Merino aiming to be a goal threat for Arteta’s “basketball” team

Mikel Merino has joked that Arsenal “looks like a basketball team” such is the height of his teammates.

At 6″2, the Spain international isn’t lacking on the height front although having joined from Real Sociedad, where he claims to have been one of the tallest, he now finds himself surrounded by giants.

According to ESPN, goalkeeper Neto, defenders William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes, and striker Kai Havertz all stand taller than Mikel Merino, who is around the same height as Jakub Kiwior, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Riccardo Calafiori, and Declan Rice. Ben White and Thomas Partey also surpass the six-foot mark.

Facing the media ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Shakhtar Donetsk, Merino said: “Sometimes it’s crazy, I’m telling you. Sometimes I’m in the corridors or in the training ground just walking, back in my old club, I used to be one of the tallest, everybody else was smaller than me but now I look around and everybody is taller than me, we look like a basketball team now.

He added: “Football now is just changed, now you need a strong team, physicality is key, we need to be the most complete team possible, you need the physical aspect, the technical aspect, the tactical one, you need to be a total team if you want to achieve big things as we do.

“It’s not only about being tall and big, as I said before, it’s the mentality if you are big but you don’t go with 100 per cent of your intention to win the ball, it’s nothing. The main thing is the mentality and we have that.”

Arsenal’s physical presence has been particularly useful when it comes to making the most of set pieces. No Premier League team has matched the Gunners for goals from dead-ball situations in the last couple of seasons thanks to hours and hours spent working on the routines of coach Nicolas Jover.

“Football is evolving and set pieces is something that is evolving too,” noted Merino.

“Everybody is paying a lot of attention to set pieces because it’s a big part of the game and you can win and lose a lot of games because of that. Here we try to train on it a lot. We have good staff members, we have the players to do that, the physical advantage, it’s something that if you try to get 100 per cent out of it, you can win a lot of games.”

Judging by recent comments, Arteta certainly expects Merino to be a weapon in attack. Given his tally of 36 goals in 346 career appearances isn’t much to shout home about, the midfielder says it’s an aspect of his game he’s looking to improve.

“I hope so, for sure. That’s one of the reasons I’m here because I think I can be a threat in the opposite box, and that’s something I know I can get better at, because I know I can develop myself even more.

“I have a high ceiling, so of course, goals aren’t the main thing for a midfielder, but if you can provide them, it’s going to be a whole different thing for you as a player, so hopefully in the future I can get better at that, and score goals for Arsenal.”

As for role models, Merino counts several well-known Premier League stars, all with goal-scoring pedigree, amongst those he looks up to.

“I’ve admired a lot of midfielders, because luckily in Spain, we’ve had a couple of them!” he said.

“In England as well, the Lampards or the Gerrards, the Cesc Fabregas, the Vieiras, the kind of all-around midfielder that can play box-to-box, that can score, can defend, can win duels and dictate the tempo of the game.

“Those are the midfielders that I look up to but in Spain, the Xavis, the Iniestas; that mentality of keeping the ball, try to play short passes, try to dominate the game through the ball and pass a lot, those were the kind of players I admired when I was a kid.”