Mikel's tactical flaw

[SeB 1,281]

Seb, I read somewhere you're studying to be a scout? Is this true? I thought it was just to emphasize your excellent football knowledge but now I think you actually might have some kind of footballing education.

I'm just a youth coach, it's enough for the moment lol

[GodZola 630]

Mikel was injured then his father got abducted. You may recognize it's not the best context to be judged, especially because I think Mikel has proven enough his consistency since he's a regular starter.

Plus I don't know if you noticed that during the preseason Villas Boas changed the instructions which were given to Mikel in the past. He asked him to continue his runs and to be available higher on the pitch. He asked him to be a target on free kicks and corners (not a bad idea at all), he had a disallowed goal against Kitchee.

The problem wasn't to try to enlarge Mikel's palette but rather questionning the relevance of the timing. Villas Boas wanted to try different animations, with different kind of playmakers (Zhirkov as a b2b against Portsmouth, Benayoun number 10 against Kitchee). I think his main mistake was to change also Mikel's role, which gave different roles to everybody whereas it would have been more relevant to maintain something known.

Umm, his poor form lasted sometime after his father got abducted, Birmingham at home in the FA cup was a prime example, he was atrocious & halled off at half time & rightly so, I was there that game & I can tell you large parts of the crowd wanted him off long before then!

As for AVB's instructions, well he wanted all our players (not just Mikel) to start moving the ball vertically instead of horizontally which I agreed with 100%, he also wanted the same as Ancelotti had kept stating in that he wanted the ball moved quicker, unfortunately AVB's ideals didn't work for this team & players like Mikel would of been sold if he had kept his Job, unfortunately AVB's man-management skills let him down. Good players adapt to a different way of playing what their used too, Mikel was struggling along with others, AVB was trying to change our philosophy & for the better imho, he just tried to do it all to quickly instead of a gradual change.

As I stated before, I've never been convinced by him but credit where & when it is due, for me he is playing the best I have ever seen him in a Chelsea shirt, I think he has raised his game due to competition amongst the squad - exactly the reaction you would want as a manager.

[Kostas 1,468]

Mikel's early season form had more to do with our tactics than his own game. When you have your fullback occupying winger positions and your center backs being so far apart that they're likely to be mistaken for fullbacks you're left with a defensive midfielder who is extremely isolated and has so much ground to cover that even if he wasn't as imobile as he is he would struggle to cover the majority of areas 11 and 14 by his own.

Alas once AVB noticed our wingers weren't doing their job (no Sturridge and Mata scoring and assisting is not enough) he switched to a more concervative backline positioning which coincided with Mikel being out of form and Romeu being in.

[Shecks 8]

People who say he's poor, I don't see it. People who say he's great, I don't see that either. He's solid imo.

Exactly but solid can be said about many players like Ferrera sometimes , Essien nowadays , Miereles , Malouda or Kalou ... those players can be called solid , such players should be either on our bench or on some other club's bench .

I really can't see how he is called great by some people , he is so far away from achieving greatness !!

[capriccioso 2,545]

He's far better than any of Essien, Meireles or Malouda as midfielders. For one thing, he doesn't make a habit of gifting the ball away.

[English Freak 456]

Exactly but solid can be said about many players like Ferrera sometimes , Essien nowadays , Miereles , Malouda or Kalou ... can be called solid , such players should be either on our bench or on some other club's bench .

I really can't see how he is called great by some people.

Malouda & Kalou were never solid.

After the injuries, Essien is a weak link in our midfield.

Meireles is a fairly solid rotation player.

Ferreira is as solid as you can be without playing any games.

[Styles 9,790]

My view on the Mikel debate is if you don't think he's good then you don't know much about football. Simples.

[capriccioso 2,545]

Malouda & Kalou were never solid.

After the injuries, Essien is a weak link in our midfield.

Meireles is a fairly solid rotation player.

Ferreira is as solid as you can be without playing any games.

Kalouda and Ferreira are trustworthy, at the very least. Meireles as well. Essien? I wouldn't trust him with a 5 dollar loan the way he's been playing of late.

[Kostas 1,468]

Some of the posts in this thread remind me why there's no downvoting. I sure would abuse the hell out of it on such genuinely crap posts.

PS. An opinion does not turn into a argument no matter how many times you repeat it.

[Sheva. 5,373]

Exactly but solid can be said about many players like Ferrera sometimes , Essien nowadays , Miereles , Malouda or Kalou ... those players can be called solid , such players should be either on our bench or on some other club's bench .

Those players are anything but solid.

[Madmax 9,219]

I can't stop laughing at the thread's title

Mikel is the team's best tackler, he wins everything in the air and has a huge tactical awareness in terms of covering by example. Plus, he's undoubtely the most skillfull midfielder we have at the moment. By skillfull I mean the way to keep the ball under control, the ball protection. That and his near 100% success in his passing game (considering the genuine crap he receives most of the time in an over exposed zone) makes him very solid when it comes to contains a high pressing.

I don't understand how so much people can't understand the fact that it's impossible to have 2 offensive full backs (even if under AVB they started from the back instead of sitting upfront like under Carlo, the result on the team balance is significantly the same) without balance provided by a Mikel-like kind of player. A team balance depends of covering relations between the players and the lines of players.

Villas Boas was too ambitious and striped Mikel from his options, I start to think that how horrible the team was in transition phasis was not enough to show how important Mikel is. But anyway, it's like the cruisade against "pure goalscorers" like Gomez, Falcao or Huntelaar: people will never be happy with their playing style even with as much goals than games played because it's the mass mediatic formatting that wants that.

Of course like everyone, he makes mistakes. But considering the zone he plays in, and the crap passes he receives to provide a quality pass (not the most ambitious, but it's his role*), considering his consistency and strength to regain the ball ; I think the criticism he receives is harsh.

*: Two different points:

• Sergio Busquets is a dick, but an excellent player. His only difference is that his role is a bit wider that Mikel's because he launches attacks and orientates the play from the deep. It's due to the instructions he receives (watch again Lampard's goal at Blackburn if you think Mikel can't play vertically) and the oiled animation making every player moving and providing everytime 3 solutions to the holder of the ball.
  
• Romeu showed good things under no pressing like against Foolham in the league cup. But in terms of his passing then, there was several problems: he wanted to build the game from the back: it creates some waste in his passing game and then, new situations to cope with. With Mikel's reliability, we don't often face counter attacks from our own distribution phasis**. Plus, Romeu got upfront sometimes with the ball whereas being the holding man. It created then an inbalance.
  

**: It's like at Swansea City, Allen and Sigurdsson are that great this season because there is a 100% man behind him allowing them only to focus on a pertinent run without keeping an eye on their own opposite man in midfield. At Chelsea, Mikel allows Lampard to score 27 goals in one season in 2010 by example.

At Anfield the other evening, our midfield had no density: even Spearing-Henderson seemed more reliable. Romeu and Essien were awful tactically, they were anywhere thet didn't had to be. Suarez leaving his upfront positions aspirated (I don't know if you say that in english lol) the two center backs who were pretty often too high, with at least one of the two in the middle of the field. It's exactly the same when you play PES or FIFA and when you have to defend, you choose your CB to press the adverse midfield holding the ball. The "shift" of marking leaves one striker alone and quite everytime you conceide a goal.

And something very interesting, arguably a point to talk about: we qualified to the Champions League final thanks to an excellent pair featuring Lampard and Mikel, very disciplined defensively. And in a quite funny manner, with our 2 poorest tactical midfields, we conceide 4 goals against a team who hasn't even score 1 goal every 5 games at home. I can't imagine Mikel being totally innocent in that process

/thread.

[RamiCFC9 258]

We might just turn into the next livpool with "solid" players like Kalou,Meireles and Mikel as starters...Yes for this season they are ok, but i don't want them to be near the pitch in the seasons to come.I think Mikel should move to Italy his game is more then suited for the shi te "football" played there.

[Sheva. 5,373]

We might just turn into the next livpool with "solid" players like Kalou,Meireles and Mikel as starters...Yes for this season they are ok, but i don't want them to be near the pitch in the seasons to come.I think Mikel should move to Italy his game is more then suited for the shi te "football" played there.

Ignorant comment.

Plus don't put Mikel in the same bracket as Kalou and fucking Meireles.

[Kostas 1,468]

Mikel has been picked in the top 3 of the midfield pecking order for his last 4 managers but some have the audacity to claim that he's equal to 3-games-per-season Ferreira, bought-to-be-a-squad-player Meireles, can't-beat-fullbacks-in-1v1s-in-this-decade Malouda and ..Kalou.

I preferred it when this common amongst daft fans anti-Mikel agenda was concealed in the Romeu topics. At least you could laugh at those claiming Romeu's composure on the ball was superior.

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

We might just turn into the next livpool with "solid" players like Kalou,Meireles and Mikel as starters...Yes for this season they are ok, but i don't want them to be near the pitch in the seasons to come.I think Mikel should move to Italy his game is more then suited for the shi te "football" played there.

I wish I could see your face when you realise Mikel isn't going anywhere this summer. Thank god you aren't running this club. Mikel is a good player. Stop acting like a child. He's criticised when he plays poorly and still criticised when he plays well. I'm going to say this right now, your opinion is WRONG. It is unreasonable and immature. This is not FIFA. Every player in your first 11 can't be world class or great.