Yeah the price now was a little higher than I remember, but I think he's a significant upgrade on Xhaka both offensively and defensively, we probably just a difference of opinion on that one...
I think we overrate Xhaka's defense. His best attribute is his passing. Last year Granit Xhaka had a total of 13 blocks, 80 aerial duels and a total number of 67 tackles. Youri Tielemans has a total of 19 blocks, 59 aerial duels and a total number of 154 tackles. xG was 4.7 to 1.93 in favor of Tielemans. And that doesn't take into account the red card/penalty given issue with Xhaka, which I think is a massive issue. I've seen him go to ground far too often in our own box for my liking. Other stats show similar disparity between the 2 in most categories from what I've seen.
I don't necessarily want to just dump on Xhaka, he's been good in the preseason, but for me we've already been there/done that and it's just a matter of time before he does something else that causes us to lose a match. Time to transition out of the Xhaka era IMO. It is hard for coaches not to pick him though, that is true, and could be an issue.
Tielemans played in a deep midfield role early in his career and although not ideal, I'd rather see him as the Partey backup then switching to a double pivot and seeing Xhaka slide tackling people in our own box. I think with the defensive solidity of Gabriel/Saliba it's possible but not ideal. Ideally we would drop 50-60M on a new high quality DM but that's not happening this window.
