Mikel's tactical flaw

[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.

[BLionheart 516]

I thought this forum is a place to share our views as long as it's related to Chelsea FC and its players , sometimes you might not agree with me but that doesn't mean that i can't post my thoughts .

A hint of what i expected out of you when you told me you joined TC

I know Shecks personally and he will battle TX for the most controversial title of next year

Back to topic , As DYC said Mikel is neither great nor poor but he can be a useful player , is there better players in his position ? Sure , Will we benefit from having someone with more energy and aggressiveness playing there ? yes .

But Obi gets a job done , so he shouldn't be a priority in the replacements that should take place , before replacing our holding midfielder or getting a new one , we need to find 2 wingers , 2 creative midfielders , a RB and for me a back-up striker is needed as well since DD is leaving. That means 6 players should be brought to the club prior to replacing Mikel.

So for me it's a matter of priorities and since Mikel isn't that bad of a player we can live with him .

[BlueLyon 9,359]

"Why putting another layer of gold colour on bentley, when you lost your engine?"

Sell Mikel and Essien and see what will happen then...

[capriccioso 2,545]

Essien isn't fit to be the engine of a toy car, let alone a Bentley.

[SeB 1,281]

Expected nothing less from you here SeB. Excellent post, you should convert it into an article for the site. I'm sure we'd get tons of hits from most fans when Mikel is in a headline.

Done :blue scalf:

[Tricky 301]

Can't believe someone has raised Mikels heading ability as a plus. Guy stands at 6"2 yet has never scored a goal from a set piece for us. His lack of speed / power means he barely gets more than 6" off the ground.

He is not the most mobile of players, and this can undermine the team sometimes. Especially when it comes to covering the flanks.

His pass success rate is high, but when asked to contribute more creatively he struggles. Most of his passes are side ways or backwards. I've tried to track down his assist record but have not had much luck. (edit: 6 assists in 197 starts 45sub).

Having said that he offers strength, teamwork, stamina and very good composure on the ball. I personally find him to be very frustrating. There are certainly better DM out there but he does enough to warrant a place in the squad and is currently more reliable than Romeou (but I do see him as the future).

[Rambo 1,729]

For those who don't rate Mikel...did you see the CL final? That was the best performance I've seen from him and by far our best midfielder on the day. That performance alone should eradicate all the doubt surrounding his lack of play in the "big matches".

I'm excited to see how he can further develop under RDM and his 4-2-3-1 formation because it's evident that he cannot perform as well under a 4-3-3.