Arsenal: Sead Kolasinac must sort out the snowball effect

Arsenal didn’t have a lot of standout performers, and Sead Kolasinac certainly wasn’t one of the few. He needs to sort himself out soon.

Arsenal‘s pitiful draw against Wolverhampton saw the shoe on the other foot. It wasn’t their defense that was at fault for a paltry effort, it was a stale attack that, no matter what angle they tried to approach the Wolves’ defense by they found no success. There was no breaking them down.

Through the middle, they had all the tools they should have needed to score a goal at home, let alone put a couple of efforts on goal before the hour mark.

Out wide, they had their two attacking fullbacks in Bellerin and Sead Kolasinac, but neither one of them was able to string together cohesive attacking play that didn’t end in a turnover and subsequent Wolverhampton counterattack either.

Sead Kolasinac has only just returned to health, and while I found him to be a point of shining pride against a potent Liverpool side, I found his Wolverhampton form to be more on the negative side of things.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

That’s the thing with Kolasinac too, when things go bad, they more times than not just keep getting worse. It’s like once that first mistake comes in, or that first bad run of play, he finds himself in a moment of fragility where he has to hit a stroke of luck or suffer a gradually worsening effort.

Kolasinac’s attacking play was not that effective. His defending was less so. He didn’t really put together much of anything and he wasn’t secure with the ball. It reminds me of old Alex Iwobi, who, when things went bad, they went really bad.

It’s all about establishing a baseline, or reverting to basics. When things start going bad, it’s not necessary to keep trying to conquer the world. Just get back to the basics. Try simple passes, simple defending, don’t try to be a hero.

This was a big turning point for Xhaka, when he learned to stop compiling on his mistakes and, rather, bear down and get back to basics. That’s made him grow into a proper Premier League midfielder.

Kolasinac needs to make that same step. He needs to shake this snowball effect where bad things get worse and worse. He has too much talent and ability to get lost in a maze of lacking confidence. I still think he can be a top-tier fullback if he can learn how to hit the reset and start over mid-match.