Arsenal: Kieran Gibbs Deserves Chance Over Nacho Monreal
Despite Monreal being a contender for team of the season last year, 2016-17 hasn’t been quite so good. Gibbs deserves an Arsenal chance at this point.
Last season Nacho Monreal was Mr Consistent for Arsenal – playing 37 of 38 games in the BPL. Meanwhile, Hector Bellerin was becoming the best right back in the league on the other side. It was the perfect full back pairing. Pace from Hector and positioning from Nacho became a perfect match.
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However, this season for both hasn’t exactly started how they would have liked. Whilst Bellerin hasn’t shown last season’s form, he has done what Monreal did last season – he’s been consistent. On the other hand, Monreal is suffering against pacy wingers and probably will not have the legs to complete all the league games this season- bringing Kieran Gibbs back into the equation.
Gibbs’ starts will be infrequent and split up throughout the year as Monreal is still first choice. Gibbs should be given a run in the team now, for a consistent amount of time, perhaps just five matches.
My first reason is pace. Monreal isn’t slow, but he’s not as fast as Gibbs by a long way. To prove this, here are Gibbs’ and Monreal’s pace stats on FIFA since 2013:
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2013- Nacho: 81 Gibbs: 84
2014- Nacho: 78 Gibbs: 84
2015- Nacho: 78 Gibbs: 81
2016- Nacho: 77 Gibbs: 81
As you can see, Kieran has been considerably faster over the years and pace is now such an important thing for full-backs. Branislav Ivanovic, Aleksandar Kolarov and Bacary Sagna have all been exposed for their lack of pace and have in some cases cost their teams the game, causing criticism from pundits and fans alike. This makes Gibbs able to track the fastest right wingers, something Monreal just can’t do.
Another reason why Gibbs should start is that he’s more of a goalscorer. Everyone loves a left-back who can get forward and score and Gibbs is no different. He’s scored six goals in all competitions since breaking through from the youth team and many of them have been spectacular. Consider his volley against Swansea.
On the other hand, Monreal has only scored two goals for Arsenal, and one was a deflected pot shot from the edge of the area. However, it’s not the full-backs’ job to score goals, their job is to defend. And you can’t argue that Monreal wins on that front so it all evens out in the end.
Finally, Kieran deserves a chance because he’s stuck with Arsenal through thick and thin. He’s been back up to Clichy and patiently waited his turn. When he got it Wenger signed Andre Santos and he was in the first team for a short, short while. Eventually, Gibbs had his shot but then in came Monreal and he fell out of favour again.
Gibbs never truly nailed down the left-back berth, but in all fairness, he never was given a long enough chance. Moreover, throughout all of this, he’s never complained and just got on with being Arsene’s park the bus left winger.
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So, Gooners, what do you think? Gibbs or Monreal?