Nacho Monreal says he’s been unlucky with injuries this season and put that, and his summer escapades at the Confederations Cup as the reasons why he’s fallen behind Kieran Gibbs in the pecking order.
The Spanish international was late back to the start of the season which allowed the England man to get in the team, but when Monreal had regained his place, injury meant he missed out again.
Speaking to AS (via Sport Witness), the former Malaga man said, “I was hoping to play a lot more, I have not had luck with injuries. I’ve now overcome a problem in the big toe of the left foot.
“I started the season a month later because of the Confederations and had back problems. Wenger put Gibbs in and the team won and won.
“I got back to being a starter, but then came the injury.”
Monreal didn’t have his most assured game against Everton on Sunday, but it’s probably worth pointing out that he doesn’t look anywhere near as shaky with Laurent Koscielny inside him as opposed to Thomas Vermaelen.
With the World Cup on the horizon, and lots of competition for the left-back places in the Spanish squad, he needs to find something approaching the consistency and form he showed earlier in the summer if he wants to make the trip to Brazil this summer.
And with Gibbs still sidelined, Arsenal could do with him finding that form asap.
I have to say that whilst he is a improvement on Santos, i still don’t think he is a great left back. Id have Gibbs every time, tv5 or not.
Inclined to agree. Monreal has shown himself to be a competent player at times, but I struggle to see much more than that from him.
I’d buy two new left backs – when i take off the red and white tinted glasses – then Gibbs aint that great.
or maybe steve bould isn’t
fuck it stick flamini at left back
Going forward Gibbs is great and his recovery speed helps, ok I mean helped until recently anyway. The problem with our full backs is that they aren’t wingers or wide forwards even if they do play up there
Kieran Gibbs may not be your typical “Brazilian” style full back, but the consistency in his performances is as good as anyone available.
He’s not a bad left back at all, I’ve watched him play many times and all that’s happening now is a rough patch, sadly most of the team are in the same boat
The problems of monreal should not be blamed on the verminator, that is very unfair.
Love it when Wenger plays both Gibbs and Monreal on the left.
Its like belt and braces. Or two condoms.
Monreal can be very effective going forward. When defending against pacey players ,however, he struggles and this has been compounded recently by arsenals “gameplan” of pushing the full backs high up the pitch. Gibbs copes with it much more assuredly due to his pace.
His acceleration is really slow, so it becomes easy to get past him if you’re pacy. We do need an upgrade but I don’t think Wenger will go for someone since it’s not a priority.
Also his awful tracking of Robben in the first leg, these little things separate us from better teams like Bayern.
He lacks pace. That’s his key problem. He bombs forward and doesn’t have the pace to recover. So he is often out of position. Gibbs has much more physical tools than Monreal.
When you consider how long it took Per to settle in, I think it’s unfair to judge a defender until he has had 10 – 15 games in a row. (which I don’t think he has ever had?)
Lets give him some time guys he will come good. He is good enough to be a second choice LB.
Arsenal 3-1 Wigan.
COYG.
FOYS.
He’s mediocre, at best. We should aspire to better things
Hes another one ok with the weaker teams but struggles with good opposition but in his defence it’s the way AW wants the team to attack its all acceleration and no hand brake at times, we cant seem to know when to defend too much gung ho and teams just kills us on the break plan B is non existent
Please don’t mention the hand brake!
Why should he play like a twat if Vermaelan is playing? Does Vermaelan cause him to have periodic fucking brain seizures in games? Does it make him forget how to tackle!…how to run? Does he need his fucking mummy if Vermaelan plays? Bollox….he’s just shit.
I’m inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt until next season. If he stays healthy (what am I saying, of course he won’t, this is Arsenal) …
He did some excellent cameos at the start of the season. I remember a lot of people here wanted him to play more instead of Gibbs so obviously he’s a skilled player who, as the rest of our team, has been lacking form which is understandable because of all his injuries. Be supportive of the squad instead of crying BUY SOMEONE ELSE and immediately dismissing a player who’s gone cold. I get the feeling like 75% of this website should go and support city or chelsea where it’s the norm to act like spoiled babies who always desperately believes the… Read more »
and before the Wenga OUT mafia comes running. YES I do believe too that our squad needs improvement in certain areas. However I don’t see the point in dismissing our backup LB who’s been decent and doing what we’ve been asking of him for a year as complete rubbish just because he’s hit a rough patch. It’s amazing people still do this even after Welsh Jesus resurrection this year
We are used to great left backs at The Arsenal. Mcnab, Nelson, Sansom, Winterburn, Cole….Monreal isn’t fit to tie their boot laces.
He’s not supposed to
“he doesn’t look anywhere near as shaky with Laurent Koscielny INSIDE HIM as opposed to Thomas Vermaelen.”
Ooo errr.
Sorry, I regressed back to a 14 year old when I read that. Now where’s my Naff Naff coat.
“…Laurent Koscielny inside him as opposed to Thomas Vermaelen” Haha
Took a big step back this year and was obviously a target in the tactics of opposing managers when he played. I’d splash the cash on Luke Shaw and let him and Gibbs alternate. Solves your LB problem for the next 5 years at least.
i think Shaw is destined for Chelsea/Man City/Man Utd – someone is going to pay a lot for him and we know it won’t be Arsenal…
I think Azpilicueta has been the best LB in the league this year. Some may argue Bains, but Azpilicueta was a RB last year. Also, I thank Ivanovic has been the best RB this year (damn Chelsea!) – he offers a little more going forward than Zabaletta.
Sagna, KOS, and Mert are our best options. The rest are replaceable I’m afraid. I like Gibbs but he gets caught napping and (like much of our squad) lacks the required physicality needed in the PL.
I agree that some of our players are in the sort of grey area between average and world class (Arteta, Monreal, Giroud…) but look at Everton, many of their players are similar standard and they played like Bayern Munich against us. I think our squad is obviously a bit short and very short if you include injuries. But the balance of the team is difficult because we have many players who each provide individual aspects (Walcott – fast and good finisher, Giroud – strong and good hold up play, Podolski – clinical finisher) but we lack the Hazard/Müller/Ribery type player… Read more »
COYG!
Josh, I have the same record (extended back to Highbury too).
Maybe we could persuade the others on here to club together and get us both season tickets 😉
Never understood why people wanted him to start ahead of Gibbs. He’s good, but not better.
he’s nacho your cup of tea left back is all you lot are saying eh?
*gets coat
im embarrassed