Xherdan Shaqiri is Rolling Back the Years Under Frank Klopas
It was just a little over a week ago that we asked if there was still hope for Xherdan Shaqiri to succeed in Chicago. Nine days and one new manager later, the answer is clearly a resounding yes.
A lot has changed in those nine days. Last Saturday, the Fire stumbled to a 3-0 thumping in Nashville, with Shaqiri showing little ability to impact the game. Apart from one or two nice passes, he could not help the Fire get out of the mess that had put themselves in in the Music City. On Monday, the club announced that it had decided to part ways with Head Coach Ezra Hendrickson and replace him with Frank Klopas.
Whatever it was that Klopas said to Shaqiri after being promoted to the head coaching position seems to have worked. Shaqiri looked excellent against St. Louis during the week and showed a level of passion that Fire fans haven’t seen all season. He followed that up with a man of the match performance against St. Louis again at the weekend, providing the game-winning assist off of a free kick for Rafa Czichos.
“Today, [Shaqiri] played like a DP,” Klopas told the media after the match. “Like he should play every game… some of those moments where he gets in a final third, he's gonna be able to finish because he has that special quality. His work rate today, his numbers, were incredible. And I see him getting stronger with every game that he plays."
The Shaqiri that turned up at Soldier Field yesterday was the Shaqiri that was promised to the fans when he was unveiled last February. His performance was a breath of fresh air, a welcome change from the version of him that had looked like a shadow of himself for most of this season so far. While it’s true, working his way back to full fitness is a factor in his improving form, the coaching change appears to have played a role too.
“I think everybody knows how important Frank is for this club,” Shaqiri told us post-game. “How good his knowledge is about football… I think this is a big win for the Club. You can see [his effect on] the team straight away. How he explains things to the team, the message, how we want to play, and we tried to put it straight away on the pitch. And yeah, we did very well in the last two games.”
The DP later added that while he has looked better the last two games, he can still achieve higher levels and further help the team win games.
“I think it's important that I'm trying to help the team with my performances. I try to be as fit as possible and I'm feeling better now… I still can improve and I think I'm not 100% still, but I'm in a good way.”
Shaqiri started the match alongside 19-year-old Brian Gutiérrez; it was the first time both started an MLS match as part of the attacking quartet since the opening game of the season, as Shaqiri missed lots of time with injury, and even when he was available, Hendrickson preferred to start just one or the other. Both prefer to play as the #10 underneath the striker, so it has been a challenge to figure out the best alignment to get the most out of both of them, but Klopas seems to have found a working solution.
“As you can see, we are good footballers, we can combine very well,” says Shaqiri. “We have to put this every weekend and sometimes it doesn't go well, but we know the quality we have and we have to be confident to play more with the ball than we did in the past. You saw it already today, that we are a bit more confident already with the ball and try to play more football.”
Chances are, that duo will take the field from the start once again this Wednesday. The Fire will visit Charlotte for a difficult road matchup against a team who caused some trouble for them last week.
“We have a lot of games to play and I'm looking forward to it,” Shaqiri added. “You try to win as much as possible.”
If the $8 Million Man can replicate his work rate and performance from Saturday, the Men in Red will have a much greater chance of accomplishing that goal.
