The bigger waste of £30m+

[Bumble]

Think this is a tough one, both cost £30m+ but who is the worst buy. Xhaka or Mustafi.

[Marc Overmars]

Xhaka most definitely.

Mustafi hasn't been much better but he has had some games where I've thought there's a decent player in there somewhere. Xhaka on the other hand struggles to make an impression in the majority of games he plays, I'm not exactly sure what his role is and what he's supposed to be good at. A real bust of a signing and one we should cut our losses with, if we sell him this summer I'm sure we can recoup at least 60-70% of the fee back. He must still have some suitors in the Bundesliga.

[Power n Glory]

Mastermind - if you're reading this, you owe me a god damn apology! Xhaka is shite and was a waste of money.

[IBK]

Xhaka most definitely.

Mustafi hasn't been much better but he has had some games where I've thought there's a decent player in there somewhere. Xhaka on the other hand struggles to make an impression in the majority of games he plays, I'm not exactly sure what his role is and what he's supposed to be good at. A real bust of a signing and one we should cut our losses with, if we sell him this summer I'm sure we can recoup at least 60-70% of the fee back. He must still have some suitors in the Bundesliga.

Hmmmm - I may be making too many excuses, but for me Mustafi simply doesn;t have the basics required to be a reliable defender. IMO Xhaka is what he is - and suffers (like Lacazette and I fear Aubameyang will) from being in a set up that plays to his weaknesses rather than his strengths. Put another way, I feel that a different manager with a different set up and defensive acumen could make Xhaka look like a half decent player - but I'm not sure that this could be said as much for Mustafi.

[IBK]

Hmmmm - I may be making too many excuses, but for me Mustafi simply doesn;t have the basics required to be a reliable defender. IMO Xhaka is what he is - and suffers (like Lacazette and I fear Aubameyang will) from being in a set up that plays to his weaknesses rather than his strengths. Put another way, I feel that a different manager with a different set up and defensive acumen could make Xhaka look like a half decent player - but I'm not sure that this could be said as much for Mustafi.

and I'm not sure that our problems on the whole can be solved by indifidual players. Its the whole set up that stinks...

[Power n Glory]

Hmmmm - I may be making too many excuses, but for me Mustafi simply doesn;t have the basics required to be a reliable defender. IMO Xhaka is what he is - and suffers (like Lacazette and I fear Aubameyang will) from being in a set up that plays to his weaknesses rather than his strengths. Put another way, I feel that a different manager with a different set up and defensive acumen could make Xhaka look like a half decent player - but I'm not sure that this could be said as much for Mustafi.

I can’t even see a half decent player in Xhaka. He’s a long ball merchant. That’s his best asset and even that’s not good enough to warrant a place in this squad. Even when a team has us on the ropes and pushed back, he can’t launch a pass that sets us off on the counter. He’s easy to shut down because he has slow feet and immobile. He can’t shake his man when marked close and he has serious awareness issues and can easily get caught on the ball when he does receive it. He needs a lot of space to play and would probably have to be the first one to receive the ball from the goalkeeper just to launch a pass and that’s if he’s not under pressure.

We’ve bought the wrong sort of player and should have gone for a Cazorla replacement. Someone that’s willing to look for the ball in tight spaces, collect it from deep and keep the ball moving.

[Gooner23]

They are both dreadful with few redeeming features.

[Niall_Quinn]

Hmmmm - I may be making too many excuses, but for me Mustafi simply doesn;t have the basics required to be a reliable defender. IMO Xhaka is what he is - and suffers (like Lacazette and I fear Aubameyang will) from being in a set up that plays to his weaknesses rather than his strengths. Put another way, I feel that a different manager with a different set up and defensive acumen could make Xhaka look like a half decent player - but I'm not sure that this could be said as much for Mustafi.

Agreed. I'd seen both Xhaka's play before Granit came here and both appeared to be decent, composed players. Wenger ruins players. He takes their strengths and turns them into weaknesses. Xhaka has lost all his composure, his confidence is shot, he can't put one foot in front of the other without fucking up and when you watch him on the pitch it looks like he has no idea what he's supposed to be doing. You'll often see him literally standing around looking perplexed, with the game passing him by.

He had fire when he came here too, like Kolasinac. But a couple of red cards later and that's dead. Keep the fire, take the cards. We need players like that. But Wenger wants tippy tappy types. The strengths he saw in Xhaka had nothing to do with his tough style or mixed passing - instead he saw a replacement for Arteta and the role he forced that poor bastard into. Get it, tap it, get it tap it, keep possession even if you do fuck all with it. Xhaka has been neutered. And Wenger's done the same to Kolasinac, Lacazette and he'll do it to Aubameyang too.

Fucking hopeless manager, total fraud.

[Niall_Quinn]

Mustafi, on the other hand, has fuck all idea how to defend. He's always a yard behind the play, which is why he has to rush around the place making last ditch efforts to defend. Like Kos, tbf. Coincidence that both of them are fucked up? Both are good enough to play at international level. But both are like headless chickens when they play for us. They make schoolboy mistakes on a regular basis, mistakes that cost us. So does Xhaka btw. Can this really be a coincidence?

It all points back to Wenger. My guess is he's got the squad's heads twisted with convoluted and bullshit tactics. Triangles and energy zones and possession stats and pounds of broccoli per square inch. Meaningless bullshit while every basic of the game, shape, space, marking, crossing, shooting, tackling, blocking, are all ignored.

[Niall_Quinn]

And both of these players were 35mill, weren't they? Not 30mill.

[Marc Overmars]

Do you remember when we all thought money and not Wenger was the reason we couldn't compete? :lol:

A more simple time.

[GP]

The last 3 years of Wenger's salary.

Literally the worst manager we've ever had.

[Cripps]

The biggest waste of £30m was the money spent on sending Neil Armstrong to the moon.

[Özim]

Xhaka for sure, some people tried to convince me this guy was half decent when we signed him as some nobody from the Bundesligue, I wasn't convinced.

Moral of the story, don't buy unknown nobodies from the Bundesligue, it won't work out.

The manager is no doubt to blame for some of this, but doesn't change the fact Xhaka is absolutely hopeless and a total waste of money.

[dostoy]

The last 3 years of Wenger's salary.

Literally the worst manager we've ever had.

That is just what I was about to say.

I agree completely.

[Bumble]

think mustafi is the worse buy, as he is still being played in his correct position. but xhaka is not really a defensive mid. Maybe considering how inept he is defensively.. it might be better playing him further forward.

[Goonermerree]

Do you remember when we all thought money and not Wenger was the reason we couldn't compete? :lol:

A more simple time.

A more naive time!

[KSE Comedy Club]

Where is the option for 'Wenger has killed them both'?

[KSE Comedy Club]

think mustafi is the worse buy, as he is still being played in his correct position. but xhaka is not really a defensive mid. Maybe considering how inept he is defensively.. it might be better playing him further forward.

Trouble is he always shoots over the bar when he is attacking. it's only the odd shot that goes on target - so he is shit at attacking too.

[Niall_Quinn]

Trouble is he always shoots over the bar when he is attacking. it's only the odd shot that goes on target - so he is shit at attacking too.

Sounds like he should take up rugby.

[KSE Comedy Club]

Sounds like he should take up rugby.

Could be a better option for him tbh

[Özim]

think mustafi is the worse buy, as he is still being played in his correct position. but xhaka is not really a defensive mid. Maybe considering how inept he is defensively.. it might be better playing him further forward.

Mustafi isn't great don't get me wrong, but what does Xhaka actually do well, we know he can't tackle and can't read the game, but he also doesn't close down players (so doesn't work hard) and can't really shoot, his passing is nothing special either, seems to give the ball away quite a lot. I actually think he isn't a very good footballer.

With Mustafi he might just not be suited to the physical side of the English game, though some of his defending is diabolical.

[Thierrymon]

I find it hard to judge either player fairly under Wenger. Both players have shown that they have quality under different management. Maybe when Wenger leaves we will have a better idea.