Arsenal: Real talk – What the hell did Sead Kolasinac do wrong?

Arsenal have thrown a human tank to the wayside inexplicably and all I want to know is what he could have done differently to prevent this.

Welcome to the second edition of my ‘real talk’ articles, where I go against my better judgment and write solely from an emotional perspective. There are no stats, just raw emotion. Which, in the Arsenal world, is never a good thing. Like, literally, never.

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The subject of this real talk is Sead Kolasinac and this is going to be a much more negative chit-chat then the first in the series about Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

My question, which was a lot of people’s questions not that long ago, but which has sort of fallen by the wayside a bit, is what the hell did Sead Kolasinac do that was so wrong?

We landed this guy on a free and my first impression – a lot of people’s first impression – was ‘alright, we finally have a backbone.’ And what a backbone he was. He saved our asses against Chelsea right from the onset and proceeded to leap out to the assist lead on the team through pure determination and just the right amount of skill sprinkled in.

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He was, and I don’t use this word lightly, perfect. His only flaw was that he would occasionally push too far up or get turned around, but, when possible, he would simply surrender a foul to prevent a quick counter from the opposing side. No harm, no foul. Uh.

The first dose of curiosity came when it was made clear that Kolasinac was a better wingback than he was a straight leftback. This flew in the face of Kolasinac himself saying that he preferred left back and from what we have seen of him both here and in the Bundesliga, he was a perfectly capable left back with the athleticism to match any winger on his side and the strength to absolutely batter them.

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Not just that, but if he wasn’t a good left back, then why was Arsene Wenger using him at centerback earlier in the season? It didn’t make sense.

Now we are at a point where, against Crystal Palace, when Nacho Monreal got hurt, Ainsley Maitland-Niles came on. Against Ostersunds FK, when a lot of older players got rested, Monreal started and Kolasinac had to come off the bench.

The only rational explanation is that Wenger is still giving the Bosnian this homemade winter break, but it’s February, long past when that would have ended.

Which means there are no rational explanations why Kolasinac is getting this treatment. If he would have started in Sweden, I wouldn’t have bothered to write this. I get it, Monreal has been on a tear and, to be fair, he did score that first goal.

But this was a game where Kolasinac should have played, and one that I have to imagine he was wondering why he wasn’t out there. It’s senseless to let a good player go to waste. It’s not like Monreal was a necessity against the Swedish side. Kolasinac is every bit his equal in the skills department, he has been been overtook on the production side of things.

But if you don’t give him a chance to retake the spot, then what’s the point?

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So again I ask, what did he do wrong? Did he fight too hard? Did he tackle too cleanly? Did he throw a frozen piss puck under Wenger’s door? What is it that Wenger doesn’t like about him? Because I am surely at a loss.