Arsenal: Nacho Monreal following similar path as Santi Cazorla

Arsene Wenger has made a habit out of utilizing his Arsenal players in whatever ways best fit the club, with Santi Cazorla being the most successful. Is Nacho Monreal next?

Arsenal has made a frustrating habit out of playing players out of position. It just seems to be Arsene Wenger‘s thing ever since Thierry Henry gave up the live of a winger to become the greatest striker in Premier League history.

To Wenger’s credit, when it goes well, it goes very well. The problem is that it works in the opposite direction too. When it goes bad it goes very, very bad. Take Theo Walcott for instance. Or Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

But one of the better success stories of late has to be Santi Cazorla. A small midfielder, the Spaniard was always a creative attacker and made his living in the forward positions of the formation, where he didn’t have to track back as much and where he could be left to do his attacking.

Then he got moved to the defensive midfield, a position that never seemed like it would be a good fit, given his smaller size, but strangely enough, it worked out very well. And he even ended up becoming a pretty successful ball winner in the process.

Nacho Monreal is following that same trend. Monreal has always been a left back, but with the changeover to a three back set, he slipped into a center back role and, sure enough, it’s worked out just like Cazorla’s move did – he is proving surprisingly adequate at a position that we didn’t think would be all that great for him.

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Yet again, mostly because of his size.

But after seeing how capable he was against Chelsea, with his aggressive decision making and his positive demeanor, it may go down as yet another success story of a player changing positions and proving himself to be a quality utility guy.

This is becoming a trend for Arsene Wenger. I call it player recycling. Rather than sell players, he retools them into something the club needs. It doesn’t always work, obviously, because not all recycled materials are going to be as good as a shiny new signing, but in cases like Cazorla and now Monreal, you have older players who are (or were, in Cazorla’s case) serving the club well in different facets than they used to.

Next: 5 Things Learned Against Chelsea

The big question now is who will get the shift next. It looks like Wenger already has his heart set on making Mohamed Elneny a center back.

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