Arsenal are 'like a basketball team' - Mikel Merino

Cameron Smith

• 21 Oct 2024 17:30 BST
• 3 min read

Arsenal summer signing Mikel Merino has admitted that Mikel Arteta has recruited a team of giants that resemble “a basketball team.”

The Gunners possess one of the most physical teams in world football, with the club frequently lining up with around eight players over 6ft tall.

Arteta’s side have become set-piece specialists over the past few years and their transfer business has revolved around signing physically and aerially dominant players, who also have the required technical proficiency.

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Declan Rice, Kai Havertz, Riccardo Calafiori and Merino have all arrived over the past 16 months, with Arteta exploiting a new tactic in a bid to end Arsenal’s trophyless run.

In an interview with The Mirror, Merino has admitted that the height of Arsenal’s first-team squad caught him by surprise.

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What has Mikel Merino said?

“Yeah, sometimes it is crazy,” he said. “I am in the corridors of 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.”

Merino continued: “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,

“Football is evolving and set pieces too. That is one of the reasons I am here, because I think I can be a threat in the opposite box.

“Everybody is paying a lot of attention to them. It is 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.”