- Merino scored twice from the bank to obtain the arsenal victory against Leicester
- The hardest tests will wait for the improvised Arsenal striker while pursuing the title
- Listen now: Everything is starting!available wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Monday and Thursday
Mikel Merino has an infernal story to tell years within now and is not alone. Most soccer players will have a story when asked to play out of position. Sometimes, it works wonderfully and get twice as a Leicester substitute. Other times it is ugly, and here is my story.
I was a striker, you know it. But in October 1992, they asked me for a 19 -year -old boy who asked me to fill as a center, since Norwich was hindered by injuries in our defense. We travel to Blackburn for a clash between the first and the second in the Premier League. I can still remember my relief that they only show me a yellow card for rugby that addresses Alan Shearer when he broke.
The problem is that Gordon Cowans scored from the free kick anyway and we lose a huge 7-1. My defensive partner was Ian Butterworth, who was 28 years old and my captain. I can still hear it tell the press after I needed to keep my head up, as if he was blamed!
The only positive thing for my brief movement in defense was that it meant that I could take note of the movements of the opposition strikers, such as Alan's, and trying to apply them to my own game when I led the line myself.
After this hammer, Norwich's next game was against Carlisle in the League Cup. The betting runners had me at 20/1 to score first because they thought I would be in defense again. But I started in advance and scored twice in a 2-0 victory!
This takes me back to Merino and his own orthopedic device in Arsenal's 2-0 victory in Leicester last weekend. They had already been using Kai Hvertz as a false nine. We can also go to one beyond and describe Merino as a false and false nine. His replacement of 69 minutes was better than anyone could have imagined. If you are a Premier League Standard player, you will have a basic idea of how you should play in another position.
Mikel Merino scored an orthopedic device from the bank for Arsenal when he plays out of the attack on the attack
Merino was placed in positions to be shocking, shown by his header to seal the victory
The Arsenal Chief, Mikel Arteta, will hope that he has encountered a solution to his attack problems
I do not say that that means that you could be good in that, but you would have a general understanding of what to do and Merino, a midfielder by profession, is clearly an intelligent soccer player.
I was doing the right runs of the ball. It was being placed in positions to be shocking, such as its outbreak in the rear posts area to bury the cross of Leandro Trosssard to confirm the victory. He did all this after they only told him it was a possibility in the morning of the game.
I was used in the center of the central field once in the Champions League. In December 2003, it was Lyon versus Celtic, Juninho versus me in the center of the field. He scored twice and scored once when we lost 3-2. The difference with a midfielder who is asked to make an impression of a striker is based largely on goal instincts and have that calm in the middle of chaos when there is the opportunity to score.
Merino had that composure to finish two crosses and was signed in part due to how strong it is in the duels, so Chief Mikel Arteta was clearly sure that he could handle the fight with Leicester's defenders on this occasion. But deep down, it is difficult to think that Arsenal has accidentally encountered a card without leaving jail inside his team.
Merino did this aside from the championship. It would be a monumental application to repeat your heroics again and again. To hold the ball from the first moment. To link with the extremes. Do everything else that strikers need to do as well as noting. The most difficult tests expect Leicester to leak.
Happily I will eat my words if you take 14 goals between now and the end of the season as a timer in that position. That would really make this a fairy tale.
His success occurred against one side of Leicester with leaks, but the toughest tests waiting for foxes.
Manchester City may have been crowned champion in 2021 without using a recognized striker in many of his matches, but it seems that Arsenal has left in a very uncomfortable place, since they seek to win their first Premier League title since 2003-04.
Merino could be the best option they currently have, and I hope he can have more days as he did in Leicester. However, it cannot be questioned that Arsenal has made their lives much more difficult through its lack of action in the January transfer window.
