While the Spanish team advanced in the Euro Cup last summer, operations were forged that involved several of the players who dazzled in the tournament and who changed teams those days and the following days. Like Mikel Merino (Pamplona; 28 years old), who went from Real Sociedad to Arsenal. Back with Spain, he faces this Friday in Copenhagen against Denmark (20:45, La1) the penultimate match of the Nations qualifying phase. The team is already classified for the quarterfinals, and a tie would confirm it as first in the group.
Ask. He arrived at Arsenal just after winning the European Championship. Do you notice that this achievement has any effect on your colleagues?
Answer. Yes of course. We players are very respectable. We know what it costs to win things like this. You say: “Wow, this guy had to do things well to win one of these tournaments.” That respect and admiration from your teammates is noticeable, especially when you arrive at a club like this, with many young players, and you being one of the veterans. You notice that your colleagues ask you things, they respect you as soon as you arrive.
Q. In 2023, when lifting the Nations, Rodri said that winning would serve to build a culture that would help continue winning. What weight does the mental have?
R. At the highest level, where physical, technical and tactical equality is so great, mental is everything.
Q. In the Euro, some teammates said that it helped to have Carvajal, Nacho or Rodri, who had won a lot. Is it noticeable?
R. Having players like Carva, like Nacho, like Rodri around, for the younger people, even for me at that moment in the Euro Cup final, seeing how they responded to those moments of pressure, seeing that they were so calm, with the confidence of Having experienced that before, it gave you peace of mind. You said: “If these people who have been here before experience it like this, there is nothing to worry about.”
Q. There, he was decisive at a critical moment: in the quarterfinals, he scored 2-1 against Germany with a header in the 119th minute that gave them a place in the semi-finals. How much do you keep from that moment? Do you remember the play well?
R. I tend to remember quite a bit what I’m thinking step by step. It was a play that was on the right wing. Because I know the quality of my teammates, and I know that Carva is there, instead of being in a further back position to avoid losing, I am further ahead. Because I know that the ball is going to come out of there to the other side, which is where the free side is. And Carva does it like crazy: boom, first to the other side finding the free player.
Q. There they are still far from the goal.
R. I am already in an advanced position, which allows me to reach the area in time. Cuckoo [que recibió el pase de Carvajal] sees that Dani is getting ahead [Olmo] and gives it to him. And I know that Dani, who is right-footed and has a very good shot, since it is the last minute, I know that he is going to take a cross no matter what, that he is not going to start dribbling. So I already look for reference to where my colleagues are, where the spaces are. From there you just have to make the movement: attack a little from the front to fix the mark and then break to the back, which is where the space is. And pray that the ball goes there.
Q. And it goes there.
R. Dani makes it crazy, and then it’s simply the technical thing: setting the times, seeing the ball coming, marking the jump, coordinating the body and finishing. It takes me a while to make the movement and it catches me running backwards, and when I jump back I don’t have the strength of inertia to go forward to finish. I have to draw the strength of my movement from my body: that’s why I open my legs so much, to balance myself and give it strength with my legs and neck. And in the end the ball went in and… madness. And an incredible silence, because the entire stadium became completely silent: full of Germans and few Spaniards.
Q. He copied the celebration of his father, Miguel Merino, after scoring for Osasuna 33 years earlier in that same stadium. Had they talked about it?
R. I hadn’t talked about it. I had seen that goal many times, because it is one of the highlightsof my father’s career, in European competition. The celebration went viral at the time, and it is a celebration that I also do now. It seemed like it was written for a movie: for the son to score a goal in the same stadium, in a European competition, with the father there…
Q. He was also a footballer. Did you intervene much in your training?
R. Since I was little he has always tried to help me and has found the balance very well between intervening and not intervening. He talked to me a lot about general things that are necessary to be an educated player. The values that a First Division player must have: camaraderie, work, not making excuses, sacrifice. But it had no influence on the tactical and technical aspects of the game. In that he left a lot of room for the coaches. He didn’t want to get involved and say: “I’ve been a footballer, I know better than you what to do.” No no.
Q.And now as a professional?
R. Now we really talk much more than before about the technical aspect, the tactical aspect… In this position you could have done this, or you could have given yourself more meters, or you could have made a feint to fix a little more… Now we really like to talk about That’s because we’ve both experienced professional football and we’ve experienced that same situation and we understand it. It’s something that my mother, no matter how much football she has watched, and no matter how much she knows, and she knows a lot, will never understand: what it feels like to receive a pass early with a wet field and with pressure from one side. , and that you have to play first… He knows what it feels like in that position.
Q. It is not the first time he leaves Spain to play. At the age of 18 he left Osasuna to go to Borussia Dortmund. How was the jump?
R. The culture was totally different. And the idea of the game. So, it takes you a little bit to adapt. Especially at the level. You come from the Second Division, you just went up to the First Division and the jump to a Champions team is huge. At a football level, it took me a couple of months to get into the rhythm, but then I think I quickly adapted. Training he was at the level of the best. Then I didn’t have the opportunities, or the confidence to be able to play minutes… In fact, I spent half a year training as a center back, which I had never done in my career, and it was difficult for me. It was a year that I learned a lot. I gave a lot of value to trying to get out of that negative spiral: it was the first time that I didn’t play, that I didn’t count for the coach.
Q. The following year he went to Newcastle. What did England give you?
R. Until then he was a pretty good player technically. I had all the tactical concepts in place, I had the idea of playing, of not losing the ball, which didn’t burn me out. And I realized that the Premier was a battle, that on a physical level the players were the best of the best: the intensity, the contacts… I realized that I had to create a much stronger physical base if I wanted to compete at that level. level every three days.
Q. He said that later, at Real Sociedad, Imanol Alguacil helped him to progress tactically, and to count on players. What is it referring to?
R. Before you used to get free players, or where the ball had to go, based on talent. You controlled it, you had it a little longer, you endured the shock, and suddenly you saw a guy who was alone and boom, you gave it to him. Imanol starts to tell you how they are squeezing you, who is going to jump you, who is with whom, that they are going in pairs, or plus one or minus one. When you don’t have the ball you start to notice how they are behaving, and you start to understand before the ball reaches you who is going to be the free kick and who is going to jump who, and where you have to control. That is what has given me greater peace of mind when anticipating actions.
Q.How do you seduce a player? What did Arteta tell you?
R. I was seduced by the fact that it was a team in a process of growth, that they had not yet won and they wanted to win. Feeling a participant in building a winning culture, as happened to me at Real. And also that they insisted that they could help me grow more. It will be a place where they will try to help you polish your defects and become that total player who can achieve more things on an individual level.
Q. What would you like to improve?
R. I consider myself a very decisive player in the game in general. In helping the team to be solid defensively, to carry the weight of the game with the ball, to not weigh down the pressure and to ensure that there is continuity in the game, and that your team puts itself in situations in which the forwards can score. But it would be something incredible to be able to also be decisive not only in the general aspect but also in the goal, in the assists, near the area and in the final third. The best in the world do that well, and it’s what you pay the most money for. And it is the most difficult. I hope I can do it too.
