Mik Merino: Page 15 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Mik Merino

daredevil

It would be like starting Jorginho and Partey together. It wouldn't work for the same reasons.

My biggest concern with Merino when we signed him was that he was a low volume passer and I was hoping we went for Fabian Ruiz instead. Now that we have him, he's been as anonymous as the stats suggested which would be fine if he's playing next to Partey and Odegaard, as his box crashing qualities can be maximised without the team suffering for his anonymity in possession.

Jorginho saved our campaign last season and after all the FB injuries, I get that we had to move Partey to RB, but it should have been Jorginho who was brought in as his replacement and not Merino. Although, I can understand the difficulty in benching your new 40m CM.

Tam

Clrnc I don’t think so. It’s easy to look at Smith-Rowe this season, our current woes and consider it a mistake. But an outcome doesn’t drive whether a decision was sound or not. The thinking and process was right - removing emotion from the equation the problem is not the Smith-Rowe transfer, the problem is what we did after Smith-Rowe.

goon

Qwiss

I think Kai and Merino as 8s is the bigger issue, you have two players who are seemingly not ball dominant. Neither are dropping deep or coming short to beg for the ball and dictate play, both instead look to drop into pockets.

Ethan was quiet when he came on but he was at least buzzing around trying to get involved up and down the pitch. It's definitely time for him to start. Ready or not, he's the only solution. Kai needs to go back up top.

For what it's worth, I like the look of Merino. I reckon he's someone who'll build some good relationships.

SimplyThePest

RocktheCasbah what was/is your uncle’s take on things, out of curiosity?

RocktheCasbah

SimplyThePest

This 👇 was after the Bournemouth game. There was a variation of this after the last game we lost before then, which was the Aston Villa game. I don't necessarily disagree with him, let's face it, it would be hard to say he's wrong at the moment.

"Arteta has got exactly what he deserves. His team selection was negative and over cautious taking into account the opposition and set the tone where in 80 minutes we haven’t created one decent chance. Totally unacceptable. This is likely to be costly come the end of the season.

It was fucking Bournemouth"

I just think the tone of the criticism whenever we lose, which till this last few weeks hasn't really been that often, isn't justified. And it almost always arrives on the final whistle, which makes you less receptive to it because you've had to suffer through the same shit he has.

This was on Odegaard on the last day of last season 👇

"Statistics probably suggest Odegaard is the best premiership midfielder this season but in my opinion he is not (but could be) as lacks the belief and arrogance required."

Who needs statistics when you have an opinion?

invisibleman18

RocktheCasbah I have to say, he is looking like a bust at the moment.

If only there was some way that could have been foreseen... As Claudius said though, it's not fair to expect him to be fully fit yet apparently.

RocktheCasbah

RocktheCasbah should also say he wasn't talking about us being too negative when we were slapping teams five and six last season.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert

RocktheCasbah he shares my Odegaard opinion tbf 😉

Don Pacifico

Merino has played 377 minutes. That's 4 games - I think we can afford him a bit more time even if it's satisfying to make definitive judgements on players so quickly.

Took Havertz at longer to find his way in this team.

Sicario2

Don Pacifico
Didn’t it take you that long to write off his compatriot last season? 😉

Don Pacifico

Sicario2 please correct me if I said otherwise but I believe I raised concern without writing him off.

RocktheCasbah

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert If you sat with him long enough, he'd have you convinced Bukayo Saka isn't actually that good.

(Okay, that might be an exaggeration but you get my point).

What I struggle with with him is I can acknowledge that we're not playing very well right now - but to hear him talk you'd think there's been no improvement since the fag end of Wenger and the disasterclass Emery brought about. That isn't our reality.

banduan

So much dynamism missing from this guy's game right now. Is he even fit? Rice did so much better when he moved into the 8.

Gazza M

have to admit I expected much more from this guy. he looked like the kind of dynamic B2B midfielder that could bring back what we'd lost with xhaka. he looks pretty lost out there

Clrnc

We signed the wrong midfielder. He is not what we needed.

Burnwinter

Sadly he's been underwhelming so far. I expected far more aggression and the capacity to impose himself in some aspect of the pitch whether it was roaming the edge of the area or winning balls.

goon

Thought he’s looked pretty good in the last couple of games myself and was one of the few players doing the right things against a compact defence, I.e. making the right runs and moving players around. Set Ode and Kai up for decent chances too.

daredevil

He's a low touch and low volume player and that's the biggest issue. He can do the right things but just doesn't do enough of it. I was more keen on Ruiz over him, because he's exactly the higher volume passer that can allow you to play Rice as a 6.

Qwiss

daredevil yeah he's not involvd nearly enough which is a big problem. It's not entirely unusual for our left 8 to be involved though and I think it just adds to the argument for someone with more attacking impact like Nwaneri starting there in games like this.

Mirth

We currently line up with 2 DMs and Odegaard

We need to try a DM, Odegaard and a number 10 against teams that park the bus at least. Could be Nwaneri but even Trossard is an option

goon

Mirth

Or be a lot more progressive with at least one of our full backs.

That being said I don’t think Merino plays like a DM. He’s often very high or wide and not in a position to stop attacks.

Gazza M

Mirth 2 × DMs and odegaard works fine if your entire front 3 is fluid and dangerous. we only have one-third of that equation

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