Arsenal midfielder Mikel Merino put in another superb performance for the Spanish national team on Tuesday night, scoring twice in his country’s 4-0 win over Bulgaria.
The 29-year-old seems to be Mr Reliable for his national side at the moment, scoring a brace in this game and also recently netting a stunning hat-trick in the last international break.
In the mean time, Merino doesn’t always get a start for Arsenal, and when he does it often seems to be in a role that doesn’t perfectly suit him.
Merino now seems to be sending a clear message to Gunners boss Mikel Arteta – he’s a goal-scorer, and can be a top class performer if used regularly and in the right way.
Mikel Merino shows Arsenal what he can do with another superb Spain display
Merino is surely good enough to be getting more opportunities with Arsenal, with the former Real Sociedad man earning a 9.9 score from WhoScored in the game against Bulgaria.
Their stats show that Merino had two shots on target and scored with both of them, while he also made one successful tackle and interception, and completed 87% of his passes.
This came in an attacking midfield role just behind the main striker, but Merino has rarely had the chance to play there for Arsenal.
Too much competition at Arsenal?
Merino had a run of games up front last season and looked really impressive, with that perhaps being his most successful spell in the side.
However, most of the time there simply isn’t an opening for him as there’s so much competition for places at the Emirates Stadium.
Martin Odegaard tends to be Arsenal’s most attacking midfielder, but he plays in a different way, and it’s not clear how much the rest of Arteta’s tactics might have to be adjusted in order to fit in the kind of role Merino plays for Spain.
Still, these performances are sending Arteta a message and it will be interesting to see if he can come up with a way to make this work.
Arteta has a dilemma of playing Merino or Rice as the attacking left midfielder.
Rice was playing more of a number 6 for England as he was covering for Anderson who strangely kept drifting forward out of position instead of where he should have been covering the back four.
I think if you play Anderson in the number 6 position without Rice picking up his defensive mistakes then England will get punished against the Top teams.
Anderson needs to stay put nearer the halfway line instead of wandering out of position near the penalty area.
Watch the replay of England v Latvia and you will see what I mean. You will see Anderson always trying to get his shot off in the penalty area and no where covering the back four!
Early exit against the better teams if he is allowed to do that as they will notice it more.
Mikel Arteta saw this in Merino for a while and it’s clear he is a huge attacking threat. However against City where he started ahead of Eze, the media and pundits went into a frenzy saying that Arteta’s team selection was wrong and kicked off the whole “handbrake” narrative (mainly because Merino started). But of course you won’t see them eat humble pie as this man continues to prove doubters wrong.
Simon pls tell all haters again