Arsenal: Granit Xhaka Becoming The Silly Putty Of This Midfield

Granit Xhaka put forth another hit and miss performance for Arsenal and it’s becoming painfully clear that his directive may be all over the place.

Granit Xhaka has always been a deep-lying midfielder with eyes up the pitch. He sits back, adds a layer of protection and spreads the ball around the pitch with his excellent long passing. Occasionally, if the situation permits, he will get forward. This is presumably why Arsenal brought him to town. For all of these things.

Yet the Swiss has had to morph his own use to match whoever is partner(s) is(are) in the middle of the pitch. I get that he has his flaws, but when your responsibilities change on a game-to-game basis, it can’t be easy to stay at your best.

Take for instance what we saw against Manchester City. With Aaron Ramsey and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlin inexplicably injured again, there was no better option than Francis Coquelin (so they say).

In response, Xhaka had to become the box-to-box midfielder that contributes to the attack while Coquelin became that added layer of defense. For the first 45, neither was effective and both landed yellow cards.

In the second half though, Xhaka seemed to settle and ended up doing pretty well enacting his own methods.

Meanwhile, when Xhaka is used in the 4-3-3 or in conjunction with Santi Cazorla, he becomes the deep-lying midfielder that he is used to being and, not surprisingly, he manages to do a hell of a lot better.

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I have to think that Wenger’s desperation in the midfield has led to Xhaka becoming the silly putty of this midfield. He doesn’t have on specific job, he is just expected to compensate for the downfalls of his midfield mate(s).

That is a dangerous precedent to play by. Sure, Xhaka is supposed to be versatile, and he really is and can grow into an even bigger threat. But you have to remember that he is still new to this league and expecting him to fill all these different roles with 100% effectiveness this early on is an impossible task.

He is still a young work in progress, which is another important thing to remember as Wenger throws him into every midfield-type imaginable. We have seen this process before with the likes of Calum Chambers and the bottom line is that patience is needed.

Next: Arsenal's Potential Starting XI Under Diego Simeone

He can learn to fill each role in time, but until he has a reliable, useful partner in the middle of the pitch, it is going to be tough to get the best out of him.

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