Portugal international Guerrero, who ended his European Championship holiday, may not have imagined that the first teammate he saw when he returned to the team was a strange face. The club arranged a private jet to take him to a training camp in Badrajaz, with the newly signed Dutch international Marlen. After months of negotiations, Dortmund finally finalized the deal.
Guerrero said: "We talked a lot on the plane. I told him about Borussia Dortmund and it was nice to see him on the pitch soon. Borussia Dortmund paid a transfer fee of 30 million euros for Mullen, and the agent Rayola also received a share, and the two sides have a five-year contract with an annual salary of around 6 million euros, which is in the middle and upper class of Dortmund's salary structure. Mullen said: "Borussia Dortmund is one of the top clubs in Europe, has always been in the first division in the Bundesliga and is ambitious in the Champions League. I'm looking forward to standing on the pitch with my new teammates and bringing out my best performances. I'm also looking forward to the enthusiastic fans and the spectacular stadiums, which are famous all over Europe. ”
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="7" > Mullen's upside</h1>
"Mullen is a player with a strong offensive ability who knows how to make a threat in front of goal", said Dortmund manager Zolk: "We see his creativity is very strong, very fast and I believe he will help us a lot." Team leader Kyle said: "We are amazed by Mullen's performance at Eindhoven, he can adapt to different tactical formations, single forward, double forward or winger, I am sure the fans will be happy for him." ”
Mullen's father is from Suriname and his mother is Dutch. He entered Ajax's youth school at the age of 9, when his mother had to drive 162 kilometers almost every day to take him to Amsterdam and take him home. He met agent Raiola at the age of 14, who brought him to arsenal youth in 2017. In two years, he scored 44 goals for Arsenal under the U18 and U23. Mullen grew up meeting two great strikers. Ajax U10, his coach is former Netherlands international Bergkamp. Arsenal U23, coached by France international Henry, who has won the World Cup and the European Championship. It was under Henry that Mullen, who had originally played as a centre-forward, tried more positions and added the attributes of a winger.
Before the start of the 2017/18 season, Mullen did not renew his contract with Arsenal and chose to return to China to join Eindhoven. He has dazzling offensive stats in the Eredivisie, contributing 19 goals and eight assists last season. Since 2018, he has scored 55 goals for Eindhoven. In the summer of 2019, he was selected for the Dutch national team for the first time, starting with the European Championship qualifier against Germany, where he scored his first goal and Mullen has played 13 games for the Netherlands so far.
Ahead of the European Championship, former Netherlands international Schneider thought Mullen would be a "surprise at the European Championship", but the result was not satisfactory. Mullen oscillated between the Dutch team's main force and the bench. Moreover, in the quarter-finals, the scene of his loss of a single knife is impressive. The main thing he needs to improve is his ability to take chances in front of goal, he has 113 shots on goal last season, ranking third in the league, of which 31 are necessary to score, and he only converts 39% of them into goals. In contrast, Borussia Dortmund's main Indian center-forward Haaland has this figure of 54%.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="17" > not Sancho's replacement? </h1>
Mullen has similarities with Sancho in terms of technical characteristics: he is fast and threatening to the goal. The German media and fans see him as Sancho's replacement. However, no two players can be 100% substituted, and Mullen has his own characteristics. He is a centre-forward and is more accustomed to playing in the middle. When he gets his chances, his first instinct is usually to shoot himself, rather than to give it to his teammates, and his one-on-one passing skills are slightly inferior to Sancho's. Team leader Kyle said: "It's not fair to use him to compare him to Sancho. Sancho spent a while here adapting and improving, and Mullen needed time too. Mullen, on the other hand, is another type of player who can play on the wing but a lot of times cuts inwards. Sancho is more of a move toward the bottom line. We know the difference and are happy about it. ”
Eindhoven's main formation is 442, and under head coach Schmidt, Mullen is one of the two strikers, a style of play that has been rare in Dortmund in recent years. After Haaland joined, he firmly occupied the main center position. Although Haaland played well with Huang Xican or Dhaka during his time in Salzburg, Haaland has publicly stated that he can only "endure" if he wants to partner with another striker. The new coach Rozer's habitual formation is also a single striker.
In this case, Mullen needs to change his style, and Roze is more likely to pull him back, support Haaland with Reus, or be active on both flanks like Sancho, especially on the right. Compared to the goal-goal finisher in the Eredivisie, Mullen played more of a "shadow" role at Borussia Dortmund. The Ruhr News pointed out that Mullen's job is now to assist Haaland, but Haaland is likely to transfer to another big club in the next year or two, when Mullen can naturally become the new center forward. From this perspective, he should not be Sancho's replacement, but a potential replacement for Haaland.
Regardless of what the future holds, at least the two have been working together this season. Haaland also hopes that Mullen will be a good "assistant" to himself. The two players were the same agent, Rayola, who spoke on the phone with Haaland before the transfer. Haaland joked: "I told him he had to give me a lot of assists or I would get mad at him. It's a new environment where my teammates and I will help him adapt and he knows he has to perform at his best from the first moment. Haaland is not putting pressure on Mullen alone, it's actually what he's asking for for everyone, including himself, Haaland said: "We have to have positive energy to bring the best results." That's why we play at Borussia Dortmund. ”