Arsenal's on/off transfer saga of Mikel Merino looks like reaching a positive conclusion, with the Spaniard odds-on to join The Gunners. But why have Arteta, and the club, been so relentless in their pursuit of a player who occupies, arguably, their most well-stocked position? Adam Clery explains why, despite not having a guaranteed starting spot, Merino could be the final piece in Arsenal's midfield puzzle.
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00:00Right, hello everybody, Adam Cleary, 442, you may remember me, Mikel Merino.
00:09He has either gone to Arsenal or is going to Arsenal, depending on when you're watching
00:13this.
00:14And I have seen already on the internet a lot of people getting really excited about
00:17that because he's being described as a dual winning machine, which is to say he's very
00:23good at getting the ball in the centre of the pitch, not that he steals like rubies
00:28and emeralds.
00:29And that is quite the exciting proposition because you stick somebody like that, a combative
00:33player, at the base of Arsenal's midfield with Edegaard there and Dechnam Rice there
00:37and all of a sudden you've cracked it, you've got the perfect three.
00:40Because that is it, isn't it?
00:41That's all you ever want in a midfield three.
00:43You want a progressor, a creator and a destroyer.
00:46You want legs, brains, teeth.
00:49You want athlete, genius, bastard.
00:51But, but, but, but, but, but, I do not actually think for one single second Mikel Merino is
00:56coming into this Arsenal side to be the new starting number six.
00:59I think in fact he is coming to solve a much different-er and much bigger-er problem entirely.
01:07And I will tell you about it now.
01:12Okay, so first off, who is Mikel Merino, right?
01:19Maybe you saw him play a little bit for Spain at the Euros but didn't really notice him
01:22doing anything.
01:23Maybe you remember him having that season for Newcastle but also not really.
01:27Maybe you're a Real Sociedad season ticket holder, you just weren't paying attention.
01:32No judgement here.
01:33Well, in short, he is a, and I'm going to end up using this word like a million times
01:37in this video, a combative, ball-winning central midfielder with a very high level of technical
01:44on-the-ball ability who isn't afraid to progress the ball up the field either with running
01:49or with passing and can also create a bit in the final third as well.
01:53If that sounds too good to be true, well it's not, he is very good.
01:58Now you are going to hear loads about his ability to win duels and how he was like one
02:02of the best players in the world last season for doing that and it's kind of a bit of a
02:06like nebulous weird term but it's basically defined as any scenario on the football pitch
02:11where two players are competing physically for control of the ball.
02:16So maybe you've got the ball and you're trying to bully your way past somebody while retaining
02:19control of it.
02:20That's an offensive duel.
02:21Maybe someone else has got it and you managed to get shoulder to shoulder with them to try
02:25and wrestle it away.
02:26That's a defensive duel.
02:27If it's in the air and you both go to head it, that's an aerial duel.
02:30If it's just bouncing around on the ground and you both go in at the same time, that's
02:34a loose ball duel.
02:35You get the picture, right?
02:37Marino is brilliant at all of them.
02:40Last season in La Liga, Marino competed for the ball against an opponent 581 times.
02:48That is the second most in the entire league and he won over 50% of them.
02:54Now you're going to understand very quickly why that's quite an appealing thing to Arsenal
02:58because the next most comparable central midfielder in Europe in terms of the number of those
03:02they were in, the percentage of those they won, is Bruno at Newcastle, Arteta's number
03:07one dream signing imaginable.
03:10As you can tell, I've had a week off here because I've somehow managed to bury the headline
03:13in all of that, right?
03:14Given the number of duels he was in and the percentage of them he won, he won more than
03:19any, any other player in the top five leagues in Europe.
03:22He was the only one to win more than 300 and that's flipping astonishing.
03:30And also, and this is particularly interesting for Arsenal, I think when you sort of subdivide
03:34all those types of duels, he was number one for aerials as well.
03:38Literally nobody else won the ball more frequently in the air than he did and given how good
03:43Arsenal are at set pieces, how good they are at corners, that's a massive, massive weapon
03:47to all of a sudden be able to throw into your side.
03:50So if you put all that stuff together, it paints you this sort of like patchwork FB
03:54ref profile of all the things Mourinho's really good at.
03:58And you can look at that and very easily draw the conclusion that this guy is a deep battling,
04:03hard running, hard tackling, hard looking, I guess it's a weird shaped head, number six.
04:09And I do think in all honesty, right, if this was like 2015, maybe even 10 years ago, that's
04:15possibly where he would have found himself playing.
04:17But these days there are certain other requirements of a sitting number six in a top, top team.
04:23And that's maybe where his game starts to fall down a little bit.
04:26If we compare the specific numbers to those of Jorginho, who ended up filling that role
04:31in for Arsenal after they had that little rejig over Christmas, etc, etc.
04:35You can see that Mourinho, especially in terms of the aerials, the ball recoveries and a
04:40few other things is definitely a step up.
04:43But what all the really top teams need in that position more than a ball winner is a
04:50ball player.
04:51And if you put their passing numbers side by side, it is a yikes from me.
04:56Now I will just say, Arsenal fans, if you're looking at the spectacular drop off between
05:01those two sets of statistics, I would perhaps not be as immediately alarmed as you will
05:07feel like you should be.
05:10Mourinho plays in a very different team, in a quite different system, in a totally different
05:14position at Sociedad.
05:16So I would say these numbers are more reflection of the role he plays rather than some like
05:21innate lack of ability.
05:23However, the one statistic here that I would draw your attention to is their comparative
05:28progressive passing number.
05:30It's the thing we're banging on about more than anything else on this channel.
05:34It is a measure of a player's ability to receive the ball in the middle of a passing move and
05:39not go backwards, not go sideways, keep that moving forward.
05:43If you're in the central midfield of any ambitious attacking side, that needs to be high.
05:49And I would say definitely there is a disparity between Mourinho and a player like Jorginho
05:55in terms of their passing ability, but it's better reflected.
05:58It's a fairer assessment to look at these two numbers where it's like, what, eight times
06:03a game and six times a game versus all these horrible, scary red ones.
06:07So that is a bit of a problem.
06:09Like if you stuck Mourinho in here, then yes, you'd have a little bit more bite, a bit more
06:13competitiveness, more duel winning, say it with me, everybody.
06:17But when Arsenal need to progress the ball up the pitch, they would not have as much
06:22ability to do that as they would with a player like Jorginho.
06:25But it's not actually a wholly fair comparison to me, because after all, he doesn't play
06:28there for Real Sociedad, he doesn't play at the base of a midfield three.
06:32In fact, I'll show you, I'll show you his seasonal heat map from every game he played
06:36for his club last season.
06:38He plays here, which is where Declan Rice plays.
06:44Like Mourinho has absolutely no problem dropping and taking it off the back four.
06:48He will sometimes play in a double pivot where needs be, albeit on the left hand side, but
06:52primarily gets the ball further up the pitch than a holding midfielder would.
06:56And he gets into this left hand channel, he attacks the box from there, he can get out
07:00wide from there.
07:02Very similar to exactly where Declan Rice plays when he plays for Arsenal.
07:06So that begs the question, what does he do better than Declan Rice?
07:10And the answer is, well, not a whole lot, really.
07:14They're actually quite similar players in terms of how they move around the box, how
07:17they carry the ball forward.
07:19You'd argue that Mourinho's a better threat in the air, but Rice has sort of better delivery.
07:24He's not going to displace Rice as the starting left-sided number eight.
07:29And if he's not coming in to play number eight and he's not coming in to play number six,
07:34what is the problem Arsenal have that he somehow miraculously solved?
07:40These are the combined minutes across all competitions for Arsenal's main creative players,
07:47City's main creative players and Liverpool's main creative players.
07:50Now I know this is a slight oversimplification, you've got to factor in like injuries and
07:54tactical stuff, but Arsenal were pretty much bang on consistent for the entire season of
08:00making sure that Saka, Erdegaard and Rice started every single game they were able to.
08:06And the reason for that is because they're amazing and they will win Arsenal games and
08:10they're part of the reason they ran City so close yet again.
08:13But it does leave Arsenal so vulnerable, so vulnerable to just a couple of injuries.
08:18The fact is when Arteta would look to his bench or look to his squad, he would see players
08:23like Reece Nelson, Emile Smith-Rowe, Fabio Vieira, Mohamed Elneny and yes, they all had
08:28their own problems like injuries and form and not necessarily being a tactical fit.
08:32But regardless, he did not trust them to come into this side and do the job required.
08:38You compare that to the situation Guardiola finds himself in where he has almost zero
08:42qualms about throwing in yet another superstar to play a possibly unfamiliar role or to fill
08:47in for an injury here and there and it's just not a luxury Arsenal currently have.
08:52So Mourinho's not somebody who's going to come in and start as Arsenal's number six,
08:57but there may be games where you're quite happy to sacrifice the ball progression for
09:01a little bit more bite in the middle and he can do it then.
09:04He's not going to displace Declan Rice as the left side of number eight, but there may
09:08be matches or just parts of matches where it makes sense to drop Rice into the number
09:12six and you can put Mourinho there and trust him to do that job.
09:16And given that Arsenal have had this 4-3-3 for a number of years now, there will undoubtedly
09:21be part of the season where they need to try something else and Mourinho would be fantastic
09:26to sit in a double pivot along with a Jorginho or along with a Rice and compliment them superbly.
09:32And we talk about depth a lot in football and I think it gets slightly misinterpreted.
09:37It's not just about having another body sitting on the bench who can come on when there's
09:41injuries or when people are tired, it's about opening up your options, it's about giving
09:45yourself more things you can do on a football pitch depending on what it is you're facing.
09:50And that's precisely what I think Mikel Mourinho would be to Arsenal.
09:54He's not just another body, he's not just going to sit on the bench, he'll get so many
09:57minutes but he'll do so in various positions that help to compliment the better players
10:03in the side.
10:04And the thing is, you just never know what sort of tactical journey your team is going
10:08to go on through the course of the season.
10:10Like maybe because of injuries, maybe because of other teams figuring you out, you are forced
10:14to change what it is you're doing.
10:16And having a player who gives you something completely different makes that problem easier
10:21to solve.
10:22So what is it that Mikel Mourinho gives Arsenal?
10:24Well, he gives them more, he gives them more ability, he gives them more doggedness, he
10:30gives them more options.
10:31It's the exact, exact kind of signing a top, top team makes.
10:37And for what?
10:38£20 million?
10:39In this economy?
10:40Do you have any idea how heartbroken I, as a Newcastle fan, am that he's coming back
10:46to the Premier League and it's not to us?
10:48Do you not have any idea how many times I have tweeted, bring him home?
10:53It's more than three.
10:55Mental capacity for two days, so if you have enjoyed this video please do consider subscribing
10:59to us here on 442.
11:00And if I could just have your time for one very small second, I am doing an enormous
11:06run, I may have mentioned this in the coming weeks, the Great North Run back in Newcastle
11:11and I'm raising as much money as I can for MIND who are a mental health charity here
11:15in the UK.
11:16Their work is honestly, trust me, really, really important and very close to my heart.
11:21So if you have got a spare fiver or a tenner or something just kicking around the back
11:25of your pocket or whatever the expression is, the link is in the thing below.
11:29You can read more about what it is I'm doing, why I'm doing it, why it's a really bad idea
11:33for me to be doing it and it's just there.
11:36Elsewhere, you can get me on the social medias at Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y, 442 socials in
11:40the corner of the video.
11:41The latest issue of the magazine, oh no, it's the season preview issue, it's the best thing
11:45we do all year and I've left it, I've left it over there, I'll show you on the next video
11:49but if you haven't already, it's in shops and it's brilliant.
11:53It's like a double thing, it's got previews of every single club, it's the best thing
11:56we do.
11:57Honestly, you should go and buy that even though I can't show it to you.
12:00Hang on, here's a picture.
12:01Gonna leave that there, that's the end of the video.
12:03Comment, let me know what you think of Merino Arsenal fans and just generalised well wishes.
12:11You can tell I've not done this for a week, can't you?
12:13Bye!