Arsenal: One important thing to remember with Granit Xhaka

Arsenal’s debilitating loss to Liverpool exposed so many problems, none more concerning than Granit Xhaka. But here is one thing to remember about him.

I don’t know how many nasty adjectives we can come up with to describe Arsenal’s loss to Liverpool, but I’m absolutely going to stretch my limits and find new ones every time I have to bring it up, because calling it the same thing every time is just going to get boring.

Atrocious.

Anyway, Granit Xhaka was right in the middle of that atrocity. And as many of you know, I’m probably the biggest Xhaka apologist I know. Yet after seeing that, I can feel the foundation I have built my argument in his favor on crumbling beneath my feet.

So before I go into my inevitable defense, let me just say that I am not defending his disgusting mistakes. I am not even saying we should keep him in the starting XI. But there is something important to remember.

And that is what exactly he is. He is a passer. He is here to pass. In order to pass, you need targets to hit. In order to find those targets, you need time to pick them out.

Which brings me to my point. Xhaka was consistently isolated by Aaron Ramsey, who was running about like an unbridled pirate, doing whatever the hell he liked. There are times when that strategy will work. That list of times does not include when you’re away against the high-flying attack of Liverpool that needs an organized line of defense.

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Xhaka attempted the fewest amount of long passes in ages for the Gunners (just six) and he completed the fewest he’s ever had in a start (2). Everything that makes Xhaka special, therefore, was completely eliminated by pressure, by a lack of support and just by a general defeated aura displayed by the Gunners.

Again, this is not a defense of Xhaka’s terrible play. Because when you are that good of a long passer, consistently giving away short passes is inexcusable.

If you are looking for him to be a defensive enforcer, you should have stopped looking about eight months ago. And if you would rather have that, I don’t blame you. Especially when we see matches like this. Bring in Grzegorz Krychowiak and reap the rewards.

But here’s how I’m going to help myself sleep tonight and, if you’re a Xhaka supporter like I am, you can use this as well. Xhaka had a bunch of problems last year. A bunch. But No. 1 on that list was fouling. He was fouling everyone and it was foolish.

He cut that out pretty quickly. A good benching and several weeks of self-evaluation and he had cut down massively on the fouling game.

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Right now, his biggest problem is giving the ball away with stupid passes. To me, that sounds like an easier fix than fouling. So give him a good sit down and ween him back into the starting XI and I truly believe that he can learn to erase this failure as well.

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