Player Focus: Fine-Tuned Montero Coming Good at Swansea

In the wake of Arsenal throwing away a lead for the second time in just five days, it was difficult to escape the overriding conclusion from the game that there was something seriously wrong with Arsène Wenger’s team. With his side a goal to the good, his players piled forwards in search of a second to kill the game off, and it was with them lacking shape and organisation as Swansea broke that irreparable damage was done.

There are undoubtedly issues to be resolved at Arsenal – most glaringly the need for a little bit of pragmatism in the absence of a properly adequate sole holding midfielder, particularly when holding onto a lead is the priority – but at the same time a great deal of praise should be placed upon the Swans for coming from a goal down with as little as 18 minutes remaining to claim 3 more points and move back into the Premier League’s top 5.

The pace with which they attacked an Arsenal side that looked unbelievably frail both at the Liberty Stadium and at home to Anderlecht last week caused the visitors all kinds of problems. On a wet Welsh afternoon, the biggest threat, in the absence of first choice wingers Nathan Dyer and Wayne Routledge, was Jefferson Montero. Up against – and often isolated with – Calum Chambers at right-back, he made the day into something of a pathetic fallacy, with Montero making the youngster’s afternoon as torrid as the weather.

The Ecuadorian’s rise to prominence has been a rather gradual one. Having started off but failed to break through properly at Guayaquil’s Club Sport Emelec in his native country, Montero won himself a move across the Atlantic at Villarreal in 2009 when he was still only 20. Given that Emelec have also produced the likes of Ecuador’s record cap-holder Iván Hurtado, and later talents Enner Valencia and Christian Noboa, there were always going to be casting glances from across the water.

However, when he got to Spain, first team opportunities were few and far between; he spent a year in the Villarreal B team, and spent much of the following two seasons on loan at relegation strugglers Levante and Betis after making just 9 appearances – all from the bench – in the league for the Yellow Submarine. At Levante, Montero made just 4 league starts and contributed neither a goal nor an assist. In 2011/12 at Betis, he played 32 times in La Liga but scored just 1 goal and provided just 3 assists (though it is worth noting his only goal came against Real Madrid). With 3.6 dribbles, 1.9 shots and 0.9 key passes per game, there were signs of potential, and he managed an impressive WhoScored rating of 7.17, but it wasn’t enough to keep him in Europe beyond the summer of 2012.

It wasn’t, therefore, until this year that he came back into the limelight, doing so for Ecuador at the World Cup in Brazil this summer. It was a tough – and rather short – stay in Brazil for the Ecuadorians, who crashed out at the group stage after failing to beat France and Switzerland to the top two spots. Montero was a lively figure throughout, and the lasting image of him was of a tricky winger that lacked end product against the world’s best teams. He failed to find a teammate with a single one of his 7 cross attempts. There was talent there, but it needed to be nurtured.

And so, Garry Monk decided to bring him to the Liberty Stadium, where he could mould him as a winger and help fine-tune him into a Premier League quality player. He was given limited chances in the first couple of months of the season, and played more than 30 minutes on only 1 occasion before mid-October. Since then, however, he has started Swansea’s last 3 league games and has grabbed the opportunity with both hands.

He has 2 assists in those 3 matches, meaning his rate of an assist every 129.5 minutes when starting is one of the best in the whole division, just behind Cesc Fàbregas (109). He also averages the second-most successful dribbles per game (4.7) in Premier League starts this season, behind only Eden Hazard (5.2). His resultant average rating when he starts, of 7.71, is the 10th best in the top flight. 

If he wasn’t Premier League-ready when he signed only a few months ago, Monk has worked wonders to ensure Montero is in shape to play now. His tricks have meant that over the course of the whole season he is averaging the fewest minutes per dribble in the Premier League (7.7), and his manager’s work has added end product to that play. 

Against Arsenal, he terrorised Calum Chambers time and again, and it was through beating him that the crossed for Bafétimbi Gomis’ winning goal came. Routledge and Dyer will hope to find a way back into the Swansea team but with Montero playing as he is – he has more assists than the two combined this season despite significantly less playing time than either – they may well struggle to oust him.

The issue for Swansea after their barnstorming start to the season was maintaining their unprecedented form for as long as possible, and with their first team, doing so for a prolonged period was always going to be difficult and the likes of Gylfi Sugurdsson, Routledge and Dyer have gone off the boil somewhat in more recent games. They needed another squad member to step up if they were to prolong their stay in the upper echelons of the league, and it seems that Montero might just be the man for the job. Many more performances like Sunday and there might even be others casting glances his way.

What did you make of Montero’s performance against Arsenal and his recent form? Let us know in the comments below