Arsenal: Nacho Monreal suddenly the most capable center back

Arsenal’s defensive frailties were all down to the two most able-bodied defenders they were supposed to have, but is that now Nacho Monreal?

Arsenal had two massive gaffs against Manchester United, one by Laurent Koscielny and one by Shkodran Mustafi. Each gaff led to a goal and the Gunners lost by two goals. Therefore what this really boils down to is that our defensive mishaps lost us the match.

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That’s a pisser. Because if we just had three Nacho Monreal‘s out there, we would not have suffered two awful mistakes. Which gets me around to my belief that Nacho Monreal may have worked his way into the conversation of becoming out best center back.

I have never been that big on Monreal. When it was him vs Kieran Gibbs, I was always for the latter. But the pure reliability of the Spaniard has won me over and seeing him transition into a left-sided centerback was the icing on the cake.

Nowadays, you won’t see a bad match from him. He is too intelligent. Even as his pace depletes and his strength has never really been there, his instincts as a defender have pushed him up the charts to where he is now.

In terms of numbers, no one is a more solid defender than Monreal. He completes the most tackles and the most interceptions on the team, as well as committing the fewest fouls of any other defender.

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He has the highest pass completion of any qualifying player on the team (90%). And, oddly enough, he has two goals, more than Mustafi and Koscielny combined.

It isn’t a matter of overbearing physical quality for Monreal, it is just a matter of controlling the game and not making mistakes. He loses possession just 0.6 times per appearance. That is less than anyone else on the team by a healthy margin.

It’s amazing to see the Spaniard rise up the ranks. Koscielny has been a bit wonky all year and Mustafi was so convincing in his two performances after returning from injury that I sold out in my belief that he was going to win us the title (oops). All the while, Monreal continued to do his job, not make mistakes, and prove that he is undoubtedly our most capable centerback.

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This casts a lot questions about the future, as Monreal isn’t young. Nor is Koscielny. We need to start finding reliability elsewhere and while we do have some promising candidates, asking them to be the next Monreal may be a bit of a steep task.