Mikel's tactical flaw

[Madmax 9,219]

I don't rate Mikel as CDM, his postioning is average, he isn't aggresive, rarely makes succesful tackles.

This is what Xabi Alonso, one of the foremost holding players on the planet, has to say about tackling :

"I don't think tackling is a quality. It is... something you have to resort to, not a characteristic of your game. I can't get into my head that football development would educate tackling as a quality, something to learn, to teach, a characteristic of your play. How can that be a way of seeing the game? I just don't understand football in those terms. Tackling is a [last] resort, and you will need it, but it isn't a quality to aspire to, a definition. It's hard to change because it's so rooted in the English football culture, but I don't understand it."

I'd rustle up numbers on interceptions but it'd be fruitless trying to please blinkered fellas pining for a 'hardman'.

[capriccioso 2,545]

Tackling is important, yes, but interceptions and positioning to avoid having to slide in like a madman is more important.

[RamiCFC9 258]

No offenses to Xabi, but he would've been half the name he is, if it wasn't Mascherano tackling everything moving.Damn i miss Masch in the prem.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Lpool sold Torres, Xabi Alonso, Mascherano, Meireles,...then they replaced them with Downing, Henderson,...yes, selling key players for big money is profitable, but only if you are ready to play next 10 years in places up to 7th in prem.

Selling Ramires, Mikel and other key players along with Kalou, Meireles, Bos, Ferreira, Essien, Drogba,...would ruin us and it doesnt matter who we would buy then. There would be completely new team and new key players, that would be disaster. Thankfuly some of the members here are not in CFC board because they would make such idiotic decisions, by selling Ramires and Mikel and...turn us into next Lpool or Arsenal. And I would never sell Mikel or Ramires for big money, not now when they are that good (some of you dont see that). Dont make mistakes like Arsenal by selling Cesc or Nasri, Lpool by selling Alonso, Barca by selling Etoo. Yes they bought Zlatan then who thought is best and they only fucked things up in barca...

[diskoviolente 425]

Mikel is imperious. We need him so desperatly in our midfield. He may be not the most adventorous player but is solid in what he does. He breaks up play and frustrates a lot of opponent midfielders. Selling him would be the stupidiest thing since Real Madrid sold Makelele.

As for Ramires. I remember people wanting to get rid of him after his first season. They probably would like to swallow their words now.

[capriccioso 2,545]

Lpool sold Torres, Xabi Alonso, Mascherano, Meireles,...then they replaced them with Downing, Henderson,...yes, selling key players for big money is profitable, but only if you are ready to play next 10 years in places up to 7th in prem.

Selling Ramires, Mikel and other key players along with Kalou, Meireles, Bos, Ferreira, Essien, Drogba,...would ruin us and it doesnt matter who we would buy then. There would be completely new team and new key players, that would be disaster. Thankfuly some of the members here are not in CFC board because they would make such idiotic decisions, by selling Ramires and Mikel and...turn us into next Lpool or Arsenal. And I would never sell Mikel or Ramires for big money, not now when they are that good (some of you dont see that). Dont make mistakes like Arsenal by selling Cesc or Nasri, Lpool by selling Alonso, Barca by selling Etoo. Yes they bought Zlatan then who thought is best and they only fucked things up in barca...

Well said, no team in the modern era can get away with completely shattering and rebuilding in one window. The process needs to be at a snails pace, over 3-5 seasons. We've got to accept that, 5 seasons of not always being in a position where we can win 4 trophies, and then watch the rewards of patience flow after that gelling period.

Of course, Roman has other plans

[nadavTKL 1,787]

Lpool sold Torres, Xabi Alonso, Mascherano, Meireles,...then they replaced them with Downing, Henderson,...yes, selling key players for big money is profitable, but only if you are ready to play next 10 years in places up to 7th in prem.

Selling Ramires, Mikel and other key players along with Kalou, Meireles, Bos, Ferreira, Essien, Drogba,...would ruin us and it doesnt matter who we would buy then. There would be completely new team and new key players, that would be disaster. Thankfuly some of the members here are not in CFC board because they would make such idiotic decisions, by selling Ramires and Mikel and...turn us into next Lpool or Arsenal. And I would never sell Mikel or Ramires for big money, not now when they are that good (some of you dont see that). Dont make mistakes like Arsenal by selling Cesc or Nasri, Lpool by selling Alonso, Barca by selling Etoo. Yes they bought Zlatan then who thought is best and they only fucked things up in barca...

Finaly some sense...

[The Big Drog 1,110]

No offenses to Xabi, but he would've been half the name he is, if it wasn't Mascherano tackling everything moving.Damn i miss Masch in the prem.

I dont like bursting bubbles but you do realise that for the last few years Xabi Alonso has been playing at Real Madrid without Mascherano beside him, playing primarily as Madrid's deep lying midfielder, not only does he do a key job on the ball but he does an essential role off of it. While Khedira is the legs of the midfield, Alonso shields the back four, not really through a terrific amount of running of tackling but through clever interceptions and intelligent positional play. I think Xabi is doing quite fairly alright without Mascherano, considering he has been a key figure in real Madrid's La Liga triumph this season.

[The Big Drog 1,110]

As for Mikel, being someone who has never been on the Mikel love train I can absolutely sympathise with those who berate him. Yes he is slow across the ground, yes he is still plodding in possession and yes his positional play does sometimes seem somewhat perplexing. But full credit to him, he has been quite excellent since Di Matteo took over, the last fe wmonths have been the best of his Chelsea career.

[Badboy 1,526]

This is what Xabi Alonso, one of the foremost holding players on the planet, has to say about tackling :

I'd rustle up numbers on interceptions but it'd be fruitless trying to please blinkered fellas pining for a 'hardman'.

I think that was one of the reasons why Makalele was so great, he read the game as opposed to going in head first. That was one of the reasons why Real Madrid never noticed how good he was, they would of given a pay rise to a player like Sissoko who goes in head first.

[RamiCFC9 258]

I dont like bursting bubbles but you do realise that for the last few years Xabi Alonso has been playing at Real Madrid without Mascherano beside him, playing primarily as Madrid's deep lying midfielder, not only does he do a key job on the ball but he does an essential role off of it. While Khedira is the legs of the midfield, Alonso shields the back four, not really through a terrific amount of running of tackling but through clever interceptions and intelligent positional play. I think Xabi is doing quite fairly alright without Mascherano, considering he has been a key figure in real Madrid's La Liga triumph this season.

I'm not commenting Alonso at his Real stay, i wanted to say that if it wasn't Masch lpool wouldn't have that trio and Alonso wouldn't shine as much as he did, and who knows he may never been transfered to Real.

About Mikel.I think we all accept Makelele was the most complete DM ever.He was faaar more aggresive compared to Mikel, had more pace to cover spaces and was much more clever in what he was doing compared to Mikel, all in all Obi is faar faar away from being good DM.

[Kostas 1,468]

Yeah how about we also post Zidane's quote on Maka while we're comparing Mikel to him just so we make sure this discussion is stuck in 2009?

It's disappointing just how much better the respective discussion is on cfcnet.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

It's disappointing just how much better the respective discussion is on cfcnet.

Wow.

Meh, I'm used to the Mikel-debate never being discussed properly. As long as people hold a candlelight to Makelele's "untouchable" stature Mikel will never be appreciated for his pro's. That's not happening any time soon, so thankfully managers like Ancelotti, Di Matteo, Villas-Boas (to an extent) & Hiddink recognise what Mikel's contributions are to the team.

[Tomo 21,751]

Is it just me or has he improved greatly in the last 6 months?

[Kieran. 6,317]

Mikel's always been very good.

[1chelsea 864]

he has been trying to do more even trying to take accurate shot

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Is it just me or has he improved greatly in the last 6 months?

Mikel has always been absolutely excellent at what he does. Even when he was blamed for our defensive weakness in the early AVB days, his passing accuracy was always above 85 and sometimes 90 %. Sure he committed mistakes in that system, but that was only because he was forced to play a game that didn't fit his style. He was a fish out of water.

[The Big Drog 1,110]

I'm not commenting Alonso at his Real stay, i wanted to say that if it wasn't Masch lpool wouldn't have that trio and Alonso wouldn't shine as much as he did, and who knows he may never been transfered to Real.

About Mikel.I think we all accept Makelele was the most complete DM ever.He was faaar more aggresive compared to Mikel, had more pace to cover spaces and was much more clever in what he was doing compared to Mikel, all in all Obi is faar faar away from being good DM.

I think that if Alonso wasn't all that great then he would have been transferred out of Madrid a long time ago, as it happens he is one of the most important players in their team (as seen by the very high number of appearances he makes) oh and he also starts for reigning World Cup and European champions Spain.

Mikel isn't a great defensive midfielder, he is certainly a good one.

[Justin_3d 1,140]

As for Mikel, being someone who has never been on the Mikel love train I can absolutely sympathise with those who berate him. Yes he is slow across the ground, yes he is still plodding in possession and yes his positional play does sometimes seem somewhat perplexing. But full credit to him, he has been quite excellent since Di Matteo took over, the last fe wmonths have been the best of his Chelsea career.

Yeah but Malouda had one great season as well, and instead of selling him we kept him and now look at him.....

Mikel does not fit as a big game player like a Yaya.

If we can sell him we have to buy someone better then him, not worse!

Javi Martines and Tiote are the only upgrade I would take.

Romeu is still a raw talent to count on, and we don't even know if he wants to go back to Barcelona.

[The Big Drog 1,110]

Yeah but Malouda had one great season as well, and instead of selling him we kept him and now look at him.....

Mikel does not fit as a big game player like a Yaya.

If we can sell him we have to buy someone better then him, not worse!

Javi Martines and Tiote are the only upgrade I would take.

Romeu is still a raw talent to count on, and we don't even know if he wants to go back to Barcelona.

Im not campaigning for a statue to be made of Mikel outside Stamford Bridge, Im simply saying that he has played well the last few months (which, I think, it is generally accepted that he has). To be fair, Mikle is a bit younger than Malouda, Florent did have a couple of very good seasons in France when he was younger.

However Mikel's role is different than that of Yaya Toure's. He isn't a box to box midfielder, he could never play as a box to box midfielder like Yaya Toure does. If some mystical force gave me the power to control Chelsea's transfers and offered me the chance to offload Mikel for Javi Martinez then yes, of course, I would accept that. However if the (far more realistic) deal is that we would offload Mikel and have to pay 30 million for Martinez (30 million that cold be spent on positions that need to be improved upon far more than holding midfield) then Id rather just keep Mikel. Anyway who says Martinez would join, lots of top clubs are interested in him.