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Xhaka Can't | Pat Nevin on Arsenal's "couple of liabilities"

Granit Xhaka was trending on Twitter on Sunday and not for the right reasons. The Switzerland mid...
Raf Diallo
Raf Diallo

18.54 2 Sep 2019


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Xhaka Can't | Pat Nevin on Ars...

Xhaka Can't | Pat Nevin on Arsenal's "couple of liabilities"

Raf Diallo
Raf Diallo

18.54 2 Sep 2019


Share this article


Granit Xhaka was trending on Twitter on Sunday and not for the right reasons.

The Switzerland midfielder can be excellent with his passing range. But he has a propensity to dive in when making tackles. And unfortunately, he does that in the box way too often.

Take the North London Derby on Sunday. He made a clumsy challenge on Son Heung Min to gift Tottenham a penalty.

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Ex-Chelsea and Everton winger Pat Nevin joined us as always on a Monday and he gave us his take on players like Xhaka who can't help flying into tackles.

Indeed, no players has given away as many penalties in the Premier League during his three seasons at Arsenal.

"In simple terms, you simply don't dive in in the box unless you're 100% sure," he said.

Wrong Regularly

"Now, everyone now and again will get it wrong. But to get it wrong regularly...

"I thought the one at the weekend was really poor. There's no need to dive in the way he dove in.

"Positionally, it wasn't great at all. It shows the naivety. I remember playing myself, there are certain guys you'd try and put in a position so they made a tackle.

"And you're thinking, 'If I can nick the ball away, I'm going to get a hit'. And that's a part of Xhaka's game. He's trying to hit the ball and a bit of you as well.

"You need to change that. He can do that outside the box. You try doing that inside the box, players are usually clever enough to move the ball slightly and get quite quickly out of your way.

"That's the problem that Arsenal seem to have: A couple of liabilities. We talked about David Luiz last week and he's a little bit excitable. That's a real danger as well and you can't do that."


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