Granit Xhaka is reborn in this campaign, and he has become one of Arsenal’s key men.
The midfielder has previously played in a more defensive role alongside Thomas Partey.
They help protect the defence while the likes of Martin Odegaard and Emile Smith Rowe play further and closer to the opposition goal.
However, in this campaign, Xhaka has now been playing further forward and in a freer role.
This has improved his attacking output as revealed by a new report on Whoscored.
The report claims he now makes 0.8 tackles per 90 minutes in this campaign, which is his lowest so far.
However, he now makes 1.2 key passes, which is higher than the 0.6 he made in the previous two seasons.
Just Arsenal Opinion
Xhaka has been one of our finest players in this campaign and his new role is a genius move by Mikel Arteta.
Although he made common mistakes with his tackling, we always knew he could make key passes.
This new role means we will take advantage of that and earn more benefits from having him on our team.
We would need him to stay in form for the rest of this campaign to enjoy these benefits.
He was never a DM, but judged as one.
He was signed to be our xabi alonso (that’s how I always saw it, anyway) and that seemed to be his style – that’s what I was judging him on. Never saw him as a pure DM, but expected a bit more competency when defending, as I would with any central midfielder. He’s doing a lot better now as a more orthodox central midfielder, though – genuinely been one of our best players recently.
May God forgive us all 😂😂😂
Not all of us Lordpato, only the unbelievers 🤔🤔🤔
He was always good always had good stats that now some seem to notice after playing blind to them in the past.
Just being over trusted by every manager he has played under is enough to show his worth.
At mochengblach use to play in this role he is enjoying now
People acting like he is top of the league he is Bang average in any role in midfield. He is no KDB or B. Silva. B. Fernandez and eriksen Thiago not even keita. If we don’t upgrade this guy we will stay gunning for top 4 and miss
Agree 100%!
Xhaka may have improved but he’s still a liability and still the weakest link. Sooner he’s gone the better.
Defending is not his strength. Attacking midfield is where he does well.
“Reborn” is not the word I would use. I would say he has been moved forward, effectively too, but mostly effective because he is no longer deep enough to be a constant goals against or red card liability.
Would I STILL PREFER HIM TO LEAVE OUR CLUB? You bet I would!
Better does NOT mean good enough!
This is probably the first time in arsenal shirt he is playing further up the pitch..he was never and we never thought he was a dm ..arteta did no magic. its just a case of finally fitting square peg in a square hole. Big uo yo Arteta non the less.
I bet those of you with the last five comment looks seriously shit face right now 😂😂😂. Your liability just dropped another wonderful performance today. Why can’t y’all just admit you were wrong?🤷