Arsenal: Statistically, no one does more than Granit Xhaka

Arsenal’s midfield may need some restructuring, but a lot of the personnel is already here. Let’s see what the numbers say about Granit Xhaka.

I’ve done my fair share of defending Granit Xhaka based on what we all see in any given match, but today, I’d like to dig into the numbers and show how Arsenal can build a midfield around Granit Xhaka rather than in spite of him.

Arsene Wenger always wanted Xhaka to be a box-to-box midfielder and we kind of laughed at the idea. He was too slow, right? Not agile enough to traverse so much ground? That’s what everyone said. But the numbers will tell us otherwise.

In fact, you may be surprised to learn that no one on this club does more in every category than Xhaka, except perhaps Aaron Ramsey, whose goal and assists tally give him a big leap over his Swiss counterpart.

Anyway, let’s dig in. People want to complain about Xhaka’s lack of defensive nous. There have been problems here, no doubt. Problems with tracking runs and being in the right place. First of all, since he is a box-to-box midfielder, the defensive expectations should have been tempered a bit, but regardless of that, when we get down to the numbers, Xhaka does his part – the part of a box-to-box midfielder.

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No one on the club outside of the defenders makes more tackles or interceptions than the heavily-criticized Xhaka. Obviously we still don’t have a defensive midfielder, but in terms of box-to-box guys, which I’ll remind you again, includes Xhaka, you’ll find few with more defensive involvement.

What else is important among such midfielders? Ball retention. Nobody, I repeat – nobody, outside of our defenders, retains the ball better than Xhaka. Not even Mohamed Elneny, whose job it is to control possession. Statistically, Xhaka does it better.

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And passing? That’s pretty important too. On the team, Xhaka is 6th in pass completion percentage. Third if you rule out defenders, behind only Mesut Ozil and Alex Iwobi. But again, please tell me how he can’t do the simple things right.

I don’t need to tell you about long-ball completion. He’s first. Duh.

So let’s switch gears to pushing play forward by the numbers, shall we? Since people complain about his speed and technical ability. According to the numbers, only three players create more chances than Xhaka – Ozil, Iwobi and Ramsey.

Only two people have more assists – Ozil and Ramsey.

What else do you want a box-to-box midfielder to do other than everything? Because believe it or not, Xhaka does everything. Yeah, he could be a better defender. So could Ozil. But that isn’t what he is here to do. Yeah, he could be a better attacker. So could Mustafi. But that’s not what he is here to do.

What you want out of those guys in the middle of the pitch is a capacity to dabble in everything. The numbers show that Xhaka does. He is top five or better in every major statistical category on the team whether he is matched up with Koscielny defensively or Ozil offensively. He does it all.

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So what are you whining about? You think he wasn’t worth the money? Find me a midfielder that can do more for a cheaper price. I’ll wait.

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