Mikel's tactical flaw

[SeB 1,281]

Yes, let's sign Yann M'Villa !

[Strike 7,474]

Yes, let's sign Yann M'Villa !

yeah. I heard he's lookin to move into Londons luxurious jails

[SeB 1,281]

Anyway I liked him 2 years ago when I did think that because he was just 19 he had a huge potential to fulfill. At the end of the day he has the same weaknesses and scattering on his 3rd season. And he is unable to show how he can play, he's not a DM, he's not a CM, not mix of the 2. He's just one thing: overrated

[BlueLyon 9,359]

We can talk all year is Mikel shi te or not actually .But what matter is : iam pretty sure RA won't settle down with players like Mikel.RA has many bad football habbits but at least he wants and craves for the best (just like me), he won't settle for mediocricity and iam happy about this fact.

You dont get it that once we will have better attack, there will be more space in midfield for Mikel to play. And he will become better with better players. He has been along Mata, Iva, Ramires, Drogba last 2 months our best player. You say he is bad, then you would sell Mata, Drogba, Ramires and Iva too? Because as you say, they are all bad, since they all performed equaly good.

Just like Mata, Mikel will be better with better players around. And I can easily say he is better than Tiote or Mvila.

[DYC. 7,542]

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.

[GodZola 630]

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.

Sums it up almost perfectly, goes to show you don't have to write an essay to get adulation on here - one sentence was enough....

Not going to go over old ground - got the tee shirt, will just add a couple of pointers.

Mikel without question deserves his place in the team at present, he has finally found some consistency in his game (albeit a couple of months) something he has been devoid of, I hope he continues this form into the whole of next season. Some members on here are hypocrites as they were slating him for large parts of this season because he had a very poor spell under AVB but now he shows some progress & is finally starting to show his potential they won't have a word said against him.....its forbidden!!!

What I have noticed is that he plays so much better when he has Frank playing with him, seems that they have a great understanding, also think Mata has helped him too because his movement helps all the midfielders as he is not just giving them an outlet he also takes others opponents out of the way thus giving options to move the ball to our other attackers, such a clever intelligent player is Mata, very underated player in PL terms.

Won't go overboard with praise as this has been a short spell but Mikel has made a stride forward in improvement, let's hope its the start of things to come.

[SeB 1,281]

I'm not his biggest fan on earth. But Mikel's bashing is pretty funny considering no one else than Makelele played for the club some years ago... Some may remember Makélélé was criticized at Madrid and that his importance was underlined only when he left. I dont pretend to say Mikel is as good as Makélélé but at the end of the day it's the same process. Though for me, Mikel's absences (due to managers choices or injuries) did siufficiently highlight his importance.

But we can't forget to take under consideration that we didn't achieved any success without Mikel since 2008

[manpe 10,861]

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.

[SeB 1,281]

Mikel without question deserves his place in the team at present, he has finally found some consistency in his game (albeit a couple of months) something he has been devoid of, [...] he had a very poor spell under AVB but now he shows some progress

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.

[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.