If there is one player who has had a year of two halves, it is Mika Biereth. To say that he hit the ground running following his move from Sturm Graz to Monaco in January would be an understatement. I...
If there is one player who has had a year of two halves, it is Mika Biereth. To say that he hit the ground running following his move from Sturm Graz to Monaco in January would be an understatement. In the second half of last season, the Arsenal academy product netted 13 goals in 16 games in Ligue 1, firing the Principality club back into the Champions League. Bar the goals and the sheer quantity of them, his opening six months were also defined by the affinity that he shared with strike partner Breel Embolo, both on and off the pitch.
The pair shared a telepathic understanding on the pitch and were inseparable off of it. The Swiss forward’s departure for Rennes over the summer has coincided with a change in fortunes for Biereth. A pure coincidence? “You can see that we had a good connection both on and off the pitch,” said Biereth back in September. “But there are other good connections. It is just taking a bit of time to get used to that.”
Biereth usurped by another former Arsenal man?
If it is simply an adaptation period, it is proving to be a particularly difficult one. In 22 games this season, he has just four goals. And goals are very much his currency, given his profile as a ‘fox-in-the-box’ striker, unlike Embolo, for example, whose worth was measured more by how he brought others, primarily Biereth, into play.
Biereth, now a Denmark international, is not worried, however. “It is important to notice that with young players in football, it sometimes goes well and sometimes not so well. I think that, right now, I am in one of those periods where, as a striker, it’s not going the best […] but I am my own biggest critic, and I have to look at myself and keep training as hard as possible. I’m sure these things will fall back into place,” he said earlier this season.
But with another Arsenal academy product, Folarin Balogun, performing well, often as the sole striker, there is now significant competition for a starting spot under Sébastien Pocognoli. And so there is work to do for Biereth to reproduce those 2024/25 levels. In 2026, he must dispel growing fears that his opening months in the Principality club were just a flash in the pan.
Category: General Sports
