During the last two summer, Mikel Arteta attempted to fill the holes left by the Granit Xhaka with a summer signature that did not actually adapt to the left midfield role. And during the second consecutive season, ARTETA signed the ‘Left Eight’ player in the late season to show their value by moving to the center forward.
The signature of Mickel Merino last summer was a sign that Arsenal no longer bought potential or slowly developed the team on the image of the manager. Merino, the winner of the Euro 2024, is 28 years old and already experienced the Premier League and seemed to meet the clear standards of many arteta for this position.
Merino is built tremendously, strongly built in the air, has the properties of ‘box collapse’, and overcomes ground duel at a scary rate. Arteta’s ‘Left Eight’ role is to respond mainly to the role of ball. Fabio Vieira and Emile Smith Rowe played there in a specific game last season. Vieira started at the GOODISON Park last season and started because there was little attempt to play with Sean Dyche’s Space JAM Style Super Mutant.
Emile Smith Rowe started home at home in Luton and Nottingham Forest and Sheffield United, and Leandro Trossard started at Brentford. In the game with Back Fives, Arteta shows the ball’s more technical preference for supply, but the only person who actually occupies the position is GRANIT XHAKA and Declan Rice.
However, Merino did not have the opportunity to play the left eight roles despite the signature of ‘now’. Behind the summer tournament, when Spain went to the end, Merino never benefited the benefits before the season with the new team. Last season, we saw how Arsenal affected David Raya, which had not settled in the first place until Arsenal had the ‘second pre -season’ in Dubai.
In addition, the outstanding player in the duel disappeared by one of Arsenal’s main duel monsters in Gabriel. When he returned, Martin Odegaard was injured and played in a very different repetition of the Arsenal team. He scored in a set piece with Liverpool in October, but he was not impressed in November.
He was replaced in half an hour in the Preston of Carabao Cup, and after 60 minutes later, he fell in love with his former club Newcastle. Three days later, he was replaced by half -time after acknowledging an unhappy / ridiculous penalty. In the first half of the FA Cup defeat against Manchester United in January, he touched seven balls in the first half.
Like others before, Merino seemed to break the left 8th role. However, he always seemed to be a penalty threat and given the left midfield role, and in view of the role of the central midfield, it is not an accumulation role, and the penalty area threat is a better point of view that judges results in its position than creativity and overall influence.
When ODEGAARD and Saka work in the right corner of the penalty area, the main output seems to be pressed, duel, and creates a back post threat. Merino provided satisfactory even if it didn’t jump out of the page.
But especially when the ODEGAARD came out of the team and his creative juice was diluted, many Arsenal fans wrote a pin for a slightly more fantastic player. Merino gave the same opportunity as HAVERTZ accepting the team’s focus last season last season due to the end of the season.
I think this is slightly different from havertz. To be honest, we suspect that Merino will play back prepaid this season again. After HAVERTZ’s injury, Arteta first started the first game of the No Striker era with Leicester’s Leandro Trossard. It didn’t work, Merino came and scored twice, and the rest is history.
Arsenal made 11.0 XG in seven games after HAVERTZ injured and included 7-1 victory on PSV. At that time, in five Premier League games, they created 7.8 xg. In the match against Fulham, they created 2.0xg, the highest rate during that period.
In short, as expected, Arsenal look much less threatening. It had a much greater impact than the absence of Havertz and Jesus. Bukayo Saka is a hole from the team since the end of December (Martinelli missed many games during this period). If we judge Merino as an expensive striker in a completely right team, there may be some concerns if we achieve our goals.
But we are not because it is not a scenario. Merino was asked to do something that he had never done before, and he did quite well. Merino has five goals since he moved to prepaid (repeatedly reduced by Saka’s absence), even if there is a lack of overall punches on Arsenal. It is a very respected total in a difficult situation.
Since winning with a striker with Leicester on February 15, no player has a better shot conversion rate in the Premier League (36.4% -10+ shots). Without doubt, this is difficult to maintain, but it still creates impressive reading.
Adapting to this new reality, Merino probably signed a cult as a cult in a slightly overwhelming midfielder. The way he performed a new mission gained a cult in a cult. In November, even in Arsenal’s visit to the Champions League, even his songs, who refrain from the very similar sound of the sports lisbon fans of Lisbon fans, are not suitable for the traditional terrace book.
His goal for Fulham on Tuesday was quite rare for Arsenal. It was a goal of a kind of danger we haven’t seen often in Arsenal’s very deliberate attack brush stroke.
It will be interesting to start the traditional role again next season. Perhaps better understanding what the striker requires can help you support the center of the next season.
No matter what happened before and what happened, Merino became one of the most important players in the season, in a slightly strange situation. In fact, Arteta was probably in a situation where he had a series of persuasive alternatives. But instead, Arsenal literally did not have a striker, but it wasn’t as much as a big problem.
