Arsenal: Granit Xhaka compensations already being made

Arsenal has been utilizing a brand new position to help with the midfield situation, but was this all triggered by the inadequacies of Granit Xhaka?

I have been talking a lot lately about how to compensate for Arsenal’s midfield pairing of Granit Xhaka and Aaron Ramsey. The two should be given every chance in the world to get into a grove and the club and, while Aaron Ramsey is in that grove, Xhaka is hit or miss, mostly because he has more defensive responsibilities than he is used to having.

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When the Gunners are in control of the ball and not in a place where they are constantly under siege, Xhaka thrives. He has the time and the comfort to spray the ball around the pitch and make things happen.

But when he doesn’t have the ball, and instead has to work on getting the ball back, it’s incredibly hit and miss. Which isn’t good, obviously.

I explored the potential of adding a third midfielder, a ball-winner type. That would involve breaking up the back three that we are just now getting into, but there’s no point in being attached to something if an upgrade is right around the corner.

Then I realized that the compensations are already being made. I’m all in on this DMF position (defensive midfielder floater). And I think that Arsene Wenger more or less implemented it as a means to protect Xhaka and his offensive interests.

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Think about it, you know Wenger is too cautious to implement this DMF from the start, he wanted to test it out a bit first, and he has been with Mohamed Elneny. That hasn’t been going all that well. He has been a defensive liability.

I doubt Wenger was ready to try it on the Premier League level when he deployed Francis Coquelin as a similar role, but he had no options. It was almost like fate was saying “go ahead Arsene, give it a try.”

Again, it didn’t work. Promising, sure. But Coquelin’s ineptitude when passing the ball is too dangerous. In order for for this position to work, you need the right player there, and I believe should we acquire the right player (I have some ideas) then you will see Xhaka cementing his place in the consistency ranks.

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As I’ve mentioned, this worked with Ramsey – finding a way to get him into his comfort zone. Doing the same with Xhaka only makes sense to try to get him into his happy place.