Arsenal: Even when misused, Granit Xhaka has fallen short

Granit Xhaka has not necessarily been put in the right situations to succeed during his two years at Arsenal. However, even with such a caveat, he has still fallen short of the expectations his price tag demands.

Granit Xhaka is an extremely divisive figure. The midfielder has all of the natural traits that you would want in a sturdy, reliable, deep-lying-distributing midfielder. He is strong on the ball, he is intelligent, his passing range is lovely, and he can shoot from distance. But he never seems to be able to put it all together, much to the angst of the Arsenal faithful.

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During his first season in north London, I was quite happy to defend Xhaka. While his performances were not especially brilliant, there were glimpses that he could develop into a solid defensive midfielder. He improved as the year went on, he continued to adapt to the rigours English football, and his future looked bright.

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But his second season has quite possibly been worse than his first. He has not developed as a player, the same flaws that existed early on still preside, and the Arsenal midfield is terribly unathletic and unbalanced when he is at the base of it, oftentimes exposing an already vulnerable defence.

Now, some, and I agree with them, at least to an extent, have suggested that it is Arsene Wenger who has not put Xhaka in the right positions to succeed. He is not actually a defensive midfielder and he should instead be paired with an anchoring midfielder, pushed into a slightly more advanced role where his lapses in concentration and numbness to danger are not quite as detrimental and his passing range can come to the fore.

The argument does have some legs. But there is a problem. Even in that position with a shielding midfielder alongside him, Xhaka is not going to dominate games against the best of the Premier League. He will not win an individual battle with Kevin de Bruyne. He will not out-manoeuvre Moussa Dembele. He will not out-run N’Golo Kante or outsmart Cesc Fabregas.

Is he an adequate rotational player who can play 20 games a season and do a perfectly respectable job? Yes, absolutely. He is not wholly useless like some of his more vehement detractors would have you believe. But if that is all he is, even in his misuse, he has still fallen short of expectations.

Arsenal signed Xhaka for a reported £35 million — some sources have it as high as £40 million. For some context, when he was signed, he was the club’s second most expensive player in history, behind Mesut Ozil and equal with Alexis Sanchez. And even now, two years later, he is the second most expensive central midfielder in Premier League history behind Nemanja Matic, excluding attacking midfielders like Kevin de Bruyne, Mesut Ozil and others. This is a player who should, per his price tag, be dominating the Premier League.

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Is that his fault that he is not dominating the Premier League? Perhaps not. Perhaps he just isn’t good enough. And that’s fine. But the fact of the matter is still this: Despite his misuse, despite the misunderstanding over his game, despite the price tag not being determined by him, he has still fallen short of expectations.