Arsenal: ‘Irresponsible’ Sead Kolasinac is the whole point

Arsenal’s win can’t be celebrated. Of course not. That would be too easy. Especially with Gary Neville lambasting a hodgepodge defensive unit.

It’s important that we be critical of this Arsenal team, even despite the thrilling win they managed over Leicester City. Mainly because there were so many lapses in judgement and skill that the questions essentially ask themselves.

That said, Gary Neville has gone off the deep end quite a bit and has made a bit of a mental gaff himself in his tirade, as quoted by the Independent.

For starters, in defense of Neville, the claim of Sead Kolasinac being dubbed ‘irresponsible’ was in response to one single play where the Bosnian let’s Shinji Okazaki get away. As far as I can tell, he didn’t outright claim that the Bosnian’s entire performance was irresponsible. This was be a far more heated article if he had.

We also have to point out though, that to lay into this defensive unit as he did, he needs to understand that this is not the usual defense for the Gunners. Their four top center back options are out.

But since he has made the claim, let’s talk about it.

First of all, Neville referred to Kolasinac as Arsenal’s “new centerback” which is I think part of the problem. If he sees Kolasinac as straight up center back, then he misses the whole point. Kolasinac was not brought into be a center back, he’s been brought in as a left back to set up shop on flank. Anything else would be silly.

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That said, the ‘irresponsibility’ is exactly the reason why he should be at wingback, which is where he will most certainly be when the responsible defenders return. No questions about that. He isn’t going to get in the way of the Koscielny’s and Mustafi’s in that back three.

When those three are back, there will be far greater coordination with this nightmarish zonal marking that manages to hang around.

Why Neville has had to single out Kolasinac at all is beyond me, really, because he’s had a fantastic game, was voted man of the match and showed us so much of his diverse arsenal.

But I won’t spare Kolasinac from the criticism that is due to him. Losing Okazaki isn’t exactly something that you should be proud of and he can expect to be marking many sneaky players like that in the future. It probably just came down to nerves and he almost certainly learned from it, or it not yet, then he will learn from it when he sees it again.

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So calm down Gary. Kolasinac was a beast out there.

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