Arsenal: Sead Kolasinac excuses a surplus of bullcrap

Arsenal pulled off a genius move for Sead Kolasinac and have proceeded to piss him off. And the excuse? Well, that’s even worse than the decision in the first place.

Arsenal’s signing of Sead Kolasinac was pure brilliance. A Bundesliga team of the year member for free at a position that we sorely needed help with. There was no one else where. He brought a spine, creativity, drive, hunger, everything.

And now he is sitting, where he can do absolutely nothing for the team he was doing so much to fix.

Kolasinac returned to the starting XI against Crystal Palace and was effective as can be. But that lingering doubt of his prolonged stay resonates with Arsene Wenger‘s “strategy” for the Bosnian.

Arsene Wenger spoke up about the left back’s absence at long last. He said some pretty standard things about giving him a breather and about how he will find time in the back four, but the main hint was what he said first.

“He is highly suited for a wing-back role, for a more offensive role.”

Those were his words, told directly to Arsenal.com.

It’s a pretty standard statement, but what can be inferred by that simple statement is that Wenger prefers to utilize Kolasinac in a more attack-oriented role, since that is what he is better suited for.

Meaning that, by that strand of logic, Ainsley Maitland-Niles is more suited to play a straight fullback role.

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The 20 year old central midfielder, that is. Apparently he is more suited to play a more defensive role than Sead Kolasinac, who Wenger has previously used at centerback, the most defensive role on the pitch. Kolasinac, who is a defender first.

This is complete crap. It’s masking what Wenger is really doing, and that is making a change based on longevity with the team and not based on talent at all. I made this observation a while ago, when the team struggles and a change is needed, it’s not the ineffective, long-term Arsenal guys that get moved, but the shortest-tenured Gunners.

Kolasinac isn’t being benched because of anything tactical. He is being benched because the team is ineffective and it’s easier to bench the new guy than, say, anyone who has been ineffective. I won’t bother to start a list, suffice to say Kolasinac has been one of our few top performers on the year.

To bench him on these grounds – on any grounds – is foolish. And a mistake. And trying to justify that mistake is kind of embarrassing.

Next: Arsenal vs Crystal Palace Player Ratings

Against Crystal Palace, Kolasinac was back to his best like there was never this hiccup. Ideally, that’s where it all ends.

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