Merino on joining ‘basketball team’ Arsenal and hoping to soon be at his best | OneFootball

Mikel Merino says Arsenal are like a “basketball team” because of the height of the squad.

The Spanish midfielder joined the club this summer and made his first Premier League start for the Gunners in Saturday’s defeat to Bournemouth.

Arsenal have placed an emphasis on signing tall players but Merino admits he has been left surprised by just how big the Arsenal squad are.

“Yeah, sometimes it is crazy,” he joked.

“I am in the corridors or the training ground just walking, and back at my old club I used to be one of the tallest so everyone was smaller than me and now I look around and everyone is taller than me!

“We look like a basketball team now. Football now 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, technical aspect, the tactical one, you need to be a total team to achieve big things as we do.

“It is not only about being tall and big, you need mentality. If you are tall and big but don’t go with the 100 per cent intention to win the ball, it’s just nothing. The main thing is the mentality and we have that.”

Merino missed the start of the season after suffering a shoulder injury in training but is hoping the Gunners fans will get to see the best of him soon.

“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.”

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