Granit Xhaka has been in superb form for Sunderland so far this season
Week on week, clinic after clinic, the reality that Granit Xhaka - former Bundesliga champion, recent outside Ballon d’Or shout, and 139-cap Swiss international - wears the captain’s armband for Sunderland becomes more and more surreal.
At the time of his arrival on Wearside, eyebrows everywhere were sent shooting through roofs, and the question many were asking - or rather, the only logical means by which such a transfer made sense in their minds - was whether the 32-year-old was in fact on the downwards slope of his career? Had his legs started to go, was his range of distribution growing complacent, had his famed steely mentality rusted around the edges? The answer, of course, is “no”.
And if any tangible proof of the influence and the impact that Xhaka has had on Regis Le Bris’ side were required, we need only look as far as Whoscored’s latest statistical reading on the Sunderland skipper. According to the number-crunchers, no midfielder in the Premier League has registered more forward passes than Xhaka so far this term, with the Black Cats talent having recorded 75 across his four top flight outings to date.
That figure, dizzying as it is, speaks to the conductor-like role that the former Bayer Leverkusen man has assumed in this side - sitting deep, dictating play, and teasing passes through the lines in an effort to get those of fleeter foot in front of him up and running.
Dig a little deeper, however, and you come to realise that Xhaka’s engine room mastery is genuinely just about on par with anything the Premier League has to offer at the present moment in time. According to FBRef, for instance, he has had the ninth-most touches of any player in the division at the time of writing; a stat made all the more eye-catching when you consider that of the eight names in front of him, four are centre-backs - a position that tends to see more possession than most in the modern game.
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Similarly, Xhaka currently ranks seventh in the Premier League for attempted passes, and is 14th for passes completed, while also squeezing into the top 10 for successful interceptions made.
Taken in combination, those stats paint a picture of a midfield general who has already made a habit of seizing contests by the scruff of the neck and shaping them to his will. Anybody who has watched Xhaka since he made the switch to Sunderland would readily attest to just how eye-catching he has been, but it is only when his output is measured against his peers that you fully realise the extent of how pivotal he has become to the Black Cats in such a short period of time.
Truthfully, when Xhaka signed for Sunderland, the hope was that he would inject a real measure of quality into their bid for survival. But not even the most optimistic of Mackems could have predicted just how well he would carry out that brief.
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