Arsenal: A ‘modern midfield’ doesn’t disqualify Granit Xhaka

Arsenal’s midfield against Burnley was heralded as ‘modern’ without Granit Xhaka, but it can still be modern with Granit Xhaka too.

I love the anti-Xhaka agenda. Well, I hate it. But I hate it so much that I love when it rears it’s ridiculously ugly head because it’s gotten to the point that it’s actually funny. Arsenal are a better team with Granit Xhaka than they are without. That has been proven, but for the sake of addressing then most recent anti-Xhaka sentiment, let’s readdress.

Against Burnley, the Gunners deployed Dani Ceballos, Joe Willock and Matteo Guendouzi, as Xhaka was dealing with an injury.

With those three midfielders combined, this club was quicker, more urgent, able to penetrate the Burnley midfield and defense and keep the ball moving, rather than idling. I saw the value in those three midfielders, and it made sense why a lot of people crave this kind of approach. But that doesn’t mean that this approach disqualifies Xhaka from being a part.

In fact, the whole idea of a modern midfield is ball movement. In this case, it was grounded in speed and quickness. Granted, Xhaka doesn’t have much of either. But in terms of ball movement? He does.

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He absolutely does.

Just not with his own running speed, but with the speed in which he physically moves the ball. Also, to argue semantics, making something modern means adapting to the present-day standards. That’s well and good, but innovating the modern makes you a step ahead of the bunch. More on that later, because Xhaka is, yes the innovator.

Anyway, the argument that Xhaka is too slow to be a part of the modern midfield is laughable at best. Because while it was a cool thing to see the speed in the midfield, it was also frantic, hectic, often chaotic. And it left the defense stranded at times. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t feel comfortable throughout much of the match, and that came from this “modern midfield” not really establishing a presence, but always bolting from box to box, shifting the ball around.

Xhaka does that too, but he does it with more control. Yes, with less urgency, but the man understands urgency. I think back to the ball he played in to Eddie Nketiah against Real Madrid and the gobs before that. When the opportunity is there, Xhaka is urgent and moves quickly. But he doesn’t push the issue when it isn’t there to be pushed.

He’s modern, but disciplined. He’s slow, but passes the ball quicker than anyone else, simply because he has the best passing ability of those midfield options. And when Xhaka gets back in to the starting XI alongside these “modern” guys like Ceballos, you will see that he can jive with them just as well as anyone else.