Mikel Merino’s unexpected shift to striker has helped Arsenal adapt amid an injury crisis. But can he carry them past Real Madrid in the Champions League?
![‘Arsenal didn’t tell me I would be striker until the last minute’ Mikel Merino on being Arsenal’s emergency No 9, facing Real Madrid in the Champions League and chasing more Spain success. The Guardian20 Mar 2025By Sid Lowe PABLO GARCÍA/THE GUARDIAN Merino’s Spain play the Netherlands in the Nations League quarter-finals Mikel Merino sits in a briefing room on the second floor of Spain’s Las Rozas headquarters, an A1 tactics sheet covering the table. Felt tip in hand, he is making his way up the paper pitch, neatly marking the positions he has occupied, starting out in goal at school. “No more: I have to protect my shoulder now,” he begins, laughing. “I’ve been a left-sided centre-back. At Dortmund I played there in a three. And in a back four, in the Spain Under-21s. I’ve played as a No 6 … I’ve played as a No 8 … I’ve played as a No 10 … as a kid, I played here, on the right wing …” There’s a grin. “And now,” Merino says, applying a perfectly timed pause before drawing another cross. “Now I’m playing here.” Seven positions, impeccably spaced on the page, but which does he prefer? “Pfff, I don’t know. Lately, I like this one,” he replies, tapping the final mark, near the opposition’s penalty area, and cracking up again. “You know, I’m getting a taste for it.” Since the Arsenal midfielder became the Arsenal striker, he has scored more than Harry Kane, Lautaro Martínez and Erling Haaland and, told that now, he is laughing again. “The beauty of stats is you can present them the way that makes you look good,” he says but it’s not just stats. Ian Wright described him as the No 9 the club needed and Ian Wright, he knows, “isn’t just anyone”. Maybe it’s genetic, somewhere inside: Merino’s father Miguel-Angel was a striker whose most famous goal, and celebration, he emulated at the European Championship. Staff saw something in him, certainly. Even if they didn’t tell him that. “We’re on a training camp in Dubai and Kai Havertz gets injured. There’s a plague of injuries and we don’t have any attackers,” Merino recalls. “On social media, even from friends, I was seeing messages about me playing up front and just laughed. I’m thinking ‘the things people come up with’, ‘the stuff they invent’. But during the morning stroll before the Leicester game, one of the analysts mentions playing as a forward, a false nine: drop to receive, ‘fix’ the centre-backs. He asks how I feel about it, was I OK with it? And I said: ‘Whatever you need.’” There were just a few hours until kick-off, which seemed improvised but was planned. “I think they did it deliberately, not telling me until the last minute because they know I like to have everything under control, have lots of information, and by not telling me earlier they removed the ‘stress’,” Merino says. “They know me: they know I want to know why we do things, exactly what movements to make, to not make, everything. If they told me sooner I would have been thinking too much, instead of letting it flow. And look: they told me late, I didn’t think much, I went out, I flowed, I scored two.” Merino laughs again, smiling at the success and silliness of it all. “He had said don’t go mad, that they had no intention of me being a standard centre-forward, on the last line, attacking space. It was about using my qualities: bring the ball down, do things I know how to do. And, really, that’s when I found out. Then I was lucky enough – or unlucky enough – to score two goals and win the game.” Merino taps the X again, then moves his pen into the area. “Also, it’s here, not here, not right at the top. After I scored the two and they thought ‘bloody hell, maybe he carries on there’, then we did this sort of thing,” he says, nodding at the tactics sheet before him and the others around the room, arrows everywhere. “I was quick to say: ‘Look, it’s great that you didn’t tell me anything before but, please, now give me some fundamentals.’ I was there, studying. It’s an art, eh. The first or second game, everything looked different to me. I like tactics, I understand, but I had always seen it from that perspective [of a midfielder]; from here [striker] it totally changes. Now, bit by bit, I understand it better. “I’m getting used to being a centre-forward, fighting with the centre-backs, them hitting you from behind. You’re always at a ‘We know Madrid’s history but we have to know that we’re really good too – we can beat anyone’ disadvantage and they like to mark their territory, intimidate you physically. They want to ensure you’re uncomfortable and don’t have space, from first minute to last – even if the ball’s not there. It’s more mental than midfield because it’s a more direct duel. But I’m adapting and if there’s one thing I’ve always been it’s a battler: I like the contact, I never back down. “And I’ve put the X here, a bit further back, because that’s my role. Not just as a No 9, but as a player: I can’t be understood without my teammates, the people around me. My job has always been to facilitate others: as an 8, as a 9. See where people are, where the free man is, understand if I have to participate or move to help a teammate [without touching the ball]. That’s the role … depending on the opponents, eh. If they defend higher, stepping out and leaving space behind, then I receive in more midfield areas; if they close deeper, I’m more in the area, fixing the centre-backs.” Either way it has worked, convincing everyone. Well, almost everyone. Maybe Arsenal don’t need to sign a striker, after all. Maybe the selección could turn him into a No 9 too, Luis de la Fuente following Mikel Arteta’s lead. Maybe. A striker’s wage would be welcome at least. Merino is laughing now. “That’s a question for Mikel and the new sporting director,” he says. “And Luis already said he wasn’t going in for ‘inventions’. I think I’ll be more of an 8, but ask him.” Perhaps De la Fuente just doesn’t want to tell him yet. It is still a day before Spain fly to the Netherlands for the Nations League quarter-final, back to the De Kuip where they won the competition in July 2023. For some, this international break is an intrusion, an unwelcome break detrimental to the real business of club football, and all for a tournament not taken terribly seriously. Not for Merino, who scored in the shootout when the selección beat Croatia to win it, clinching their first trophy in 11 years, laying foundations and forging the group that became European champions the following summer. “We’re happy for the chance to meet up again: we needed that after four months,” he says. “It’s important to get that feeling back, that togetherness and trust, remind ourselves of the team we are. You have to do that quickly, change that club ‘chip’ in your mind. It’s the same mobile but you take one sim out, put another one in. We’re excited to go back to Rotterdam, where it started and where we want it to continue. “People complain about internationals but if there weren’t any, they would fill it with club competitions. We would be playing anyway, just different games. The good thing about this is it’s a change, a different environment and the selección is a family. That gives you a freshness mentally. The calendar is very hard and hopefully something can be done to alleviate the tiredness and injuries, the minutes played. But for me coming here is always very positive.” There is another advantage, too: Arsenal’s new centre-forward gets the chance to have a look at Raúl Asencio, Real Madrid’s new centre-back and the man he will face when the international break ends and it’s time to switch the sim again. “I’ve seen him on television but it’s good to see him up close,” he says, grinning again. “But it’ll be different on the pitch. We know Madrid are hard but we’re excited. It’s a historic game for the club. “It’s true that Liverpool are a bit far away in the Premier League but the Champions League is special. The injuries can’t be an excuse but the season also can’t be explained without them. The fact that I’m playing at centre-forward … that wasn’t the plan. Liverpool have played very well, they win practically every game. We’ve lost important points. But that thing of changing the ‘chip’; we change it in the Champions League. “We’re excited. We’ve dominated most games, were very good in the qualifying [group] phase and managed to rest players in the second leg [against PSV]. We’re confident. ” Even against Madrid, the most inexplicably invincible team of all? “That’s a gift,” Merino says. “From the outside you might feel they’re living on the edge but maybe inside it’s different: to keep calm when you’re vulnerable, in the chaos, is a talent; to have the maturity, the stability to manage the moment and not let it become a crisis, then turn it round. To know that games are long, that mental and physical aspects come into play. They’re good technically and have the mentality that, when things aren’t going well, thinks: our moment will come and when it does we’ll win. And experience has proven them right. “We know Madrid’s history but we have to know that we’re really good too, that we’re getting better, and that we can beat anyone.” Article Name:‘Arsenal didn’t tell me I would be striker until the last minute’ Publication:The Guardian Author:By Sid Lowe Start Page:35 End Page:35](https://dailycannon.com/static/uploads/1/2025/03/250320-guardian-merino-e1742463130623.png "Arsenal’s new No 9? How Merino is redefining his role in Arteta’s squad 2")
Mikel Merino never expected to be Arsenal’s No 9. In fact, neither did Arsenal, until a brutal injury crisis left Mikel Arteta without a forward and a decision had to be made. The solution? Merino, a midfielder by trade, was thrown up front at the last minute. The result? Two goals, a win, and a completely new perspective on his own game.
“They know me: they know I want to know why we do things, exactly what movements to make, to not make, everything,” Merino told the Guardian. “If they told me sooner I would have been thinking too much, instead of letting it flow. And look: they told me late, I didn’t think much, I went out, I flowed, I scored two.”
It was an improvisation, a gamble, but one that has paid off. Merino has scored more than Harry Kane, Lautaro Martínez, and Erling Haaland since making the transition. He’s been described by Ian Wright as the striker Arsenal needed. The club’s coaching staff saw something in him before he did himself, carefully managing the timing of their decision to drop him into the role. Now, he’s learning the nuances of playing as a centre-forward, fighting with defenders, playing with his back to goal, understanding the small details of the position.
“I was quick to say: ‘Look, it’s great that you didn’t tell me anything before but, please, now give me some fundamentals.’ I was there, studying. It’s an art, eh. The first or second game, everything looked different to me. I like tactics, I understand, but I had always seen it from that perspective [of a midfielder]; from here [as a striker] it totally changes.”
His role, though, isn’t that of a conventional centre-forward. Merino still drops deep, facilitates others, and isn’t simply planted on the last line waiting to pounce. He knows the role is different from his past midfield experience, but the principles remain the same – movement, awareness, and using his intelligence to manipulate defenders rather than relying purely on instinct.
“I’ve put the X here, a bit further back, because that’s my role. Not just as a No 9, but as a player: I can’t be understood without my teammates, the people around me. My job has always been to facilitate others: as an 8, as a 9. See where people are, where the free man is, understand if I have to participate or move to help a teammate [without touching the ball]. That’s the role … depending on the opponents, eh.”
Despite his success in this emergency role, Merino isn’t thinking about a long-term future as a striker. Asked if Arsenal might now reconsider signing a centre-forward, or if Spain could follow Arteta’s lead, he smirks. “That’s a question for Mikel and the new sporting director,” he says. “And Luis [de la Fuente] already said he wasn’t going in for ‘inventions’. I think I’ll be more of an 8, but ask him.”
For now, though, Merino has bigger challenges ahead. Arsenal face Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals, a tie that will define their season. The Premier League title may be slipping away to Liverpool, but in Europe, Arsenal’s fate is still in their own hands. And Merino, the accidental striker, will play a crucial role in whether or not they progress.
“We know Madrid’s history but we have to know that we’re really good too, that we’re getting better, and that we can beat anyone,” he says. “It’s true that Liverpool are a bit far away in the Premier League but the Champions League is special. The injuries can’t be an excuse but the season also can’t be explained without them. The fact that I’m playing at centre-forward … that wasn’t the plan.”
Merino will also use this international break with Spain as an opportunity to get a closer look at Raúl Asencio, Real Madrid’s new centre-back, the man who will be marking him when the tie kicks off. “I’ve seen him on television but it’s good to see him up close,” he says, grinning. “But it’ll be different on the pitch. We know Madrid are hard but we’re excited. It’s a historic game for the club.”
If Arsenal are to eliminate Madrid and continue their run in Europe, Merino’s adaptability may prove key. A midfielder, a forward, a battler, whatever role he plays, he is ready.