Mik Merino: Page 13 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Mik Merino

Gurgen

Turns out Granit Xhaka is pretty hard to replace.

Claudius

Gurgen well if you think about how much we hated him, I’m fine giving this guy some time

Qwiss

Gurgen was he? We improved a lot once he left. He was expensive to replace but we upgraded.

lorddulaarsenal

Merino is a class player. He’s just not fully fit and he’s adjusting to our system. You all saw how good he was at the Euros and his stats from last season are unreal

Burnwinter

Qwiss Xhaka had been so indifferent for years that it was considered revelatory he produced one season at the level of what people are now calling crap form from Rice.

MistaT

Burnwinter — have to disagree as I think Xhaka’s last season was as impactful, if not more, than Rice’s great first season.

Xhaka at his worst was a liability which Rice has never been, but at his peak we got a lot out of Xhaka.

Burnwinter

Last season Rice played like a machine in both directions while also ultimately offering as much offensively (in terms of GA) as Xhaka's much-applauded final season.

Xhaka's improvement was a big impact, but it appeared even bigger than it was because he'd been mediocre for a long stretch … not to mention due to him becoming less hotheaded. We've moved on and any nostalgia about him is misplaced I reckon.

Clrnc

I absolutely do not miss Xhaka one bit. Our team didn't as well. We improved on him last year

Claudius

Clrnc yup. Let’s not rewrite histories.

Qwiss

3 PL starts, 2 points.

Sicario2

Doesn’t look like Premier league ready at all. Who the fuck scouted this guy ?

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

Sicario2 Newcastle.

Lukazan

Makes Mertesacker look agile. I know he's new, has come into a team struggling and the rest, and he may come good but early impressions are he's abit shit.

tazmania

On Arteta for not easing him in. He's been pants

flobaba

Nah he hasn't been bad. Just suffering from the same malaise as the rest of the team - no creative focal point. Ode returns and everyone (midfield) looks good again.

Coombs

He was an overpriced squad buy. Always was. People shouldn't expect anything more, really. Shouldn't have cost over 20m euros.

Bad summer. Really bad.

lorddulaarsenal

He’s just not fit yet you can see that he isn’t as lean as he was in the summer

awooga83

It's looking like a total miss allocation of transfer funds for what the team needed we've been spending too much on reinforcing these areas we need to improve the attack.

Coombs

I want to be clear that I was absolutely fine with this transfer. I even think it was needed. It was the business we didn't do that is costing us, though, and I refuse to accept that signing this guy stopped us from getting a proper replacement for Partginho.

Selling ESR for this is just pathetic, though.

Qwiss

Coombs agree with this. As a back up for Rice I think Merino is a good option and something we needed. We needed another midfielder though on top of Merino. A real top quality mid that compliments Rice.

Coombs Selling ESR for this is just pathetic, though.

If it was based on a trust of Nwaneri then fine but it seems like Arteta is sticking rigidly to whatever his plan for Nwaneri is despite Odegaards injury meaning we need to use him more. This is how big players are formed, you suffer a crisis and they come in and show what they are about.

Dom

He'd be fine as a Rice back up but I hate that Arteta's using him as an 8 and having Rice sit deeper alongside Partey.

I know people have strong opinions on Rice's best position but Rice is too basic as a DM/6. I prefer him pressing up front alongside Odegaard than have him slow play down when he's receiving the ball from the defence.

JazzG

Dom He'd be fine as a Rice back up but I hate that Arteta's using him as an 8 and having Rice sit deeper alongside Partey.

I think some of it is just down to injuries. We needed to put Partey in at RB as we have White, Calafiori & Tomi out so Timber needs to go into LB. I think a lot of our good play comes from our full backs and not having White & Calafiori is another thing which is hurting how we play.

The main problem for me was Trossard, he needs to either play in the front three or come off the bench. He simply is not a No.10. He's at his best imo when he comes off the bench.

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