Arsenal were beaten 1-0 by Nottingham Forest at the weekend, and the one glaring issue in the Gunners’ team was in the midfield.
The London club were forced to line up with a very makeshift midfield as two inexperienced youngsters – Charlie Patino and Albert Sambi Lokonga had to start against Forest.
The Gunners are incredibly light in the middle of the park right now. Granit Xhaka is once again out, Ainsley Maitland-Niles has departed on loan, while Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny are away at the African Cup of Nations.
Patino and Lokonga was an unconventional midfield pairing, but according to The Athletic, things could have been so much stranger.
Indeed, The Athletic report that Mikel Arteta considered starting Sead Kolasinac in the middle of the park on Sunday – a position he has played in just once in his entire career.
Now, this isn’t to say that Kolasinac is a poor player, but the idea of the Bosnian starting in central midfield is, quite simply, frightening.
Kolasinac lacks positional discipline at the best of times, and in the midfield, we can’t even begin to imagine the types of spaces he may have left in the centre of the park.
If this report is true and Arteta was indeed considering playing Kolasinac in the middle of the park, then the Gunners can’t waste a single second longer in their pursuit of a midfielder.
Arsenal are at the point where they’re having to seriously consider playing a left-back in the centre of the park, and that should have alarm bells ringing in Edu’s head.
The Director of Football is reportedly already considering bringing a midfielder to the club this month, but this report about Kolasinac may scare him into speeding up that process.
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