With today’s news that Bosnian strongman Sead Kolasinac has been ruled out for eight weeks with a knee injury picked up against Chelsea, now is a good time to work out his exact value to the Arsenal team.
Sead Kolasinac joined Arsenal on a free transfer last summer, so how did his debut season in the English Premier League go?
Player Profile
As you can see, Sead Kolasinac loved a left-wing rampage last season and, arguably, was more dangerous in the matches that Wenger played a back three. He liked to spend a lot of time in the opposition half.
However, how did he do statistically compared to his time in the Bundesliga and compared to the other Arsenal left-back in the squad, Nacho Monreal?
Player Comparison
Using Squawka we have compared Sead Kolasinac across the English Premier, Europa League and Bundesliga as well as comparing him fellow Arsenal defender Nacho Monreal.
The first thing that stands out is that Sead Kolasinac’s form regressed last season when you compare him to his final season in the Bundesliga. This often happens when a player switches leagues and does suggest that there is more to come from the defender.
That said, when you compare Sead Kolasinac’s Premier League performance to that of Nacho Monreal last season, it makes interesting reading.
Sead Kolasinac averaged 1.56 tackles won per 90 in the Premier League last season compared to Nacho Monreal’s 1.15.
Monreal averaged more interceptions than Kolasinac in the Premier League, 2.09 to 1.13.
However, when it comes to their total scores Monreal massively outscores Sead Kolasinac’s statistics. Monreal averaged 20.34 per 90 and Kolasinac 6.74.
This is an interesting find which has to come down to the mini-run of scoring Monreal went on last season. When you compare their total scores in the Europa League, for example, Kolasinac reverses this outcome.
Conclusion
The point of this article was to work out whether losing Sead Kolasinac for eight to ten weeks at the start of this season is likely to hit Arsenal hard. Considering he started each of the International Champions Cup matches at left-back it is fair to assume that Unai Emery has him earmarked to be a key defender. The door is now wide open for Nacho Monreal to make the shirt his own in the early part of the Premier League season.
