Was very exposed in that system we used to play, but then again who isnt? It takes a super technical ace of a player (Santi) to make it work apparently. Heās been much better with more help in midfield.
He needs time on the ball to do his thing. Not a whole lot of time like Cesc but still needs a couple of seconds to decide what to do with the ball. I guess itās easy to take him out of the game if you make sure you are always pressing him as soon as the ball is passed in his direction. And you know he has a mistake in him, followed by a rash challenge, so while I am enjoying his performances off late, he has still some way to go. The way I see it, there arenāt that many teams that press high up on the pitch, especially against us, so he should still be effective against he majority of the sides.
Good post. I think his midfield partner makes a big difference. When he is paired with Coquelin he struggles because other teams can concentrate their press on Xhaka, knowing that if Coq receives the ball with time to pick a pass and/or space to dribble forward, he wonāt do fuck all with it anyway. Xhaka needs a midfield partner that is enough of a threat on the ball that the opposition canāt completely neglect that guy. It is no surprise that Xhaka has been best when paired with Ramsey but he would probably be even better if paired with a player like Naby Keita who is really adept at driving forward with the ball at speed and putting the defense under stress.
He also needs someone who is able to do the vast majority of the running for him, so they would need a huge engine and be able to play b2b depending on the circumstances.
He had that at Gladbach with Dahoud and a similar player is required, the central midfield needs to be built around him if heās to fulfil his potential here. Ramsey is not that guy for quite a few reasons such as being far more effective when not asked to retain possession, having a tendency to lose the ball and not being as tactically astute as he should be.
Heās been terrific since the change in formation. Everything runs through him in the middle now and heās clearly getting a hold on dictating the play better than he would earlier in the season.
I think he will be a key player next season.
I know he has only shown glimpses of quality this season but now he has settled, he could be a very good player for us.
Remember when Tony Cascarino said Xhaka may be one of the worst signings of all time? I mean, donāt get me wrong - he has had some poor games and there are obviously things he still needs to improve on, but the criticism of him this season has been OTT. He has settled in now though, and bad opposition or not, I quite enjoyed the Xhaka and Ćzil show last night.