Fantasy premier league new player Sead Kolašinac to Arsenal

Fantasy Premier League, New player profiles

Here’s our fantasy premier league new player Sead Kolašinac article.  Here we profile the 23 year old 1.83m (6 foot 0 inch) Bosnian left sided utility defender who has signed for Arsenal from Schalke on a free transfer.  We look at the player, assessing his stats and his fantasy prospects for Arsenal with particular emphasis on fantasy premier league. Obviously the player at this stage doesn’t have a price in FPL

Fantasy premier league new player Sead Kolašinac to Arsenal

There’s alot of stats, graphic and narrative so if that isn’t for you there’s a summary at the end.

Statistics

Here’s the stats for his last 3 years for Schalke in the Bundesliga and the 2 years in the Europa League

League stats




fantasy premier league new player sead kolasinac

European Stats

fantasy premier league new player sead kolasinac

He’s played 18 times for the Bosnian National team but has yet to score.

Other Arsenal fullbacks Squawka stats

Now I’m going to compare his defensive and attacking stats to the other Arsenal fullbacks.  Just for interest I’m also throwing in the ultimate wingback/midfielder of Chelsea’s Marcos Alonso.

These stats are a difficult comparison as only Alonso of the 5 players consistently played as a wingback or midfielder depending on what you want to call the left sided position in the 4 of 3-4-3.

Here’s the defensive stats:

fantasy premier league new player sead kolasinac

Here’s the attacking stats:

fantasy premier league new player sead kolasinac

He shapes up well defensively although in attack it’s a bit more mixed.

Arsenals defensive stats 16/17

Here’s a table I’ve put together to compare Arsenals defensive stats for last season compared to the other top teams.  It’s sorted by clean sheets

fantasy premier league new player sead kolasinac

So over the season very bad.  However since they moved to 3-4-2-1 at the end of the season it was 8 games with 5 goals conceded and 4 clean sheets. That would have given them 19 clean sheets over the season and 24 goals conceded.  Obviously you can’t extrapolate like that but it does illustrate the improvement.

The other point to note is this season was a bit of an outlier with better defensive stats posted in previous seasons.

PROSPECTS




Style of play and position

3 words sum him up in strong, aggressive and versatile.

He’s certainly not slight of build like Monreal and Gibbs.  He’s also known for his aggressive play and won’t be easily pushed off the ball.  Good news though is that his yellow card total isn’t too bad.

Position is the interesting one.  Last season for Schalke he played 9 times as a LB in a 4 man defence.  13 times as a LM/LWB in a 3-4-3 or a 3-5-2.  He also played as a LCB and a RCB in a 3 man backline and to add to that he played as a DM in 1 game.

So very versatile.  If Arsenal continue with 3-4-2-1 then he is probably more likely to play as the LWB/LM in the midfield 4 or less likely as a CB in a back 3 releasing Monreal further up the pitch.  If Arsenal revert to a back 4 then it’s a straight fight between him and Monreal for the LB position

I’m saying this as Gibbs is being talked about as a likely exit but he could also be in the mix for either positions.  However, he seems out of favour and Europa League football seems more likely if he stays

Preseason will give us more clues

The Europa League factor

As Mourinho reminded us, at every opportunity, the Europa League, with the number of games and the travelling, sucks the energy out of your squad.  It also could either lead to mass rotation or hopefully an A and a B squad.  That needs monitoring.  I would be surprised if there isn’t a 2 tier team for the PL and the Europa competitions.

His stats

It’s difficult to judge and compare stats as comparable player positions and his have changed over the course of last season.  However he has good underlying defensive stats and the 3-4-2-1 formation gives us hope that Arsenal can produce a decent number of clean sheets

It’s a well publicised fact that he had more assists than any other defender in the Bundesliga last season with 5.  However his underlying attacking stats aren’t as comprehensively good as his colleagues or Alonso.

His price and classification

Picking a defender is often a trade off between price and attacking potential.  I’m not going to speculate on his potential price but what least season showed is that wing backs or left midfielders classified as defenders in a 3-4-3 formation are a great option.  Marcos Alonso showed that to great effect.

The questions is whether those players, and Alonso is the most at risk, are classified in FPL as defenders or midfielders in 17/18.  The way the formation is presented as a 3-4-3 does give risk that those players could be classified as midfielders.

Sead Kolašinac played equally in the midfield positions of 3-4-3 and 3-5-2 and defensive positions equally so he will be an interesting test.  Again we’ll know soon enough.  However as a midfielder his attraction would be severely diminished.

Wenger quotes

“He’s very versatile. He can play central defender in a three, he can play wing-back in a three as well, he can play full-back in a four,” “So overall he has the qualities to give us different options at the back in different systems.

“He’s very compact as a player, very strong and determined in the challenges. He’s good in the air as well, so overall I believe he has all the attributes to adapt to English football. The game here is very demanding physically on the commitment front and he has the ingredients to adapt to that.”

“What he will give us is the fact that he’s a player who can give assists, who can go forward, who can contribute good crosses,”

“It’s very important that we have that as well, because we have Kieran Gibbs, we have Nacho Monreal and we have him. But Nacho plays a lot now in central defence and in a three-man system I see him in there. So overall, I think [Kolasinac] can contribute a lot to help us to be more dangerous going forward.”

How does he rate as a prospect

Here’s the best scenario.  Arsenal continue with 3-4-2-1 he starts on the left of a midfield 4 but is classified as a defender in FPL.  There has to be a reasonable chance of that starting position especially given Wengers words above. Then it will depend on his price comparison with Bellerin if he stays and his price generally.

The worst scenario is that Arsenal revert to a back 4 and Monreal takes that place and he becomes a squad player for the Europa League and domestic cups.

I think there is still a reasonable chance of the best scenario but without sounding like a broken record the opening of the 17/18 FPL game and pre-season will give us some huge clues.  Arsenal will play in the Community Shield at Wembley before the season starts which should showcase a full strength team and favoured formation.

Summary

A young but relatively experienced international LB/LM who is strong, aggressive and versatile

Good defensive stats and relatively good attacking stats.  However comparisons are difficult due to his and comparable players positional differences

His future position is difficult to assess. The best case is he plays in the left side of a 4 in 3-4-2-1 which gives him greater attacking potential and will hopefully continue Arsenals defensive improvement from last year.  Wenger has given some encouraging words for this scenario.

Rotation is a risk unless Wenger divides the squad into 2 for the Europa League and some of the domestic cups.

Price will be important depending on position and Bellerin comparision if Bellerin stays.

Classification as a defender or midfielder in FPL needs clarification and will be crucial

Pre-season, the Community Shield and the opening of the FPL site will be hugely important in assessing his prospects

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