Rio Ferdinand Slams Performance of Granit Xhaka and Francis Coquelin

Rio Ferdinand has slammed Arsenal’s defensive midfielders – Granit Xhaka and Francis Coquelin – after watching the two players perform extremely poor in the 3-1 loss against Liverpool.


It was yet another defeat for Arsenal, but it almost rules them out of the title race once and for all. Now, the objective for the club is to finish in the top four. However, they have just dropped out of the top four teams following this defeat. Ferdinand believes that Arsenal were at a gross disadvantage in the game since defensive midfieldersXhaka and Coquelin did not know how to defend.

Swiss midfielderXhaka came to the club with a huge reputation following his impressive performances with Borussia Monchengladbach. He also cost an expensive £ 35 million to sign. Yet, the 24-year-old is yet to hit the heights with Arsenal struggling to get the best out of him.Xhaka has already been utilised in a number of positions with limited positivity.Xhaka had been at Mönchengladbach for around four years before his move to Arsenal in the summer of 2016.

Ferdinand claims that one team looked like a well-oiled machine while the other looked totally out of shape. Liverpool returned to form with this crucial victory, which was important especially after the midweek 3-1 loss against Leicester City.

"As a midfielder you've got to have defensive head on you. You've got to think the centre-halves are going to miss the ball.[Granit] Xhaka has to get goal side of the ball of Lallana because he's the one playing in the hole.The two central midfielders for Arsenal don't have a defensive bone in their body. One team looks like a well-drilled machine and the other team looks like a bunch of players thrown together,” said Ferdinand after the game. Unsurprisingly, Coquelin was taken off at half-time to be replaced by Alexis Sanchez.

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