Arsenal cannot afford to stand still in their pursuit of Manchester City and fresh from signing Riccardo Calafiori the Gunners are closing in on another recruit to turbo-charge their title challenge.
Mikel Arteta has identified Mikel Merino, the Real Sociedad player and recently crowned European champion, as someone who can improve his side and a deal above €30m (£25m) is reportedly in the works. The 28-year-old is in his prime and in the final year of his contract.
Merino’s stock is high following a successful Euro 2024 in which he featured in all seven of Spain’s matches (albeit only once from the start) and scored the match-winning goal against Germany in the quarter-final. He celebrated by circling the corner flag, just as his father Angel had done in the same Stuttgart stadium 33 years previously for Osasuna.
It was a brilliantly executed header planted beyond Manuel Neuer’s reach, and while goalscoring is not Merino’s forte he is excellent in the air, winning more aerial duels than any other midfielder in Europe’s “Big Five” leagues in 2023-24.
That may seem like a strange standout characteristic for a central midfielder, particularly one hailing from Spain, but it is a trait that Arteta obviously values given he has assembled a physically imposing team at Arsenal. Theirs is a team of giants, almost all of whom are 6ft and over.
The Gunners scored 20 set-piece goals last season, more than any other club in the division. Merino scored three headers in all competitions for his club as well as that memorable one for his country.
Merino is also a progressive passer and a combative ball-winner. He has registered 12 assists over the past two La Liga campaigns and ranked seventh among all players in the division for tackles in 2023-24.
Interestingly, Merino tended to play in a similar left-sided box-to-box midfield role in Imanol Alguacil’s favoured 4-3-3 system that Declan Rice did for Arteta at Arsenal.
Martin Zubimendi, a long-term Arsenal target, was deployed as a ball-playing No 6 for Real Sociedad, with Merino given greater license to get forward. He scored five times, matching a career-best tally set in 2019-20.
Whether Arteta sees Merino as a rotation option for Rice as somebody who can complement him remains to be seen. During his younger days, Merino often operated as a deep-lying playmaker, including briefly for Newcastle United in the Premier League under Rafae Benitez.
Merino played in a more defensive role in his earlier seasons with Sociedad too, including in 2019-20 when he lined up alongside his potential future captain Martin Odegaard.
The pair were instrumental in Sociedad finishing sixth in La Liga and reaching the Copa del Rey final that season, although Odegaard had returned to his parent club Real Madrid by the time they beat Athletic Bilbao in the final, postponed by a year due to the pandemic.
Considering Merino has averaged a pass completion below 80 per cent in each of his six seasons at Sociedad, it seems unlikely that Arteta would predominantly use him as a No 6. It is a crucial position for Arsenal due to how they look to build out from the back and bait the opposition press with swift, accurate passes upfield.
It could mean that Rice drops back back to accommodate Merino. Although Rice flourished in an advanced role, combining seven goals with eight assists in his debut campaign in north London, he has been open about the fact that his favoured position is as a No 6. Given Arsenal tend to dominate most of their league games, the pair could even alternate in the two spots next to Odegaard.
Arsenal’s pursuit of Merino is interesting because it appears to be a slight diversion from their recent transfer policy which has focused on outfield players aged 25 or under. Of Arsenal’s 10 outfield additions since the start of the 2022-23 season, eight have fit that criteria, including Rice and the newest recruit Calafiori, who is only 22.
Arsenal needed midfield reinforcements this summer, particularly with Emile Smith Rowe departing too, but Merino perhaps doesn’t fit the profile of player they were expected to bring in; a box-to-box type rather than a tempo-setter.
That in itself is a move straight from the Pep Guardiola playbook: buying from a position of strength and addressing a problem before it becomes one.
However, Arteta and sporting director Edu Gaspar have shown a willingness to deviate from that strategy for the right players. The odd ones out over the past two years are Leandro Trossard, who was only bought after Chelsea gazumped Arsenal for Mykhailo Mudryk, and Jorginho from the Blues. Both have gone on to become key squad members.
Arteta loves Jorginho, frequently praising his qualities as a player and a leader, but the Italian will turn 33 before Christmas and tends to be picked for specific fixtures when Arsenal require a calm head in midfield. Thomas Partey is 31 and missed much of the 2023-24 season due to injury. Mohamed Elneny, while a peripheral figure, was released at the end of June.
There is, therefore, a need to regenerate Arsenal’s midfield, even if it may not seem as pressing an issue as centre-forward. Rice and Odegaard are both entering their peak years, as is Kai Havertz who frequently played in midfield at the start of his career before being shifted forward. Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly are ones to watch from the academy.
Given Merino’s consistency at Sociedad and impact at the Euros, it could prove to be a masterstroke and one that inches Arsenal even closer to their title rivals.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/uCg0c71
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