Netherlands lost young star Jorrel Hato to a red card in the 81st minute, and a couple of minutes later, Luis de la Fuente rolled the dice by bringing on Merino in his new temporary role as number nine, where he has been filling in for Arsenal.
Merino levelled the first leg of the Nations League quarter-final by tucking home a rebound from close range, and he earned plaudits from the Spanish media as a result. Marca had an article named : ”Arteta is a genius. Merino is a 9,” and within the article, they wrote: “The Arteta experiment to put the Navarro as a centre forward has become an absolute success. His goal, a striker’s classic, arriving after hunting a free ball in the area, leaving everything to be decided at Mestalla. Now, it’s time for the Valencia fans to finish off what Spain’s new number nine levelled. “
Elsewhere, Diario AS wrote: “Merino equalised in the 93rd minute. The goals in the pocket fall to the Arsenal player. Time to suffer and scream. The goal in the 93rd from Merino, who came on to the field in the 84th, the talisman in Roterdam just like he was in Germany, deserved a celebration like this. Sunday at Mestalla, more emotions.”
Merino on his new striker role
Merino gave an interview to The Guardian this week where he spoke about his new role as a striker. He said: “We’re on a training camp in Dubai and Kai Havertz unfortunately gets injured. There’s a plague of injuries and we don’t have any attackers. 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.’
“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.
“He (Arteta) 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.”
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