team keep possession if not then don't play him at all.

2. One of Ozil and Ramsey will have to go on the bench, having two players who have no interest in defending in midfield is too strenuous on the team. Ramsey should play as a ten or stay on the bench. He has already proven that he doesn't have the discipline to play as centre mid so no point playing him there.

what Hans said

https://arseblog.com/2017/09/tactics-column-xhaka-arsenals-separate-flaws-recipe-disaster/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=facebook

A good article which analyses Xhaka flaws, most of the time it's his own fault to be honest.

bump

and another one yesterday which takes his count to six for the season. He can be seen picking his nose instead of tracking Cleverley's run

Giving up on him really
maybe we need a different type of mid in this role

Doesn't really matter. Can have prime Gattuso there or prime Gilberto Silva. We are still going to be tactically naive and play a 2-1-7 formation and then feign surprise at why we are conceding so many goals.

He is not a bad player. Just in a bad system in a team that doesn't suit him. Would be great for Chelsea tbh.

I've said I consider Xhaka a flop, but that's only insofar as Wenger has made him one. I agree with RG, I think he's a good player who could fit in at a top club, tbh. It's just that Wenger's tactics leave him insanely exposed defensively and don't really offer him the keys to success offensively.

RealGunner wrote:Doesn't really matter. Can have prime Gattuso there or prime Gilberto Silva. We are still going to be tactically naive and play a 2-1-7 formation and then feign surprise at why we are conceding so many goals.

He is not a bad player. Just in a bad system in a team that doesn't suit him. Would be great for Chelsea tbh.

Right. Many really good players are getting undervalued just because they're trapped in a shitty system and/or under a clueless manager.

Arsene has tried everything with this guy  

4-2-3-1

3-4-3

4-3-3

yet he keeps costing us goals. The guy doesn't care about what happens off the ball. Football maturity of a 15 year old.

I am done with this ass

Song is training with us atm for fitness since being a free agent


should we?

Nah, probably not