Arsenal Vs Southampton: Sead Kolasinac absent hard felt

Arsenal were largely controlled by Southampton in Sunday’s 3-2 defeat. And there was one player’s absence that was particularly hard felt: Sead Kolasinac.

It was a rather damning loss, a lowly Southampton side that have toiled towards the lower reaches of the Premier League holding the 22-game unbeaten Arsenal at arm’s length for almost all of the 90 minutes. This was the low point of the season to this stage.

Find the Pain in the Arsenal Podcast here – Assessing Unai Emery’s first term

And many of the Gunners’ problems stemmed from their inability to break the relentless Southampton press. Ralph Hasenhuttl, a Jurgen Klopp disciple renowned for his incessant Gegenpressing style, had just taken over at St. Mary’s. His thumbprint was all over this Southampton performance. They completely shackled Arsenal.

More from Pain in the Arsenal

In large part, the difficulties stemmed from an inability to provide an outlet to drive from the defensive third into the middle and attacking thirds. With Granit Xhaka playing at centre-half, the best passer was too deep to regularly feed the front three, and there was a lack of speed and dribbling ability in the midfield to surge past the Southampton press.

The 3-4-3 shape that Unai Emery employed demands the wing-backs to produce outlets in the wide channels. The centre-halves are merely there to provide a deep foundation in the defensive third, while there are only two central midfielders, making building through the middle difficult. The best way to break out is down the flanks through a wing-back overlapping a winger. However, on Sunday, Arsenal had an injured Hector Bellerin and limited Nacho Monreal on either flank. The wide outlets were not the best, to say the least.

In recent weeks, Emery has leant on the athleticism of Sead Kolasinac to man the left flank. The bulldozing Bosnian has some very noticeable and exploitable defensive vulnerabilities. His balance is poor, he is easily beaten by shifty, quick wingers, and he makes some rather curious positional decisions that leave the defence in trouble. But at wing-back, where is pushed a little higher up the pitch, these shortcomings are hidden somewhat, with his hustling, bustling style taking a greater effect.

Kolasinac, though, suffered a thigh problem in training on Friday and missed the match through injury, a surprise and critical omission, given the depleted defensive numbers Emery was already having to deal with. And his absence was hard felt. Monreal is an experienced, consistent defender, but, especially coming off an injury, he struggles to bound up and down the flank for 90 minutes.

It was noticeable that Arsenal not only could not break out from their own half with Kolasinac on the sidelines, but they also struggled to create without that true wide threat. The defensive vulnerabilities of Kolasinac are concerning and do cause trouble at times. But as a wing-back, his influence on the team is undeniable, and it was most noticeable in its absence on Sunday.

If Emery sticks to a back-four, Kolasinac’s value plummets. But in the 3-4-3, he is the perfect option as a left wing-back. It is a shame, then, that he could be set for a spell on the sidelines at just the wrong time.