Tag Archives: Granit Xhaka

Lucas Torreira, Mo Elneny & Grant Xhaka

2 Replies

Lucas Torreira

Saw a few fans during yesterday’s game between Egypt and Uruguay question how good Lucas Torreira must be if he “can’t even get into his national team”.

As the majority of us at England fans, is this view not a little arrogant? And extremely ignorant.

Uruguay are ranked 14th in the world. That is just one place below England – a side which Jack Wilshere can’t even get into the squad for.

They are ranked above the likes of Holland, Italy, Columbia and Croatia.

Ahead of him in the Starting XI is Rodrigo Bentancur. The 20 year old had a break through season for Juventus last season, who secured first option to sign him when he was just 17.

Also ahead of him is 26 year old Matías Vecino, who Inter Milan paid €24m for last summer.

Let’s not pretend this Uruguay is a poor team. They have an array of talented young midfielders, including Nahitan Nández (22) and Giorgian De Arrascaeta (24).

It is no shame that Torreira did not start.

Uruguay are not exactly Scotland or Republic of Ireland. They are a good outfit.

Mohamed Elneny

One player who did start the game was Egypt’s Mo Elneny.

He put in the solid if unexceptional performance that he has become known for.

If Arsenal do go ahead next year and play 3 in the middle of the park, Elneny has to be in with a shout if being the deepest of those 3.

He covers a lot of ground, is disciplined and defensive aware.

You do not win the league with 11 Lionel Messi’s. You need a Sergio Busquet’s or Fernandinho.

Elneny can do that job (although it would be good to also secure Torreira so that we have competition in the area.

Granit Xhaka

Not everyone’s cup of tea but Granit Xhaka signing a new contract is great news for the club.

With Jack Wilshere looking like he is off and Aaron Ramsey still yet to sign a contract, Xhaka is a man who the modified can be built around.

Still just 25, Unai Emery needs to get the balance of the midfield right to get the best out of the Swiss international.

Signs Lucas Torreira could be just what is needed to allow Xhaka to excel.

A midfield 3 of:

Xhaka Torreira Ramsey

Has a lot of balance to it.

Since joint Arsenal two years ago, he has had to deal with a lot of criticism from fans and the media.

Xhaka gets a lot of blame for the team being set up unbalanced. He has never really played as the deepest central midfielder.

He needs to be allowed to press and be aggressive. Sitting deep never suited him.

By having someone behind him will allow him to get further forward, to be more aggressive in the middle of the park, and know he has a safety net behind him.

I am predicting that Xhaka playing the ball from deep over the top to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang will be a route for a lot of goals next season.

Keenos

How does Lucas Torriera fit into Arsenal?

1 Reply

By now you all would have seen the Big Dave Ornstein news from a few last night.

That Arsenal are in talks to sign Uruguayan defensive midfielder Lucas Torriera.

Usually when Ornstein tweets, the deal is not too far from being done, so we can afford ourselves to consider just how the Sampdoria midfielder will fit in at Arsenal.

Signing Lucas Torriera would support my view that we will play 3 in the middle next year;

Xhaka Torreira Ramsey

Ahead of them will be a narrow two of Mesut Ozil and Henrik Mkhitaryan, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang up top.

The midfield 3 will give us a lot more balance and defensive stability than we had last season when we often played two.

It will give Aaron Ramsey the licence to get forward and attack the opponents box. It will also free him to press high up the field, putting pressure on the opponents deep lying midfielders.

With Ramsey getting forward alongside Ozil and Mkhitaryan, it will over load the opponents who will struggle to defend against all 3 – probably forcing them to bring a centre back out of shape create space for Aubameyang behind.

Ramsey will be free to press forward knowing that he has Granit Xhaka and Torriera sitting behind him, in front of the back 4

With both men having the ability to play from deep, it will give the defenders two options when passing the ball out.

Opponents will not as easily be able to pick off us transitioning the ball from defence to attack with both Torriera and Xhaka. Last season, if they stuck a man on Xhaka, it forced us long, or into mistakes.

Torreira will move Xhaka forward one, allowing him to press higher and be more influential on the ball.

Last year he was often caught out trying to press high, leaving too much of a gap between defence and midfield.

He will be free to do a similar job next season, but know that there is an extra player behind the him to sweep up to mistakes (instead of opponents being straight at the back 4 when he gives the ball away).

Xhaka has always been at his best for club and country when he has had another midfielder behind him. He has never really been the deepest of the midfielders.

Xhaka will also have to be the muscle in the midfield.

Torriera is tiny so Xhaka will have to ensure he does not get bullied. A similar role to what Matic used to do alongside Kante when Chelsea won the title.

I would be a liar if I pretended to know anything about Torriera, but in the little bit of research I have done, he will bring balance to a midfield.

It will also leave us with a second string trio of:

Elneny AMN Wilshere

So plenty of options, plenty of flexibility.

We now just need to get the deal over the line.

Keenos

Granit Xhaka does not deserve Arsenal fans abuse

2 Replies

There is a video doing the round of Arsenal fans abusing Granit Xhaka. I am not a fan.

I understand fans are frustrated, and that Granit Xhaka has put in some very mixed performances in an Arsenal shirt since joining, but I am a little confused as to why fans would spend £500 on flights, accommodation and tickets to Spain, to then stand in a square abusing one of Arsenal’s players before the clubs most important European game in years.

The video has been picked up by many of the “lads banter” social media sites. It is videos like these that lead to some saying Arsenal are the most embarrassing set of fans about. The “chant” is up with the majority of Arsenal Fan TV videos for causing embarrassment to the majority of the fan base.

Those fans argument will be that they “paid their money, they can do what they want”, and I do understand that. But why spend £500 to not support the club?

The thing is, Granit Xhaka can play.

Like plenty of other players under Arsene Wenger, Xhaka has been hamstrung from being a square peg in a round hole. Like others around him, the tactics and positioning employed by Wenger simply do not suit him.

Xhaka is expected to play defensive midfield, but throughout his career, he has never been THE defensive midfielder.

Like Mikel Arteta before him, Xhaka has never been the deepest midfielder in the team. For Borussia Monchengladbach, he always has someone behind him, for Switzerland the same.

We often point to Patrick Vieira as the best defensive, but at his best he always had someone behind him – Emmanuel Petit, Gilberto, Edu. That gave him the chance to drive forward at will.

The issue surrounding a lot of Arsenal is balance It is the same with Shkodran Mustafi. You can not change the centre back partnership ever single week and expect everyone to look great. We need to perhaps write of Laurent Koscielny as a first choice and put someone reliable next to him, then judge the guy.

Football is about partnerships and we do not have many partnerships throughout the squad.

Xhaka can play.

Look at N’Golo Kante. He does not sit and cover the back four like Gilberto or Claude Makelele did. He presses and covers ground.

Xhaka can play from deep, but next to him you need someone who can press for him and cover that ground. Asking Xhaka, who I actually do not think is as bad defensively as some of the others we have had in there, to provide a one man protection for a team who totally vacate the midfield is never going to work.

The issue is we have with the way Wenger sets the team up is that they are not set up as a team.

We have centre backs who play 50 yards up the pitch without pace. That would be fine if we had an Ederson or a Manuel Neuer standing 25 yards off his touchline, sweeping. Yet we have Petr Cech.

We have full backs who bomb forward causing the centre backs to split. We then expect Xhaka to press the opponents number 10, whilst also  sitting between the centre backs when the split.

It is as if there is no thought in the way we are playing.

If you decide to squeeze, to press high up the field, you buy centre backs like what Laurent Koscielny was 5 years ago, or even Gabriel. You buy athletes. You buy players to fit your style.

Jordan Henderson suits Jurgen Klopp, Ederson suits Manchester City.

A few years ago, we had Olivier Giroud. Due to his lack of pace, we had to press high, he was never going to run in behind a defence. But at the other end of the pitch we had Per Mertesacker. He could not defend high because of his lack of pace.

This resulted in either Giroud being too deep, Mertesacker too high, or a massive gap between the two for the midfield to cover.

We are a little lost in style. It is as if we do not know what sort of side we are, what sort of players we need.

A lot of this comes down to transfer policy. We seem to constantly end up with “who is available” rather than “what we need” and end up trying to put players into Wenger’s formation and tactics that do not fit it. And Wenger has to take the blame for it.

With a new manager coming in, a new transfer policy headed by Raul Sanllehi and Sven Mislintat, hopefully we see a change in our recruitment policy. Hopefully we buy the right players in the right position.

Xhaka is a good player. We get someone alongside him and play a midfield 3 of Xhaka sitting deep, a Kante (Seri? Gueye?) type player pressing, then Aaron Ramsey doing his Superman impression, we then have balance.

We have players who defend, can press, can pass and score.

Do not blame Xhaka for Wenger’s failure to use him properly.

Keenos