Who will play in Granit Xhaka’s role next season? This a question so many are asking as the Swiss international looks to be closing on a move to Bayer Leverkusen.
Xhaka will return to the Bundesliga after seven years away in what football.london understands it to be a £13million deal. After scoring seven goals and earning seven assists, finding who will start for Arsenal’s midfield next season is a tough task.
However, the misconception surrounding this hunt stems from the question itself. The ‘Xhaka role’ as it has been coined this season is filled by the man it was named after but does the player who comes in need to fulfil what Xhaka provided?
In short, the answer is no. Mikel Arteta has worked hard to construct a group of players who he tries to maximise the potential from. That was evident in the project he set out on with Xhaka, explaining to Sky Sports how he was getting more from the club’s former captain.
"I spoke to him at the end of the season and said, ‘I need to unlock something in your brain because you’re so comfortable and confident playing in this area that you have forgot what is actually going to win us the game and the team now demands somebody here, so unless you unlock that I’m going to have to do something about it’.
"He took it straight away. He’s a very intelligent player, he came to pre-season fitter than ever, slimmer than ever, and he knew that if we wanted to take the team to a different level we had to change his role. He knew that was coming.”
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Whoever replaces Xhaka will not be coming in to play their predecessor’s role, Arteta will have the vision for what he wants from that player. Declan Rice is the priority target and football.london understands that a bid for the player is imminent.
Should it be the England international who partners Thomas Partey and Martin Odegaard in midfield, the expectation will not be he contributes exactly what Xhaka did and more. Arteta’s expectation is that Rice brings his own individual qualities, develops and provides what his game dictates.
Be it Rice, Moises Caicedo or another player that could come into the team for the new season, they will define their role with their traits. We need to move away from assigning the expectation of the position based on the player that starts.
If a player like Gabriel Martinelli comes out for Emile Smith Rowe, the latter is not going to play in the mould of the Brazilian. Smith Rowe will play in a different way, occupy different spaces and ask different questions of the opponent.
It is a blessing for a manager like Arteta to have these options so that next season, with the hope of further reinforcements in the transfer window, he will have more keys to try in the locks of his opposition. Xhaka will be a loss, but his replacement(s) will bring their own strengths and weaknesses that Arsenal have to hone and get the best from.
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