CHOULO19

NEVER joke about...spaghetti!

FORZA JUVE!!!

That settles it then! We definitely should not sign him.

I wonder why our female members never post in the pub..

Torn between Skipper who I always nominate, and Ja1 who deserves recognition for his insight on the youth players. Went with Skipper in the end.

He wasn't exactly kissing the ground!

Apparently he had a minor operation according to Rafa. I know he said 2 weeks but I have a feeling it will be bit more.

Completely agree with everything in there, just saying that he's consistent at what he does best which is rare among players. And tbf, every single one of players (bar Azpi maybe) has been inconsistent.

I've tried to stay out of this debate today, but Mikel's biggest asset has always been his consistency. His ability to make 50+ passes in every match at a 85+% accuracy is why he's good.

This is more of a wish list than "likely" ins and outs. Don't think we'll have any major targets before we confirm who our next manager is.

Shame, he's such a nice guy..

Boring 0-0 draw will do. We have to save our best players for the league especially after dropping points in the weekend.

No of course not, he just wasn't up to his standards today.

He was good in one-on-ones but like I said, his positioning was way off at times. He allowed people, especially Welbeck, to get behind him too often. His passing was inaccurate as well especially in the first half.

What does this have to do with Mikel? This is why this thread lacks intelligence at times, because people insist on making their posts about other posters instead of the actual topic.

Disagree with the first part for reasons I've mentioned countless times, but regarding the bolded part, I never defended his performance in the Southampton game, but I will not stop posting my opinion just because I missed one match.

I'm usually the first to praise Azpi but he was probably our worst player today. So many missed passes and his positioning was off. I'm sure it's just a one off match, though

Yes this thread has been lacking a lot of intelligence in the past dozen pages, including posts defending Mikel by myself because the discussion had turned into a cat fight. And we're back to the lack of intelligence....but thank you for taking a couple of sentences in my post completely out of context

Finally, a good intelligent argument! First of, I was not criticizing you for bringing up Kalou, just saying that I can't go into detail in the debate so we don't go off topic. About the first part, although Brown and O'Shea were hardly 'starters' for utd, especially in their latter years, but I can't really argue (intelligently) against some of the other points you made. I'll concede that you proved that Mikel could have been average or below and he would still have been a starter and that we could still have won everything we did. Fair enough, but the key word there is "could". I think you'll agree that your post did not by any means prove that he was average. I admit I go over board defending Mikel because almost everyone goes over board bashing him, but I honestly don't think it's fair to call Mikel average. I'll be the first to admit that he lacks a bit of mobility and his reaction to the game is always a bit slow. But having said that, Mikel, on the other hand, is the best passer in the league for the past 4-5 seasons. No midfielder has played more passes than him or had a higher accuracy (Scholes beat him in a couple of seasons but he's semi-retired now). He also has one of the best ball retention skills in the league; he can keep the ball under immense pressure. He is also excellent at closing passing angles and forcing opponents to play the difficult ball. This may not be glamorous, but I think it helps the team immensely. I know it's not saying much because of the lack of quality in this position atm, but I think it is fair to say the Mikel is in the top 3 DMs in the league. As for him "helping the big boys", that's unfair as well. Mikel was a key player in both of our 09-10 and 11-12 seasons. We could not have won those trophies without him. Go back to Carlo's first season and watch especially the matches against the "big four" when we won all 6 games scoring 13 and only conceding once. Mikel was immense in all of them. He was also our best man in Munich last season. Mikel is not a world beater, I never claimed otherwise, but he's a good player, currently one of our better ones. We have much more pressing issues in our squad. The bashing he constantly gets by some is ridiculous, imo. That's why I go over the top defending him.

I thought he did very very well after coming on despite the lack of help he got down that flank. So, is he back to being the next Ashley Cole now?!

Dunno, I didn't watch the match. But I'm not at all surprised that your whole argument is based on a single incident..

Can't agree with you there, mate. I think Mikel is better suited for the 4-3-3 but that does not mean he can't play in the current set up. The proof? Our best performances this season when we've dominated teams like Arsenal, Tottenham, Utd..etc and played truly great football was with Mikel playing in the pivot. When he has been played along side Ramires, with Mata and Hazard ahead of them, we've looked like we could beat anyone.

This neither the time nor the place to discuss this, but I always thought Kalou was a good squad player, which is exactly what he was for us all those years. Ferreira has become an important figure at the club, but when was the last season he played more than 5 matches? I'm not talking about duration at the club but about being a regular player at the top level. Bottom line is, Mikel has been a regular starter for one of the best of the most successful teams in Europe in the last 4-5 seasons under some of the best managers in the world. If he was as bad as some make him out to be then: 1) How come we have been so successful with him regularly in our lineup? 2) And why was he never replaced when we all know we had the financial power to go for almost any player in the world? I'm just saying that the likes of Mourinho, Carlo, Hiddink..etc must have seen something in his game that his critics are missing.

Funny thing, the guys at the saints forum thought that Shaw got battered by Moses in the first half and that Bertrand was of our better performers. Not saying I agree as I did not watch the match, just giving you a different perspective.

Blue Army deserves a shout out this month.