Arsenal v Newcastle. 03/01/23. 19:45

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mac76

The reason why Xhaka needs upgrading is summed up very well here, he may not be quite the disaster area he was but he still isn't good enough for where we want to be:

https://twitter.com/adamkeys_/status...57841556463619

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Yet you ignore:

Xhaka was one of our best players against Newcastle. This isn't a criticism of him. This is an example of how Arteta could have changed things to disrupt a very structured unit with a right footed dribbler who loves to cut in, rather than a left footer who naturally goes wide.

There is a difference between a player 'not being good enough' and acknowledging that a system could be changed to suit the game state. Your confirmation bias ignores the fact that Xhaka has been one of our best and most effective players this season.

The biggest issue for me the other night was that in playing Zinchenko, it left Martinelli crowded. The overlap and threat of Tierney woild have given us more options from that side of the pitch.

I think Chenko was played as an extra guard against that weirdo teethy eyebrow wanker who got subbed off. At that point releasing Tierny would have been a good move

I agree with this.

Xhaka is a catastrophically flawed player, which means he's a pretty decent player by today's standard. He has no real clue how to play the game, but that's not a required attribute for a modern PL player so you can't hold it against him. For example, will he mindlessly pass it across his own back line? Of course. That's what well-paid shit-klickers do. Because they don't know any better.

Maitland Niles was a fairly decent prospect in midfield. He could kick a ball to an intended target, a big plus in the PL. He sometimes played forward passes, a very rare gift.

It's apparently difficult to argue against Arteta because his dogshit team of pretenders somehow leads the league. You can't ask more from the guy, even if the challenge is almost non-existent. Trouble comes when you compare modern day "success" with real football. The two things aren't equivalent or comparable.

Why do I diverge? Because by these lowly standards, Xhaka is a good player. You have to understand, their term "good" is being used relatively. He's not ACTUALLY a good player, obviously, but he's good compared to the absolute dross that infests the PL today.

In Arteta's coma-ball system, Xhaka is a linchpin, our sideways and backwards game would collapse if we had to rely on Partey to pass a ball over more than 2 yards.

I think Arteta could have done either; bring in Tierney to add more width and release the pressure on our second most likely player to score (Martinelli) or removed Xhaka and go with someone who is naturally more of a goal threat (Viera); he did neither which suggests he really believed the boys out there would break them down eventually ( wishful and arrogant if you ask me) or more likely that Newcastle would make a big mistake which we would capitalise on (again a bit wishful), which might be why he was so incensed on the penalty claims.

He gambled and though we didn't lose, the Man City result shows we clearly didn't win or gain much from the game either. Arteta really needs to watch this game several times and learn from it. Its a master course on how to neutralise us.