As many Arsenal fans will tell you, Granit Xhaka’s disciplinary record in football games leaves a lot to be desired, and his temper can sometimes get him in trouble.
While he didn’t get sent off during the international break, he did get subbed off after an hour against Kosovo, replaced by Remo Freuler.
The Arsenal man then showed some ‘aggressiveness’ at the decision, although Blick columnist Kubilay Türkyilmaz believes the ‘frustration’ was more aimed at himself than his manager.
That’s because these international matches were a great chance for the midfielder ‘to show that he was absolutely necessary, that it doesn’t work without him, that he is indispensable’.
Unfortunately, that didn’t go to plan, as Türkyilmaz explains his performance against Kosovo was ‘below average’, and when Yakin decided to cut his stint on the pitch short, ‘the anger was immense’, and the player was ‘totally fed up’.
There is now the question of whether Switzerland, as a team, need him, and the answer the columnist comes to is ‘no’.
But ‘it’s a good sign’, because it means the national team has enough players good enough to overlook the Arsenal player, but his frustration also shows ‘he is still full of drive and ambition’.
With the World Cup around the corner, this isn’t great for Xhaka, who still remains a regular under Mikel Arteta at club level.
Whether that’s enough to get him a spot in Yakin’s squad in Qatar, however, remains to be seen.
