Sead Kolasinac
For the first time in Arsene Wenger's Arsenal career, his team has finished outside the top four and will not be competing in next season's UEFA Champions League. The Frenchman has been given a two-year extension and he knows that this is likely to be his final contract, so he would want to win some titles and bow out on a high. He will be looking to strengthen his side for the task ahead and he has already added a new player to his ranks. The player that Arsene has added to his ranks is the Bosnian left-back Sead Kolasinac and I will identify five reasons while he should be a success at Arsenal.
1.The 23-year-old will offer flexibility and a steeliness that the Arsenal defence have lacked. Sead is a well-known left-back who has shown in the past that he can be a very powerful and tough central defender or defensive midfielder. He will give Arsene Wenger options in the defence and midfield, depending on what formation the Frenchman chooses to play.
2. Sead will contribute to the attack as his stats showed in the Bundesliga last season where he scored three and assisted five goals for his club, which made him the defender with the highest number of assists. So, if Arsene Wenger decides to continue with the 3-4-3 formation he experimented with towards the end of last season, Sead Kolasinac will definitely contribute positively with goals and assists from the left-wing back position.
3. Kolasinac is tall, relentless and aggressive and also relishes a physical challenge. These attributes will be useful in defending set plays, where they need all the help they can get, as we saw them get bullied and punished by set pieces in some games from last season (the loss to West Brom at the Hawthorns easily comes to mind here). Former Schalke manager, Jens Keller, says of the player: “Sead is a tree... He gets hit on the head, but just shakes it off and continues to play superbly.”
4. He might be relatively young, but he already has a lot of experience. At club level, he amassed 123 games for Schalke and 17 country appearances. He was part of the Bosnian team at the last World Cup in Brazil.
5. His mental toughness is very impressive and a glaring example of that trait was shown at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where as a 20-year-old defender, just three minutes into his country's first game of the tournament against a star-studded Argentine side, he scored an own goal. The young defender dusted himself up after that error and put up a very impressive display for the remainder of that game. His new team has the tendency to wilt under pressure so that grittiness and tough mentality will be a useful and welcome addition to the Gunners.
Arsene Wenger has also added the young and exciting Nigerian youngster, Henry Onyekuru to his ranks and the Frenchman will surely make more signings in this off-season. A lot of Arsenal fans don't seem convinced with these two new acquisitions and will be waiting for marquee names to join the team and bolster their squad for next season's assault on the English Premier League title. Until that happens, we’ll keep watching.
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