Arsenal: Sead Kolasinac must avoid the pitfalls of the past

Sead Kolasinac is not a very Arsene Wenger-type player. That, though, has been said about several Arsenal players in the past; the Bosnian must avoid their pitfalls as he attempts to stiffen and strengthen a weak and wobbly Gunners’ team.

Arsene Wenger, or at least the late-Arsene Wenger of the past decade or so, has a type of player. Every manager, you may say, has a type of player. Jose Mourinho wants size and stature; Pep Guardiola pursues vision and creativity; Jurgen Klopp strives for energy and effervescence. For Wenger, it is the tidy and the technical that float his, and subsequently Arsenal’s, boat.

He hoards such players, collects them as if they are stamps, puts them on show to boast about his latest addition. But a good football team, they alone do not make. For football is not just a game of pretty passing and intricate triangles. It is, after all, a sport of physical and athletic feats.

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For Arsenal, that has, maddeningly, been overlooked. There are few that have restrained from criticising Wenger’s building of his squad, scrutinising the similarity of his players, dwarfed by their imposing and overpowering opponents. Throughout his obsession, though, there have been hints that Wenger gets it — he certainly used to get it. The strolling presence of Patrick Vieira, with equal measure of balance and power; the bite and steel of Lauren and Lee Dixon; the steely-eyed grit of Gilberto Silva are all proof of that fact.

There have been several players that have been heralded as the ushering in of a changing approach: Abou Diaby was the first. A carbon-copy of Vieira, there was but one issue: injuries. Then came Alex Song, who, like Diaby, strode through the midfield with legs like tree trunks, stretching out, shielding the ball, combatting his way through the mire entanglement of lesser men. And finally, Francis Coquelin. For what he lacked in natural ability, he more than made up for in heart and desire, throwing himself, recklessly, into every tackle, every challenge, every interception. Every moment of danger, he was there, unerringly committed to the cause.

These were not archetypal Wenger players; they were the new and the different and fans embraced it as if a whisper of a memory of a team consigned to the history books. And now, Arsenal have the next in a long line of unnaturally-Wenger signings.

During Sunday’s 0-0 draw with Chelsea on Sunday, Sead Kolasinac continued to impress his rather substantial frame on the minds of those watching. Garth Crooks described him as ‘one of those North London brick toilets that withstood bombing raids during the Second World War’; Barney Ronay, in his usually eclectic and invigorating style, saw him ‘ambling about on legs that resemble industrial scale sacks of millet, great bulky elbows dangling at his side like a man carrying a pair of rolled-up carpets under his armpits, radiating not just power and willing, but a sense of cheerful optimism.’

Kolasinac is not easy to forget; the presence he takes up in people’s minds is only matched by his presence on the pitch. This is a player who brings a bulk and a brawn to the Arsenal side that Wenger has, seemingly, avoided. His attraction to the attractive has seen him veer from the effective. Kolasinac signals a return to the pragmatic.

However, for all of his early praise, he has played just five games for his new club. We have been here before, just with different names on lips. Kolasinac must prove that he can avoid the pitfalls of the past; he must prove not to be a fleeting presence, but, rather, the exact opposite: imposingly everpresent.

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