Mikel's tactical flaw

[Kieran. 6,317]

He's a great DM and one of my favorite players in the squad. DMs peak at around 28 or 29 and he just turned 25.

[Shecks 8]

I really respect those who will defend their clubs and players when needed but that doesn't mean that we have to ignore their obvious flaws and claim players such as Mikel are "Great" or trick ourselves into believing that Mikel 25 now , who spent six years or more without any serious development will still improve and come to his peak later .

Mikel is currently our best option for a double pivot role next to Lampard but hopefully next year Mikel will be nowhere near our starting 11.

I have seen a lot of fans trying to come up with several excuses for the poor display of the likes of Kalou , Malouda , Mikel , Bosingwa , etc .... some posters here try to look into their best attributes and abilities rather than their very tiny contribution to the team !!

We CFC fans need to admit that some of our players are not good enough to wear this club's shirt (Kalou - Malouda - Bosingwa - Ferrera - Mikel - Essien nowadays),

No offense or disrespect for anyone , but showing your support for Chelsea isn't by defending the likes of Mikel when criticized but its by criticizing them .

[BlueLyon 9,359]

I really respect those who will defend their clubs and players when needed but that doesn't mean that we have to ignore their obvious flaws and claim players such as Mikel are "Great" or trick ourselves into believing that Mikel 25 now , who spent six years or more without any serious development will still improve and come to his peak later .

Mikel is currently our best option for a double pivot role next to Lampard but hopefully next year Mikel will be nowhere near our starting 11.

I have seen a lot of fans trying to come up with several excuses for the poor display of the likes of Kalou , Malouda , Mikel , Bosingwa , etc .... some posters here try to look into their best attributes and abilities rather than their very tiny contribution to the team !!

We CFC fans need to admit that some of our players are not good enough to wear this club's shirt (Kalou - Malouda - Bosingwa - Ferrera - Mikel - Essien nowadays),

No offense or disrespect for anyone , but showing your support for Chelsea isn't by defending the likes of Mikel when criticized but its by criticizing them .

Mikel did great since RDM arrival, specialy that

game against Barca at campnou.

When he didnt play, we got four goals vs lpool, because essien played.

Obi is key player and important key to our midfield. Problem is we play very defensibly because we lack of creativity and good wingers. That means, we are constantly under attacks by opponent and Mikel has to play harder and more. Sure, he will eventualy make mistake or two, but overall last two months he has been, almost to say superb.

[Kostas 1,468]

Do we have anything in the Terms of Agreement forcing each and every single new member to share with the rest of us how they think Mikel is shit?

[Shecks 8]

Do we have anything in the Terms of Agreement forcing each and every single new member to share with the rest of us how they think Mikel is shit?

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 .

[CHOULO19 24,332]

I really respect those who will defend their clubs and players when needed but that doesn't mean that we have to ignore their obvious flaws and claim players such as Mikel are "Great" or trick ourselves into believing that Mikel 25 now , who spent six years or more without any serious development will still improve and come to his peak later .

Mikel is currently our best option for a double pivot role next to Lampard but hopefully next year Mikel will be nowhere near our starting 11.

I have seen a lot of fans trying to come up with several excuses for the poor display of the likes of Kalou , Malouda , Mikel , Bosingwa , etc .... some posters here try to look into their best attributes and abilities rather than their very tiny contribution to the team !!

We CFC fans need to admit that some of our players are not good enough to wear this club's shirt (Kalou - Malouda - Bosingwa - Ferrera - Mikel - Essien nowadays),

No offense or disrespect for anyone , but showing your support for Chelsea isn't by defending the likes of Mikel when criticized but its by criticizing them .

Let me put it this way: If we were Barcelona and had the likes of messi and xavi and all the best players in the world, then we can moan about having Mikel in our squad. But for the current Chelsea squad, Mikel is definitely one of our better players. He is by no means our main concern this summer.

For me, Mikel does the job just fine. He is no Maka, but then again very few are. He might not score 30m strikes or get past 3-4 players, but what is extraordinary about Obi is his sublime passing with one of the best accuracy in the league and his great tactical discipline.

I don't expect everyone to apreciate the role Mikel plays, but saying that he should go when half of our squad are well over their prime is very harsh.

[RamiCFC9 258]

I think you can accept the flaws of a player if he is adding some great contribution in some other aspect , we can accept Mata's lack of defensive ability because of his huge importance for the side's creativity .

The problem with Mikel is that he does not add a lot offensively whilst he is not good enough defensively , he is neither the aggressive , energetic kind of midfielder nor the the creative , smart one as well !! Overall Mikel doesn't deserve a place in a top European club , but then again those kind of players are exactly why we lie 6th in the league .

Finally some1 who has football sense.Mikel compared to fellas like Tiote is like Meireles compared to Lampard - just a mediocre version of him.

[didierforever 7,349]

I really respect those who will defend their clubs and players when needed but that doesn't mean that we have to ignore their obvious flaws and claim players such as Mikel are "Great" or trick ourselves into believing that Mikel 25 now , who spent six years or more without any serious development will still improve and come to his peak later .

Mikel is currently our best option for a double pivot role next to Lampard but hopefully next year Mikel will be nowhere near our starting 11.

I have seen a lot of fans trying to come up with several excuses for the poor display of the likes of Kalou , Malouda , Mikel , Bosingwa , etc .... some posters here try to look into their best attributes and abilities rather than their very tiny contribution to the team !!

We CFC fans need to admit that some of our players are not good enough to wear this club's shirt (Kalou - Malouda - Bosingwa - Ferrera - Mikel - Essien nowadays),

No offense or disrespect for anyone , but showing your support for Chelsea isn't by defending the likes of Mikel when criticized but its by criticizing them .

is this a joke?

[didierforever 7,349]

I think you can accept the flaws of a player if he is adding some great contribution in some other aspect , we can accept Mata's lack of defensive ability because of his huge importance for the side's creativity .

The problem with Mikel is that he does not add a lot offensively whilst he is not good enough defensively , he is neither the aggressive , energetic kind of midfielder nor the the creative , smart one as well !! Overall Mikel doesn't deserve a place in a top European club , but then again those kind of players are exactly why we lie 6th in the league .

are you blaming our pl season on mikel? who barely started under villas boas. i remember a run of about 5-7 games wen we were playing 4-3-3 under avb that romeu was our no.1 cdm. mikel is a good defensive shield and a player who does his job. he might not be anywhere near the best but he is a chelsea player which is showin as he is fittin perfectly into the team. he understands our way of play and does a good job.

by the way if mikel is the reason for us to be 6th in the league, you can also say that mikel is the reason we are in champions league final. right?

[RamiCFC9 258]

Mikel is mediocre player why the hell are people defending him.If he was playing for Real Madrid ot Barca he would've been abused like hell, because their fans have big team mentality.Sadly this can't be said about our fans, while our club is already big and aiming for the top, most of the "oldschool" fans are still living in 20th century and still praising mediocricity.

[Kostas 1,468]

^

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 .

Share your thoughts all you want but once you've been here long enough you'll start recognising the most annoying of paterns.

[capriccioso 2,545]

Mikel is mediocre player why the hell are people defending him.If he was playing for Real Madrid ot Barca he would've been abused like hell, because their fans have big team mentality.Sadly this can't be said about our fans, while our club is already big and aiming for the top, most of the "oldschool" fans are still living in 20th century and still praising mediocricity.

Mikel would walk into any team in the world except those two Spanish clubs. Ask Man United how they would dearly love a midfielder who can dictate the tempo.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Mikel is mediocre player why the hell are people defending him.If he was playing for Real Madrid ot Barca he would've been abused like hell, because their fans have big team mentality.Sadly this can't be said about our fans, while our club is already big and aiming for the top, most of the "oldschool" fans are still living in 20th century and still praising mediocricity.

And we wonder why everyone says that Chelsea fans are fickle

Mikel is a good player who has helped the team achieve plenty in the last few years. More importantly, he is a CHELSEA PLAYER who gives a 100% effort on the field, so your job as a chelsea fan is to cheer him on whenever he's playing. If you want a team with only the most expensive players in the world there is always man city.

[RamiCFC9 258]

Don't tell me what is my job as a fan.Mikel would never walk in any good team besides us ..If u just look at our last games against every decent team we've played its quite obvious we got totally dominated in midfield (City,Barca,Arse,Spuds even the scum), if there is a very very weak spot in our team its central midfield.We are consantly getting overran against any half decent team we play.And as "midfielder who can dictate the tempo" - Mikel is failing so hard in the big games.And this isn't just my opinion its facts.And facts are ;

1.Mikel cannot break up play or win the ball.

2.He cannot dictate tempo in big games.

3.He is mediocre.

[SeB 1,281]

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