Name: Granit Xhaka
Club: Borussia Mönchengladbach
Position: Midfield (central)
Age: 22 (27 September, 1992)
Nationality: Swiss
Height: 1.85 m
Weight: 82 kg
Key attributes: Passing variety, football IQ.
Granit Xhaka was born and grew up in Basel and like many
other Swiss players, he is from an immigrant background as his parents arrived
from Kosovo before his birth. Due to that, he grew up in Kleinbasel, a part of Basel known for a much higher percentage of
immigrants. Xhaka was introduced to football at the age of four and joined FC Concordia
Basel, a club he played for until his move to FC Basel at the age of eleven. At
FC Basel, he received the majority of his professional football education
before making his first team debut for the club on July 28th, 2010. One year
before his professional debut, he was part of the Swiss under 17 team that won
the World Cup in Nigeria. The squad featured players like Wolfsburg's Ricardo
Rodriguez or Frankfurt's Haris Seferovic. In the two years he played for Basel's
first team, he grew in stature and was widely recognised as a special talent.
Together with Xherdan Shaqiri, he represented not only Basel's, but also
Switzerland's future. Especially the coach of the Swiss National Team, Ottmar
Hitzfeld, was always outspoken about Xhaka's talent: labelling him as a 'young
Schweinsteiger' and praising his high football IQ. Since Hitzfeld rated him
highly, it came as no surprise that Xhaka made his debut for Switzerland
against England at Wembley, at the age of 19.
The summer of 2012 was
a time of great change for Granit Xhaka. Switzerland had missed out on the
European Championships in Poland and Ukraine and he had already achieved all he
could with Basel. Maybe independently from another or with each other's intention
in mind, both Xhaka and Shaqiri decided to leave Basel. The former joining
fellow Swiss Lucien Favre in Gladbach, the latter moved to Bayern München. The
move to a different club was not the only change. Xhaka swiftly went from a
leading player in Basel to a young, highly promising player with much to learn
in Gladbach. The first season represented quite a struggle for the young player
as he often found himself on the bench or not in the squad at all. Only at the
beginning and the end of the season, Favre gave him successive full games.
While it was evident that Xhaka needed to improve, Gladbach's results during
that season as well as Xhaka's inconsistent performances were largely linked to
the significant turnover of players in Gladbach's squad. Gladbach had lost
their entire spine, with Dante, Marco Reus and Roman Neustädter and replaced
them with rather young and inexperienced players. With a more settled squad,
Xhaka's first season might have been entirely different. While his first season
wasn't all that impressive, Gladbach stood by him and he became significantly
more consistent in his second season.
While similarities to
Schweinsteiger can be seen, Xhaka is not quite there yet. His passing has
improved, both in accuracy as well as in variety. He has also become a much more
dominant figure and there is a naturalness with which he demands the ball, leading
to an increase in touches and passes per game. Gladbach's style of football
suits him well. Two powerful but mobile midfielders (other options are Kramer
and Nordtveit) that are defensively solid and good on the ball. Favre's central
midfielders do not have to affect attacking play to great extent - which works
for Xhaka. Gladbach's system with two wingers and two strikers - and their
quality - allows the midfielders to take care of the easier things. Retaining
possession, keeping the ball moving, initiating transition play - but they do
not necessarily have to contribute greatly in terms of goals and assists. While
as mentioned, this works in Xhaka's favour at Gladbach, it has to be considered
a weakness as well. Currently, Xhaka would have to be employed in a
two-man-midfield, with a partner somewhat similar to him. He probably would not
be suited as a lone defensive midfielder or as a central midfielder of which
goals are expected. Talking about weaknesses, Xhaka's discipline has to be
mentioned. Last season's record of a booking every 200 minutes is nothing to be
proud of. However so far, this season looks to be much more positive (one
booking).
Another impressive feature of both Xhaka and
Gladbach is their ability to adapt their style of play and the impact they have
on the game depending on the opponent. Xhaka is equally confident with a lot of
possession and many touches (117, 110 and 108 v Mainz, Köln and Stuttgart,
respectively) as he is in games when it is more about chasing the opposition
and putting tackles in. This can be seen in the comparison between his season
stats and his stats v Bayern. Since Gladbach only had 28% of the ball (53.25%
in the season), possession stats naturally decreased, but defensive stats
increased. While it could be argued that this change is logical, it still
indicates the player is comfortable with either type of play and can tailor his
strengths to what the match demands from him.
Strengths
- Passing
- Strength
- Adaptation
- Aerial duels
- Intelligence
Weaknesses
- Discipline
- Attacking prowess
