With Essien out, you think Mikel will flourish?

[nadavTKL 1,787]

Yes maybe we could do with another midfielder but I dont think we need one specifically to replace Essien simply because we already have someone who can play that role and play it at a very high level, that being Ramires.

I hope you right. I wish Ramires can play this role. Im sure he has it, I always thought he's the Next Essien, the question is if he has it so early,

in his second season in the PL and CL. The main thing is his responsibility, I dont think he can be the responsible character in the midfield by imself.

He(and Mikel if he's our holder mid) need to have someone like Ballack or Essien around them. Thats what I think from seeing them until now,

maybe next season they will show they grow.

And for all the Mikel lovers( ) who jump on every guy who doesnt rate Mikel like them, I got to say im hope it will be Ramires, and I will explain.

First of all, I just dont think we should play with a midfielder who doesnt threatening the opposite team. Mikel doing good job on the defensive side,

but he's far from being perfect in that area as well, he commit silly fouls, lose his focus sometimes, doesnt have the best instincts. So if you combine

his non-existent offensive game, and his good but not OUT OF THIS WORLD defensive game, you get a midfielder who is good(with his passing abillity in

the centrel of the field, does it very well actually), but he isnt a First 11 in a team like Chelsea.

[nadavTKL 1,787]

He was our best midfielder for the first half of the season. Held our midfield on his own during November and December. ahead.

I realy dont think so. Essien was better then him by miles, at least until the game against fulham when Essien got his red card. Until december, Essien

realy seemed like getting back to his best, seemed like the perfect midfielder again- scored some goals, and did great job together with Mikel in the midfield.

Apparently people forgot about is great start.

[Naked Mole Rat 437]

Well I really think Essien and Mikel is so negative.

Even Guus never used them together only when we have to be ultra defensive.

I would love to see Mikel-Modric, or Mikel-Josh. All the creativity we need.

Mikel-McEachran.. Now THAT's really defensive. If we play both at the same time, they'll slow down the game, and neither of them is good offensively.

Anyways, about McEachran, I'm not quite sure where he can play in our three-man midfield. Maybe if we played 4-4-2 diamond or Milan's 4-3-1-2, we might be able to play McEachran like Pirlo. But in the 4-3-3 system, I don't really know because McEachran lacks offensive calibre, which means we'll need someone like Lampard alongside him, but at the same time, he's also slow and weak, which means that we'll need someone like Essien or Ramires. If he played DM, we'll still need someone to help him because he's not very good defensively and is weak.

[bombayblue™ 55]

AVB has reiterated it time and again, that he wants to unshackle the players and free their game of inhibitions.

In Mikel we have a player who was brilliant as an AM and was converted into the DM after signing for us, I think he would benefit the most from this philosophy of AVB and we could possibly see a new Mikel this season.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

There's a rumour heating up we're targeting Cheik Tiote as an Essien replacement.

I seem to remember we did try to lure him in January. Thoughts?

[Guest justin_3d]

Mikel-McEachran.. Now THAT's really defensive. If we play both at the same time, they'll slow down the game, and neither of them is good offensively.

Anyways, about McEachran, I'm not quite sure where he can play in our three-man midfield. Maybe if we played 4-4-2 diamond or Milan's 4-3-1-2, we might be able to play McEachran like Pirlo. But in the 4-3-3 system, I don't really know because McEachran lacks offensive calibre, which means we'll need someone like Lampard alongside him, but at the same time, he's also slow and weak, which means that we'll need someone like Essien or Ramires. If he played DM, we'll still need someone to help him because he's not very good defensively and is weak.

Mikel-Josh really defensive???

How??

Because Carlo made Josh a DM?

You need to look into the creativity these two. Under a system sure they where negative. But under a possible AVB system they will have freedom to do what they want.

And last you still are thinking in the old system. The system of Mourinho of power and stamina.

That will not fly with AVB. Winning with FLAIR, is something that Essien and Lampard don't have over Josh and Mikel. If AVB is serious he will exploit their talent to bring the best out of these two. Likewise with Kakuta.

AVB has reiterated it time and again, that he wants to unshackle the players and free their game of inhibitions.

In Mikel we have a player who was brilliant as an AM and was converted into the DM after signing for us, I think he would benefit the most from this philosophy of AVB and we could possibly see a new Mikel this season.

This.

There's a rumour heating up we're targeting Cheik Tiote as an Essien replacement.

I seem to remember we did try to lure him in January. Thoughts?

hmmmm

So so. But can't say much till an official bid is in for him.

[GodZola 630]

Don't flatter yourself. You're not the only fan in the forum or on the Internet who holds such an opinion.

He was our best midfielder for the first half of the season. Held our midfield on his own during November and December. Got injured and rarely started games after that. Afterwards what you described as playing below average was actually not playing much at all. The fact that he got dropped by Ancelotti doesn't affect my opinion of his ability or performances in the slightest.

Ballack played in the holding role for only a few games and once we were already on the high, killing games in the first 10 minutes and never having to defend since we were well ahead.

Some on here think Henrique's arrogant, has that M.o.M title gone to you're head?!

You questioned my footballing knowledge so I being 'ONE' of those people that happened to challenge that because my perception differs from yours & you then you tell me that I shouldn't 'flatter myself'??? I am not the only one that thinks differently & wouldn't be so arrogant to think so, just because others have a different view or perceive things differently to you, it doesn't give you the right to question their knowledge & then throw in an arrogant comment to boot.

I suggest you get you're facts correct in future before posting, Ballack played 49 times that season as opposed to Mikel's 34, he stepped in the DM position when Mikel got injured, this is when we started playing some great stuff because Ballack moved the ball quicker, he can see a pass & can kick the ball forward more than 10 yards!

Now I have courage to stand by my convictions, I wonder if you & the Mikel lovers will come on & eat some humble pie if he continues his poor form under AVB? The facts are he has had 5 seasons to produce, yet we are still waiting, he now has a manager that will give him the tools to do the job he wants so now there are no more hiding places - he has to deliver & if he does I will come on here & say I was wrong. However up until now he has not shown me/others anything to suggest otherwise.

[Peace. 4,352]

And for all the Mikel lovers( ) who jump on every guy who doesnt rate Mikel like them, I got to say im hope it will be Ramires, and I will explain.

First of all, I just dont think we should play with a midfielder who doesnt threatening the opposite team.

Well, whether he threats the opposite team or not isn't a matter in itself. Actually, we have to look what goes around him to determine whether he does provide enough threat or not. Indeed, if you take a look at how the squad's, and more precisely the players', movements of last season, you could see that Ashley Cole (and Bosingwa when playing) played very high on the pitch ; Lampard and Essien were bombing forward but were quite slow to come back to defend ; Malouda wasn't really willing to provide a work rate. So, that means a lot of players were already providing a threat to the opposit team, thus our defensive line was to defend on his own.

So, perhaps Mikel wasn't providing enough threat but, he was a back up for all those people who were going forward. In another words, the threat he didn't provided was made by other players (in particulary Cole).

Then the reason - in my opinion - he wasn't going forward and wasn't involved in the attack was because he had to defend. I also believe it was an order from Ancelotti.

[Kieran. 6,317]

WTF? Why is it that Mikel can only be world class or awful? He's pretty good, and that's that.

[Clevemayer 764]

WTF? Why is it that Mikel can only be world class or awful? He's pretty good, and that's that.

kept quite at this topic for a while but...

the problem is pretty simple... its that ppl don't understand the role of mikel and even if they do, they try to make him look bad...

No other midfielder of ours can match his defensive abilitys...

Ess haven't the half of Mikels shielding, Intercepting and passing abilitys

without Mikel, our fullbacks wouldn't bomb forward

without Mikel there would be no defensive midfielder at all (just watch us play 4-4-2 with ramy against Manure)

maybe technically our most gifted midfielder...

Mikel has skills that the others dont have

but the other way round the others have skills mikel don't has... but thats why footbal isn't a one man Show, its a Team-Sport, so everyone in the team can fetch up the difficultys the other has...

so many pathetic footballfans out there who just try to talk in a bad way about somebody they don't like so they ask for failures, which in that position are none...

mikel had more forwardpasses till his injury than FABREGAS, MODRIC, NASRI, ANDERSON, SONG etc... e. g. more then ALL offensive minded midfielders in the LEAGUE and more then any other defensive midfielders, despite this fact they still clame he always passes sideways...

he had most successfull passes as a DM and still his passing is wastefull, according to optastats the most successfull then anybody...

he made the most interceptions for our team...

shilded the ball sublimely against 2 or 3 sometimes 4 players...

oh Ok I see, he dosen't score a hat-trick every game he plays in, so he is a WASTE OF SPACE... get rid of him... I mean what is a defensive midfielder supposed to do? right score goals...

[Guest justin_3d]

kept quite at this topic for a while but...

the problem is pretty simple... its that ppl don't understand the role of mikel and even if they do, they try to make him look bad...

No other midfielder of ours can match his defensive abilitys...

Ess haven't the half of Mikels shielding, Intercepting and passing abilitys

without Mikel, our fullbacks wouldn't bomb forward

without Mikel there would be no defensive midfielder at all (just watch us play 4-4-2 with ramy against Manure)

maybe technically our most gifted midfielder...

Mikel has skills that the others dont have

but the other way round the others have skills mikel don't has... but thats why footbal isn't a one man Show, its a Team-Sport, so everyone in the team can fetch up the difficultys the other has...

so many pathetic footballfans out there who just try to talk in a bad way about somebody they don't like so they ask for failures, which in that position are none...

mikel had more forwardpasses till his injury than FABREGAS, MODRIC, NASRI, ANDERSON, SONG etc... e. g. more then ALL offensive minded midfielders in the LEAGUE and more then any other defensive midfielders, despite this fact they still clame he always passes sideways...

he had most successfull passes as a DM and still his passing is wastefull, according to optastats the most successfull then anybody...

he made the most interceptions for our team...

shilded the ball sublimely against 2 or 3 sometimes 4 players...

oh Ok I see, he dosen't score a hat-trick every game he plays in, so he is a WASTE OF SPACE... get rid of him... I mean what is a defensive midfielder supposed to do? right score goals...

:goodpost:

[GodZola 630]

Well, whether he threats the opposite team or not isn't a matter in itself. Actually, we have to look what goes around him to determine whether he does provide enough threat or not. Indeed, if you take a look at how the squad's, and more precisely the players', movements of last season, you could see that Ashley Cole (and Bosingwa when playing) played very high on the pitch ; Lampard and Essien were bombing forward but were quite slow to come back to defend ; Malouda wasn't really willing to provide a work rate. So, that means a lot of players were already providing a threat to the opposit team, thus our defensive line was to defend on his own.

So, perhaps Mikel wasn't providing enough threat but, he was a back up for all those people who were going forward. In another words, the threat he didn't provided was made by other players (in particulary Cole).

Then the reason - in my opinion - he wasn't going forward and wasn't involved in the attack was because he had to defend. I also believe it was an order from Ancelotti.

That's his job to do that (giving licence to others to attack) & I've already said that I'm not singling out Mikel alone as we had near a whole squad barring a few that under performed. You may be right in that ancelotti gave him those instructions but we will never know, however it doesn't stop him distributing the ball quicker or making a defence splitting ball more regularly - he can do it, I'm saying he doesn't do it enough. Makelele, Essien before his spate of injuries & Ballack were better than him in that role, its just my opinion that's all, I just think Mikel has to improve on what he has done for us thus far.

[lionsden 4,689]

kept quite at this topic for a while but...

the problem is pretty simple... its that ppl don't understand the role of mikel and even if they do, they try to make him look bad...

No other midfielder of ours can match his defensive abilitys...

Ess haven't the half of Mikels shielding, Intercepting and passing abilitys

without Mikel, our fullbacks wouldn't bomb forward

without Mikel there would be no defensive midfielder at all (just watch us play 4-4-2 with ramy against Manure)

maybe technically our most gifted midfielder...

Mikel has skills that the others dont have

but the other way round the others have skills mikel don't has... but thats why footbal isn't a one man Show, its a Team-Sport, so everyone in the team can fetch up the difficultys the other has...

so many pathetic footballfans out there who just try to talk in a bad way about somebody they don't like so they ask for failures, which in that position are none...

mikel had more forwardpasses till his injury than FABREGAS, MODRIC, NASRI, ANDERSON, SONG etc... e. g. more then ALL offensive minded midfielders in the LEAGUE and more then any other defensive midfielders, despite this fact they still clame he always passes sideways...

he had most successfull passes as a DM and still his passing is wastefull, according to optastats the most successfull then anybody...

he made the most interceptions for our team...

shilded the ball sublimely against 2 or 3 sometimes 4 players...

oh Ok I see, he dosen't score a hat-trick every game he plays in, so he is a WASTE OF SPACE... get rid of him... I mean what is a defensive midfielder supposed to do? right score goals...

I couldn't have articulated this any better. great post. Mikel just can't win with some fans. . . I just can't help but shake my head in disgust whenever people criticisie a DM for not scoring goals and creating multiple assists. next they would criticize Petr Cech for not taking free kicks and corners.

[Bosnian Blue 2,471]

More of this stuff:

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[Clevemayer 764]

More of this stuff:

here you go