Arsenal: Rolling Dice On Granit Xhaka Dicey Proposition
Arsenal’s midfield situation may require a roll of the dice, but it may be dicey to roll those dice on Granit Xhaka against his former club, Basel.
As covered earlier, Arsenal has a decision to make regarding who to start in the midfield against FC Basel. While Mohamed Elneny is a lock to get his full 90 minutes, there is no clear cut rotational option that can suit up next to him.
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It will have to be Granit Xhaka or Santi Cazorla, both of whom have regular weekend appearances to factor into the equation. With Coquelin’s exit, Xhaka has inherited the starting role in the Premier League, meaning that starting either one of them against Basel in the Champions League is a risk, especially with injuries already rearing their ugly head for Ramsey and Coquelin.
But then again, with the level of competition, we can’t expect to send out one of our midfield prospects an think that there won’t be any risk involved.
So it comes down to a debate of risking a first team player and potentially invoking some weary legs or starting a youngster and risking maximum points. The debate will rage on.
Although, there aren’t even that many youngsters that could fill the role. Not without significant stress to Mohamed Elneny. By that standard, you could essentially already rule that the debate is over – Xhaka or Cazorla must start.
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Starting Xhaka has some perks. He only played 60 minutes against Chelsea, plus, at 23 years old, he should be capable of pulling a three-match-a-week shift every so often. That’s much different that Cazorla, who sustained his serious injury last year on the back of three straight matches in a week. He’s on the wrong side of 30, he cannot be taxing himself with that many minutes.
Plus, for sentimentality sake, let him partner with Elneny against their former club. Plus, his brother will be playing, so we don’t want to rob him of another meaningful opportunity to square up against Taulant. It will be a special moment for sure.
Xhaka and Elneny were already the partnership that was being utilized when Coquelin was healthy, so the communication and understanding is already there. It may be dicey to roll the dice on Xhaka, but the alternative option isn’t much better. Xhaka has to be risked.
The other option is modifying the formation to a two-man front, a basic 4-4-2. With four midfielders across the middle and Giroud and Lucas up front, there could be less strain on the midfield, but it’s far more likely that Wenger risks Xhaka rather than risking the entire formation.
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