The “fresh” (or already have expired) news has finally arrived this week. Mikel Merino is an Arsenal player!
There has been a lot of material covering his strengths – physical presence, duel monster, very good at interceptions, more of a physical presence. It doesn’t hurt a bit that he was a captain of Real Sociedad and will bring that leadership spirit into the dressing room. Everybody awaits he will play at left 8 position and move Rice to his favourite defensive mid place. But what is the main critique of the signing?
It is not sexy, not exciting, the player is not young, relatively expensive, doesn’t dribble past 5 opponents and doesn’t regularly deliver free kicks into the top corner. To be honest, I don’t need to be excited. I need somebody who can add something new to our game. I need somebody who can do the job asked – whether’s it’s extra three header goals or ten more opponents pushed to the side trying to counterattack. Though the question is: can he do the job?
Mikel Arteta’s requirements to the left eight are quite demanding and diverse for a regular player. They have to be strong defensively, stop dangerous counterattacks, be able to press up high, connect the attack flow on the left side, make timed runs into the box in freed up channels and make fast decisions in tight spaces with the ball. From the players that have recently played in the top clubs, only Wijnaldum (and, of course, Rodri) comes to mind. His role in Liverpool was actually quite similar, probably slightly less defensive work. I am not sure that Merino, who peaked at Real Sociedad, has all these qualities.
However, winter is coming! And we need a quality Merino wool cloak to wrap around a tired team. It might be not a shiny royal golden mantle, but it should keep us warm.
On the transfer front, we have a bit of other news. Nketiah seems to have finally docked at Crystal Palace’s bay and it looks like this funds were needed to confirm the Merino’s deal considering the PSR requirements. Let’s not forget it was our third expensive signing of the window after charismatic Italian defender and David “the Almighty” Raya, which means we probably don’t have enough money for a new attacking player, unless we secure another 30 million worth of departure.
There have been recent rumours of interest in Liverpool’s Darwin Nunez, who have been pretty angry since spring and not only there. Although I like the boldness of such move, I don’t really think it’s a good way to spend money. Unless it’s a loan with no obligation to buy, but why would Liverpool be interested in that? They payed for him an astronomical amount and I refuse to believe they will let him go for less than 40 million.
I’ve heard the opinion that he is massive, fast, scores headers and brings chaos, but I personally believe we need a cold blooded finisher, like Trossard. We have already one striker that is great with moving into positions and can assist to other attackers trying to get into the box. We have another striker, who is technically gifted and has sparks of absolute brilliance. But both of them are not the best finishers, and it would be a waste to add one more, like Nunez. Below is a heat map of attacking activity compared between Nunez and Havertz playing in CF position:
As you can see, Kai it better in all around game and the component where Darwin is better are shots (yeah, we know he wants to break in half all posts in Premier League) and xG. However, xG is only the quality of chances – let’s look how he delivers those chances.
Havertz scored 13 goals out of 13.5 xG. Darwin scored 11 out 19.2 xG.
So how exactly will he help our team to win more games?