Mikel Merino met members of the media for the first time when he sat down for his pre-Shakhtar Donetsk press conference at Sobha Realty Training Centre on Monday.
Our summer signing was asked about how he’s settled into the club, developing as a combative midfielder, who influenced his game, his past experience playing with Martin Odegaard and more.
Here’s everything he had to say on the following subjects.
on what would it mean to win the Champions League with Arsenal:
I have been lucky enough to win a lot of trophies in my career, with the national team as well, I know the feeling and it’s something that you cannot compare with anything else. Knowing what this club is about and how big winning trophies is in general, winning the Champions League here would be amazing. Obviously, there is still a long way to go to achieve that. But I think we have the basics, we have the players, we have the mentality and that has to be the ultimate goal so hopefully we can start by winning tomorrow and keep on growing and building up for when the stakes are the final, hopefully.
on what he brings to the club:
I think we have a pretty complete team, a pretty complete coaching staff as well, they all have that winning mentality as well. They might not have the experience yet because we have a really really young team. Luckily, I’ve had some experiences where I won. So the experience when you have the moment of truth, when you’re in the final or semi-finals, to be able to keep that mentality, to keep that calmness and try to do whatever you’re doing on a daily basis that has made you get to that stage.
on playing Shakhtar:
Sitting right here, I cannot even think about what they must be feeling or what life is like. But, obviously, we are all empathetic. I wish them all the best for their careers, for their lives. Hopefully this situation stops as soon as possible but obviously we cannot control that from here. We will try to host them in the best manner possible.
on bouncing back from Bournemouth:
It’s always good when you lose a game [to play another game quickly], it’s always bad when you win because this is football nowadays, you don’t have time to think about the last game, about the last action. You always have new things coming, new challenges and it’s really good to have a game now, we can try to win, try to give our best version in front of our fans and try to, not erase because obviously we have to think about it [the Bournemouth game] and try to get better and learn from the mistakes, but to have a new feeling.
on what Mikel Arteta has said since the Bournemouth game:
For us, it is always about winning. Mikel [Arteta] knows that, Mikel’s always telling us that, we have to win in any context and the thing is, we have the team capable of doing that. We have been playing in a very challenging situation for the last couple of weeks but the coach told us he’s really proud of the effort, of how the team managed to play with one player less for almost the whole game. So it’s about taking the good things, not only the bad things, and try to improve for the next game.
on settling in at the club:
It’s been great, it’s been difficult at the beginning because nobody wants to get injured in the first session. Obviously, when you come here you want to make an impact, you want to prove why they signed you and you want to start building up that confidence and that relationship with your teammates. But I think, after the injury, everybody helped me so much, not only the players but the staff, the fans as well, I felt the love immediately and that helped me a lot to recover as fast as possible and at the same time to build a relationship with the whole team. So I feel like, right now, I’m at a good stage. Obviously not at the best one, but I’ll get there.
on seeing the best of him:
You never know, hopefully soon. But, I have still some things to do at a physical level, at a technical level. Obviously at a tactical level, there’s a lot of things that are different from my old club so it’s just a process, I’m doing the best that I can to speed it up and all the staff and the whole club is helping me a lot and, as I said, hopefully, it’s going to be soon.
on coming back to the Premier League after six years:
The atmosphere, the chants, the language, the smell of the grass, everything is the same. But football changes with time, players change with time and I think I have changed from the player I was six, seven years ago. The tactics, it’s just a completely different league now than what it was seven years ago, so it’s just a mix between the same old atmosphere, passion for football, just loving the environment. But the evolution of football in tactics and how you play on the pitch, that’s the main difference.
on how the Premier League compares to other leagues:
Well, I don’t want to talk badly about other leagues or this league, but every league has its differences; the Premier League is obviously one of the best in the world, if not the best. The quality of the players, the pace, the rhythm, the atmosphere, everything is just out-of-this-world, and honestly, I’m really glad to be here, to be playing against the best teams, against the best players. That’s what we want as a competitor to play the best, be the best and hopefully this year I can enjoy a lot, learn and grow, and for the future be an even better player.
on if he has worked on winning duels as one of his best attributes:
As I said before, I think players change with age, with experiences. Obviously, I’m not the same player now compared to when I was 18 or 19, I’ve been evolving my game and when I was 18 or 19, I didn’t have this physical level. When you mature, when you grow, when you start training, you get better in the physical aspect and tactically as well, so I think I’ve always had the mentality of trying to win every duel but now I feel more prepared physically to do so. I’ve said in a couple of interviews before, I’m not promising I’m going to win every duel, that’s for sure, but I can promise that I’ll fight for every duel like it’s the last one. That has been my mentality forever and that’s the mentality I’ll still have in the future.
on midfielders he has admired:
I’ve admired a lot of midfielders, because luckily in Spain, we’ve had a couple of them! In England as well, the Lampards or the Gerrards, the Cesc Fabregas, the Vieiras, the kind of all-around midfielder that can play box-to-box, that can score, can defend, can win duels and dictate the tempo of the game. Those are the midfielders that I look up to but in Spain, the Xavis, the Iniestas; that mentality of keeping the ball, try to play short passes, try to dominate the game through the ball and pass a lot, those were the kind of players I admired when I was a kid.
on being able add goals to his game:
I hope so, for sure. That’s one of the reasons I’m here because I think I can be a threat in the opposite box, and that’s something I know I can get better at, because I know I can develop myself even more. I have a high ceiling, so of course, goals aren’t the main thing for a midfielder, but if you can provide them, it’s going to be a whole different thing for you as a player, so hopefully in the future I can get better at that, and score goals for Arsenal.
on if there have been any coaches who were particularly influential to him:
The first part, I’ve been lucky that my father was a footballer back in the day – when I was growing up and being 14-15 years old, he was a coach, and he was coaching the academy teams in my boyhood club. I would sit at home watching their games with him and he would explain to me things that happened in the game, more of a tactical aspect in the global team, whereas as a player you only think about you as an individual. I think that was the first time I started looking at football as a whole, as a team, as 11 players, the whole tactics behind the ball. I have been lucky to be coached by a lot of amazing coaches, I’ve learnt a little bit about every one of them, but in Spain, the other coach I had at Real Sociedad, he woke up the aspect of tactics and mathematics of the game. In the future, I don’t know, I love the tactics, I love football, I love being around it, but I see how coaches age, and I don’t know if I want that for me! So, let’s see in the future, don’t try to retire me yet!
on how big the Euros success was with Spain for him:
Absolutely, it’s probably been the best summer of my life because of a lot of things that happened, but winning the Euros has for sure changed my life to the best in the football aspect as well. Signing for Arsenal, winning the Euros, it’s amazing and has been a dream come true. I grew up watching the Xavis and Iniestas that I told you guys just a minute ago, while they were winning World Cups and Euros, and they’re talked about as legends. You’re the one winning the Euros, so it’s just crazy to me but it’s just amazing.
on having to play more games this season:
About the games, it has been a difficult topic, a tricky topic for the past few months if you will say. It’s a difficult one because obviously we are players, I love to play football, I don’t even care how much I have to rest or not rest because whenever there’s a ball at my feet I feel happy. At the same time, we’re reaching a level where players are getting injured and the level of the game is not at the highest point because of resting, so I think it’s in the best for everyone to get to a point where we can keep playing, keep giving spectacle because if players are not rested there are going to be injuries. Everybody wants to see the big names perform and do all these amazing tricks and be high quality football. Hopefully we can get to an agreement and get to a point where everybody’s happy and we can keep going and enjoy football.
on if the demands have got higher on players:
Yes, I’ve been plying European football for six or seven years now in a row, so your body starts to feel it. Maybe when you’ve been playing for one or two years, your body doesn’t even care about how many times you have to rest, but when you’re getting older you start to feel it. Right now I feel great. I come back from an injury so I don’t feel tired at all. I just want to keep playing, keep improving my physical aspects and get to that level again where I feel 100 percent.
on his maturity:
As I said before, the fact that my father was a footballer back in the day helped me a lot because he gave me a lot of clues or tips about how football life works. At the same time, I went out away from home. I went to Germany, then to England, back to Spain, now I move again. Those are experiences where you learn, you are forced to learn because you’re 18 years old, you don’t have your mother anymore to cook for you, so you have to wake up and start doing things by yourself. Learn new languages, try to perfect English, German. That’s what I think makes you wake up and try to mature.
on Raya’s performances:
David is an amazing goalkeeper, an amazing guy. He has had an amazing season last year. He’s started in amazing form this year. That talks a lot about how strong he is mentally and of course how hard he works physically. He’s always pushing himself. I’m lucky enough to play with him in the national team as well. You can see him performing really good there. He’s always working hard even when he’s not playing, so that’s just a good example for everyone for what we should do. Just keep working, try to push ourselves even if we’re in a good position. Hopefully we can all learn. I think everybody has the same mentality as him and we can start getting better performances.
on the impact of having so many tall players in the team:
Sometimes it’s crazy because I’m in the corridors of the training just walking and, back in my old club, I used to be one of the tallest, so everybody was smaller me. Now I look around and everybody is taller than me! We look like a basketball team now! Football has changed and now you need a strong team. Physicality is key. We need to be the most complete team possible. You need the physical aspect, the technical aspect, the tactical one. You need to be a total team if you want to achieve big things, as we do. So it’s not only about being tall and big, it’s always the mentality. If you’re big but you don’t go with 100 percent of your intention to win the ball, it’s nothing. The main thing is the mentality and I think we have that.
on how much work we put into set-pieces:
It’s something that football is evolving. Set-pieces are evolving too. Everybody is paying a lot of attention to set-pieces because it’s a big part of the game and you can win or lose a lot of games because of that. Here we try to train it a lot. We have the good staff members and players to do that. The physical advantage is something that, if you try to get 100 percent out of it, you can win a lot of games.
on his time with Odegaard at Real Sociedad:
It has been a long journey for him and for me. That finishes now playing together again. We played maybe four, five or six years ago. I saw him as this really talented kid that was just magic in the number 10 position. He made my job really easy because he’s the one who moves really good in the pockets, he turns, plays quick and for me, as a number eight back in the day, I used to find him a lot and he used to make my passes better. It’s amazing how he has evolved and developed. Now he’s a grown man, the captain, the leader of this club and you can hear the maturity in his voice, how he acts, talks to people and behaves on the pitch. It’s great to be back with him again and hopefully we can keep building that relationship and connection that we have.
on if his injury made him more hungry for his achievements:
I don’t think it has made me more hungry because I’ve always had that hunger to achieve goals, to win or not to lose. I’m a really bad loser, I don’t like losing at anything. The hunger has always been there and now I’m surrounded by people that have the same hunger, that want to win at all costs, that want to not only win but do it in the best way possible. That’s something that motivates me, something that gives me the belief that we can do it, we can win big things. There’s a long way to go still but I think we have the capacity, the players and the mentality. I’m really happy to be around people that feel the same way as I do.
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