Mikel John Obi

[zolayes 14,489]

To Mikel critics, i would like to see a lists of DMs that you guys prefer over Mikel.

FFS Dont encourage them

[Blue Armour 4,438]

This debate over Mikel's use is pointless. Right now he's out of form, and hopefully Romeu/Essien is picked ahead of him in the next match. (and the following matches until he regains his sharpness)

[Blue Armour 4,438]

To Mikel critics, i would like to see a lists of DMs that you guys prefer over Mikel.

And that's where Mikel's critics fall short. There aren't too many quality DM's (like a Davids or a Makelele) out there. Of course you could argue that Javi Martinez and Tiote are good candidates for a double pivot, but there's no chance in hell we'll get them over here for a decent amount.

[The Skipper 20,609]

Watched the game again. I really fail to see how Mikel was supposedly the cancer in the team. The double pivot as a whole is a problem, it just doesn't work without our forward players dropping a little deeper - it forces Lampard to go up to try and link up play which leaves Mikel exposed.

Whenever Mikel got the ball he was swarmed by City players. That was the problem. Lampard, instead of running all over the pitch to close down, should've been an outlet for Mikel. We would've kept possession a lot better in that way.

The double pivot failed, not just Mikel. If you didn't watch the game and came on here for some reviews you would've thought Mikel lost us the game, but it was a collective thing.

What I don't understand is how people can question his whole CFC career after one bad game. Mikel can go on a run of 5 good games and he'd perhaps be below average in one and he'll get slated. It isn't fair IMO.

If Mikel turned in bad performances week in week out then yeah, we need a new DM. BUT he doesn't.

[BLionheart 516]

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To Mikel critics, i would like to see a lists of DMs that you guys prefer over Mikel.

Yaya Toure - Tiote - De Rossi - Busquets - M'ville - Song - Mascherano - Vidal - Javi Martinez - Cambiasso - Javi Garcia(Benfica) - Parker - Romeu - Fellaini .

[The Skipper 20,609]

<p>

Yaya Toure - Tiote - De Rossi - Busquets - M'ville - Song - Mascherano - Vidal - Javi Martinez - Cambiasso - Javi Garcia(Benfica) - Parker - Romeu - Fellaini .

Is that it? I was expecting to see a list of a 1000 players which contained a couple of League 2 players in there, the way you guys go on about how shite Mikel is.

[Jype 6,398]

To Mikel critics, i would like to see a lists of DMs that you guys prefer over Mikel.

Not a Mikel critic (far from it actually, I like the man and rate him highly) but if I had to make a list, it would be something like this:

Busquets

Mascherano

Xabi Alonso

Javi Martinez

De Jong

Yaya Toure

Tiote

Alex Song

Vidal

De Rossi

Schweinsteiger

Players I would take over Mikel any day for the double pivot in our current 4-2-3-1 formation. Some guys from my list might not be that much better in terms of quality but are completely different types of DM's who at the moment would be far better suited for our team and it's tactics than Mikel. As can be seen, hardly anyone from that list is a realistic target for us so we have to place our trust in Mikel and I don't have anything against that, in fact just the opposite but let's not be deluded here and think Mikel is the second coming of Jesus Christ or something.

edit: someone has just posted a similar list.

[Manuf 1,448]

Seems like every team in the world has a defensive midfielder that doesn't make any mistakes. You guys forgot to put Makelele, Fletcher and also Dariusz Dudka while we're at it. There always have to be a player at fault when the whole team is playing like pile of shit.

[Blue-in-me-Veins 4,067]

i would like to make clear that im not a critc of Mikel but i will state when he (or any other player) plays bad i will mention it.

he lost the ball 3 times in that first half, whatever the case may be that is not acceptable but then later i think it was cap who said it, that yesterday was the most times mikel has lost the ball in one game in some long-ass of a span so with that i think everyone just decided to dig the knife furthur in.

i like the 4-3-3. it alows mikel to be the sole anchor and rambo to be a box to box mid, which we all can agree he does better than lamps. and plus we won this way for a longer period than with 4231, so reverting to it should not be a problem.

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

i like the 4-3-3. it alows mikel to be the sole anchor and rambo to be a box to box mid, which we all can agree he does better than lamps. and plus we won this way for a longer period than with 4231, so reverting to it should not be a problem.

The 4-3-3, but I don't see it happening. Had RDM wanted to change, he would have done it pre-season. One of the biggest problems at Chelsea is the complete lack of continuity of coaches and lack of a coherent transfer policy so we have a whole bunch of players who suite different systems and complete imbalance at depth in different positions.We have players built for counter-attack, some for ball movement, some for defensive play, some are adaptable but some will get lost in style or tactical changes .Chelsea have spent 70M pounds in the last two seasons buying three central and left-sided attacking midfielders who require a lot of the ball to be effective and have basically ignored every other position where we have a spectacular lack of depth. We need a long-term coach who has tremendous say in transfers in order to fix this re-occurring problem.

[BLionheart 516]

Is that it? I was expecting to see a list of a 1000 players which contained a couple of League 2 players in there, the way you guys go on about how shite Mikel is.

When teams like Porto - Benfica - Bilbao - Roma Etc ... have better DMs than our starting DM then we need to strengthen in that position .

[Joker10 946]

<p>

Yaya Toure - Tiote - De Rossi - Busquets - M'ville - Song - Mascherano - Vidal - Javi Martinez - Cambiasso - Javi Garcia(Benfica) - Parker - Romeu - Fellaini .

I was hoping for something realistic, but i will take a shot at your list.

Yaya Tour- definitely but he needs to play alongside a holding midfielder. B2B

Tiote- injury prone, kinda brainless, and limited technically.

De Rossi- He can do the job.

Busquets- I rate him as the best DM in the world at Barca.

M'villa- haven't seen him in the last year or so, cant comment personally.

Song- One of Arsenal biggest problem over the years has been thinking he is a DM, he needs to play alongside a holding midfielder by himself he is a major defense liability.

Vidal- another B2B midfielder, i guess he would suffice along side another B2B.

Javi Martinez- first name that i thought of and i one who would add so much to the squad either play alongside Mikel or Lampard.

Cambiasso- not sure if serious, few years back i would say yes.

Javi Garcia- If you are going pick a dm from the Portuguese league, then there is not a better Dm in that league then Fernando reges, imo he is one of the most underrated Dm in the world. calmness on the ball, technical ability, work rate, aggressiveness he has it all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCzK_vZE5cg

Parker-

Romeu- so many myths has been said about him, i quite i don't see it. For example he has been described by here as disciplined with good positional sense. Both are false, but it is something you usually stereotype with a Spanish/barca midfielder.

Not a Mikel critic (far from it actually, I like the man and rate him highly) but if I had to make a list, it would be something like this:

Busquets

Mascherano

Xabi Alonso

Javi Martinez

De Jong

Yaya Toure

Tiote

Alex Song

Vidal

De Rossi

Schweinsteiger

Players I would take over Mikel any day for the double pivot in our current 4-2-3-1 formation. Some guys from my list might not be that much better in terms of quality but are completely different types of DM's who at the moment would be far better suited for our team and it's tactics than Mikel. As can be seen, hardly anyone from that list is a realistic target for us so we have to place our trust in Mikel and I don't have anything against that, in fact just the opposite but let's not be deluded here and think Mikel is the second coming of Jesus Christ or something.

edit: someone has just posted a similar list.

So by reading your list and BL, so in short people here main problem with Mikel is that he is a holding midfielder. Because your list and BL contains more B2B midfielders then holding midfielders.

[Jype 6,398]

So by reading your list and BL, so in short people here main problem with Mikel is that he is a holding midfielder. Because your list and BL contains more B2B midfielders then holding midfielders.

I don't have any problem with Mikel and I thought I made myself clear enough, guess I was wrong and should've explained myself even better so that everyone could understand.

Someone asked to list players I would rather take instead of Mikel, so I was simply answering to him. I consider Mikel to be a quality player but I still think there are players I would rather take over him to play in our 4-2-3-1, not because they are necessarily better players but because in my opinion they would be better suited for our needs. If the correct term to describe a player like that is a box-to-box midfielder, then so be it. I don't really give a shit about the terms but I do like to think I know a thing or two about tactics in football. Having a player like the ones I listed playing next to Mikel could be great, or maybe playing with two of those skillful box-to-box midfielders with good passing abilities as well as a good workrate to do their fair shares of defensive duties (for example De Rossi, Vidal etc.) would be an even better way to go forward. All I know is that our midfield seems to be currently lacking something in the double pivot area and if we are to continue with a similar formation next year too, then maybe it should be time to invest in new midfielders. I'm not expecting any new arrivals there this season, having already spent a shitload of money improving other areas of the team but maybe if Lampard leaves or takes a significantly smaller role next season, then we should be looking to buy a proper top class midfielder there. Like I said, most of them guys on my list are unrealistic for us and either not even wanting to join our team or being way too expensive even if they wanted to come, but the player type is there and that's what we should be aiming at sometime in the future, when improving the midfield comes our first priority. Feel free to think differently, just my two cents.

[BLionheart 516]

I was hoping for something realistic, but i will take a shot at your list.

Yaya Tour- definitely but he needs to play alongside a holding midfielder. B2B

Tiote- injury prone, kinda brainless, and limited technically.

De Rossi- He can do the job.

Busquets- I rate him as the best DM in the world at Barca.

M'villa- haven't seen him in the last year or so, cant comment personally.

Song- One of Arsenal biggest problem over the years has been thinking he is a DM, he needs to play alongside a holding midfielder by himself he is a major defense liability.

Vidal- another B2B midfielder, i guess he would suffice along side another B2B.

Javi Martinez- first name that i thought of and i one who would add so much to the squad either play alongside Mikel or Lampard.

Cambiasso- not sure if serious, few years back i would say yes.

Javi Garcia- If you are going pick a dm from the Portuguese league, then there is not a better Dm in that league then Fernando reges, imo he is one of the most underrated Dm in the world. calmness on the ball, technical ability, work rate, aggressiveness he has it all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCzK_vZE5cg

Parker-

Romeu- so many myths has been said about him, i quite i don't see it. For example he has been described by here as disciplined with good positional sense. Both are false, but it is something you usually stereotype with a Spanish/barca midfielder.

So by reading your list and BL, so in short people here main problem with Mikel is that he is a holding midfielder. Because your list and BL contains more B2B midfielders then holding midfielders.

So basiclly you admitted that all of those are better midfielders than Mikel and you added another better player yourself to the list , you classified only 2 players (Song - Vidal) out of 14 as B2B players , and now i don't know the difference between a B2B and a holding midfielder !!! BTW Vidal , Toure and Song can all be great B2B players but they are still way better holding midfielders than Mikel .

You can name them whatever you need to , at the end of the day the best double pivot is a combination of two players :

• A tireless , agressive , mobile and energetic ball chaser and winner (Like most of those mentioned above)
  
• A creative , technical , smart deep-lying playmaker.
  

Case in point : (Alonso - Khediera/Diarra), (Parker/Sandro - Modric) , (Mascherano - Alonso) , (Gustavo - Shweinstiger),(Khediera - Shweinstiger) ,etc...

The biggest problem in Mikel's game is that he's none of those and tries to be both , Is he a great ball winner ? no he is an average one , can he be used next to a ball winner as a deep lying playmaker ? No , he lacks the technical aspects and creativity for it.

[Shak 22]

Signing M'Vila or Capoue would be perfect. They've been two of the better performing midfielders in Ligue 1 of recent times...and they'd be available for only 15 million.

If Spurs can bid 15 mil for M'Vila, why can't we?