Mikel Merino looked back on his unhappy time at Borussia Dortmund and drew a sobering conclusion. For the Spaniard it didn’t fit BVB in several ways.
Despite being the DFB-Pokal winner in the 2016/17 season, Mikel Merino doesn’t have particularly fond memories of his spell at Borussia Dortmund. This was partly due to the fact that he was not on the same wavelength as the coach at the time, Thomas Tuchel.
“Sometimes your abilities are not trusted,” Merino looked back on his first year in black and yellow in “Sport Bild”. Under Tuchel, the central midfielder, who came from CA Osasuna for 3.75 million euros in the summer of 2016, hardly got a chance and was even loaned to Newcastle United in his second year.
In 2018 he finally continued at Real Sociedad. Merino flourished again in Spain. “My current coach Imanol Alguacil let me play straight away, gives me affection and trust like the whole team,” the Spanish international compared Alguacil to Tuchel and added: “With his fatherly nature, he has maximum influence on my development.”
Despite everything, he was “proud” of his “stage” at Borussia Dortmund, as Merino described the learning phase at BVB. “She helped me get to where I am now,” said the Spaniard happily, adding: “But of course I would have liked more chances.”
Merino: At BVB there were “different ways of life”
But not everything was just right for Merino in terms of sport, there was also a different atmosphere within the team than at Real Sociedad from San Sebastián, where the midfielder rose to become an absolute top performer. “We did have a good group in Dortmund, but we’re friends here,” emphasized Merino.
“Many have been playing and living together since they were young, doing a lot together like film nights or coffee rounds after training,” the 25-year-old gave a few examples. “At BVB there were also different ways of life due to the different cultures. It was different there.”
Real Sociedad’s sporting director Roberto Olabe explained in “Sport Bild” why things are going so well with Merino and took a small dig at BVB: “We believe in maturing processes at different speeds, we’re in less of a hurry than larger clubs with a lot of pressure. That’s why let’s not use potential like a handkerchief, don’t throw it away because it’s already been used.”
At the La Liga club, “the players don’t get carried around town on their shoulders when it’s going well, nor are they banged on when it’s not,” added Olabe. “Here, instead of wild nightlife, there is peace and love from the fans. That converts pressure into energy to develop further.”