Alexander Merkel

{Profile Posted 15/10/12}





Date of Birth: - 22.02.1992



Height: - 5 ft 10 inches



Position: - CAM, Right Winger



Nationality: - German



Current Club: - AC Milan and Genoa Co - Ownership



Estimated Market Value: - £10 Million



Linked with: - Liverpool





Club Statistics



AC Milan



2010/2011 season - 18 matches, 1 goal and 1 assist.



2011/2012 season - 3 matches, no goals and no assists.



TOTAL - 21 matches, 1 goal and 1 assist.



Genoa



2011/2012 season - 14 matches, no goals and 3 assists.



2012/2013 season - 3 matches, 1 goal and no assists.



TOTAL - 21 matches, 1 goal and 3 assists.





International Statistics



Germany U18

2009/2010 season- 2 matches, no goals and no assists.



Germany U19

2010/2011 season- 2 matches, 1 goal and no assists.



Germany U20

2011/2012 season- 1 match, no goals and no assists.







General Comments:



Alexander Merkel is a player I like. I like him a lot. He is seriously talented and any team that were to acquire him would be very lucky indeed. Despite having the misfortune of sharing the same last name as the German chancellor he is quality. When we found out that we held an interest in Merkel, Ed052 was in the dark and hadn't seen him play and new little of him. So as we were drowning our sorrows over another one of our now traditional pints of tomato juice I thought I would share my knowledge of Merkel with him. Obviously he hung on my every word.



The best way I could describe Merkel is classy. I could just leave this profile at that and for anyone who had seen him play they would understand. However I shall endeavour to explain why he is such a wonderful player.

Merkel is not a player who goes missing in a match, he goes hunting for the ball and on his day can tear nearly any team apart. He is a very similar player to Eden Hazard - not quite as good but that is nothing to be shameful of as Hazard is quite special. But back to Merkel, he is very two-footed which is so useful in this era of professional Football. Against Juventus last year he put in a pin-point cross with his left foot which was converted - the reason this was so impressive was firstly the level of difficulty in executing the technique involved in this piece of skill, and secondly - this was with his weak foot. Merkel is also quite a pacey player, he is able to go past men like they are standing still.



Another quality of Merkel's which I greatly admire is his leadership qualities. There are few attacking midfielders in the game at present that I feel are genuine leaders. Generally they are very talented players who can affect a game one way or another - but they aren't ones to pull their socks up and dig in and show the way for their teammates when the going gets tough. Merkel does this and he is often at his best when his side are playing poorly - which is both impressive and perplexing at the same time. The last strength to Merkel's game that I will talk about is his skill. Being an attacking midfielder in this day and age means two things generally - being quick and being skilful. And boy you better believe that Alexander Merkel can mix it with the best of them in terms of his skill. He has this uncanny ability to go past men with such ease but also to almost stumble past them - it looks like he should lose the ball but somehow emerges with it every single time. It's certainly left me bewildered on more than one occasion. Merkel can pull out tricks that very few can rival, and when I say few I'm talking Messi, Ronaldo, Hazard and Ramirez in my opinion.



Merkel doesn't have many weaknesses but one that I have seen is he lacks tactically and positional play at times. He generally seems to go wherever he wants to; this is ok when he is playing as the attacking mid/withdrawn striker. But when he is playing on the right wing it becomes a real problem. He can quite easily be drawn out of position leaving the right back with every fullbacks worst nightmare - 2 vs 1 for 90 minutes. If Merkel wishes to progress then he must adjust to wherever his team need him rather than playing where he feels like it. I also feel at times he runs on automatic - he plays a pass because he should play it. He doesn't first assess the situation to make sure it is in fact the best option available.



Would Merkel cut it in the Premiership?



This is difficult - if it were purely based on skill I would say absolutely. But his lack of tactical awareness does worry me - ESPECIALLY if he were to move to Liverpool where Rodgers philosophy hinges on everyone doing their job and being tactically sound. Honestly I think if he were to move to a team like Spurs or Arsenal then he would be a real hit, but if he were to move to Liverpool or United then I don't think he has a good enough footballing brain to be able to buy into where Fergie or Rodgers would require him to play. So whether or not Merkel would cut it in the premier league is dependent on which side he ended up at.



Summary of Merkel:



Strengths: Skill, leader, pace, two-footed



Weaknesses: Tactically naiive, positionally poor







The Business End of the Profile:



Well, we have two different pieces of information from two different sources. Firstly, our first source suggests that we hold a serious interest in Alexander Merkel and have had him watched on quite a few occasions. However, another of our sources suggests that we have not had the player watched at all, and hold no interest in the player whatsoever. So it is an interesting time and we shall have to wait and see what eventuates.





















{A profile by Ed063}