Arsenal: Complete player rankings for the 2018/19 season

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18. Nacho Monreal

There is one thing we always say about Nacho Monreal – he’s perfectly adequate. He puts in a 6.0 effort every time he takes the pitch. Occasionally he’ll slide and underperform, occasionally he’ll overshoot and do a bit better, but in the grand scheme, he is perfectly adequate at what he does.

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As he gets older, that is becoming less true. He is struggling to keep pace with the increased intensity of the Premier League and it shows in a big way, particularly this year. He has been used as a left-sided centerback, leftback and wingback, and it’s obvious that the centerback option is the best one, coming from his declining speed.

But even then, he lacks the physicality to be a true centerback, and that hinders him as well.

Rather than averaging a 6.0 this season, let’s say Monreal averaged a 5.7. Even in such a slight decline, it’s been noticeable, and even as he remains a great servant to the club, we desperately need an upgrade to see the defense shored up.

As of writing, no decision has been made on if he will get an extension to stay at the club, but it’s a tough nut to crack either way. On the one hand, you want to do better. On the other hand, if you obviously can’t do better, than you can do far worse.

Time will tell.

Andy (17), Josh (18)

No. 17 coming up next.