Mikel John Obi

[bleed_blue 136]

Similarly to Mata, Luiz and Azpilicueta who were all involved in the Confederations Cup. Give it a rest already.

Mata: started 1 game

Luiz: out with injury

Please come up with better examples.

You seem to have been hit pretty hard.

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,919]

Are you really mention his block against Van Persie shot? Hahah I mena,I don't have anything against Mikel but Van Persie shot and he hit Mikel,it could be anyone else.

And Ba could have came on and got a hattrick, but he didnt.

Mikel got the block and that was all that mattered.

[The Skipper 20,593]

Mata: started 1 game

Luiz: out with injury

Please come up with better examples.

You seem to have been hit pretty hard.

Conveniently ignore the Azpilicueta example won't you?

My point is that most of the Confed Cup players have barely played to begin with.

[bleed_blue 136]

Conveniently ignore the Azpilicueta example won't you?

My point is that most of the Confed Cup players have barely played to begin with.

Way to miss the point. #typicalmikelfan

[xPetrCechx 13,563]

Colin Udoh ‏@ColinUdoh

Been speaking with Mikel and his agent John Shittu this morning. Bottom line, Mikel is not going anywhere. At least, not this window. End of

[Vybz Kartel 1,613]

Colin Udoh ‏@ColinUdoh

Been speaking with Mikel and his agent John Shittu this morning. Bottom line, Mikel is not going anywhere. At least, not this window. End of

Hahaha like he was ever goin anywhere lol

[bleed_blue 136]

Colin Udoh ‏@ColinUdoh

Been speaking with Mikel and his agent John Shittu this morning. Bottom line, Mikel is not going anywhere. At least, not this window. End of

That is the politically correct way of saying that we got no bidders. No club was interested in buying that piece of &*#@.

This scenario was foreseen by almost every sane person. Only the fanbois believed otherwise.

[robsblubot 3,502]

That agent needs a name change ASAP

^^ well, he might panic in Jan if he is not getting enough games and is dropped by Nigeria, like Ba was (by Senegal).

[Sheva. 5,373]

That is the politically correct way of saying that we got no bidders. No club was interested in buying that piece of &*#@.

This scenario was foreseen by almost every sane person. Only the fanbois believed otherwise.

His agent: “He loves this club, the manager knows him and likes him and he will not be going anywhere during this transfer window,” he insists. Some clubs came in and expressed their interest but that is where it stopped. They were never allowed to get to the point where we could even begin to start talking about valuation or negotiation.”

Regardless of your opinion of him, we do need him for cover. He and MVG backup for Lamps and Ramires. Then Essien just there in case someone gets injured.

[remains of the day 564]

Still early to draw any sort of conclusions about how Jose plans on using him but it's possible that mourinho might favour Ramires in the holding role. Although I agree with Choulo that in some ways Ramires as a defensive midfielder is like trapping a bird in cage, but at the same time if mourinho persists with playing him (rather than Mikel) in that position, I completely see why.

Most of the people I know who are football fans tend to be Nigerian so I've been following the national team for a while now. I just think that with the type of attacking players we have, whoever plays as the holding midfielder, their game has to be more about athleticism than anything else and from what I've seen of Mikel, being a chelsea supporter and following the Nigerian national team, I'm convinced that he can't play that role. If we still had players like Kalou, Malouda, Anelka and Drogba, then Mikel would be my first choice defensive midfielder, always. But with Hazard, Mata, Kevin et al you need a runner in central midfield. That's just my opinion though.

Having said that, I think Mikel's ball playing skills are very much underrated. From some of the comments, people seem to be under the impression that he plays as a number 10 for Nigeria - that's not true. He plays as a centre midfielder (or deep lying midfielder) and it's actually quite remarkable how good he is in that role especially under Stephen Kelshi (the current coach). His performance against Spain would have been classified as "world class" if it weren't for the name on the back of his shirt and I guarantee that many on here would be crying out for us to sign him for the pivot. Would love to see what he can do if he were playing in Lampard's position.

Anywho, all of Mikel's touches against Spain. Absolutely a brilliant performance from him.

[Blue Armour 4,278]

Still early to draw any sort of conclusions about how Jose plans on using him but it's possible that mourinho might favour Ramires in the holding role. Although I agree with Choulo that in some ways Ramires as a defensive midfielder is like trapping a bird in cage, but at the same time if mourinho persists with playing him (rather than Mikel) in that position, I completely see why.

Most of the people I know who are football fans tend to be Nigerian so I've been following the national team for a while now. I just think that with the type of attacking players we have, whoever plays as the holding midfielder, their game has to be more about athleticism than anything else and from what I've seen of Mikel, being a chelsea supporter and following the Nigerian national team, I'm convinced that he can't play that role. If we still had players like Kalou, Malouda, Anelka and Drogba, then Mikel would be my first choice defensive midfielder, always. But with Hazard, Mata, Kevin et al you need a runner in central midfield. That's just my opinion though.

Having said that, I think Mikel's ball playing skills are very much underrated. From some of the comments, people seem to be under the impression that he plays as a number 10 for Nigeria - that's not true. He plays as a centre midfielder (or deep lying midfielder) and it's actually quite remarkable how good he is in that role especially under Stephen Kelshi (the current coach). His performance against Spain would have been classified as "world class" if it weren't for the name on the back of his shirt and I guarantee that many on here would be crying out for us to sign him for the pivot. Would love to see what he can do if he were playing in Lampard's position.

Anywho, all of Mikel's touches against Spain. Absolutely a brilliant performance from him.

Like Kalou, a completely different player for his country. I guess it also helps that Nigeria's attackers make good movements giving Mikel the chance to make good passes. Just convinces me even more that he's better suited to an attacking role rather than that of a holding midfielder.

[Amblève. 4,995]

I want to see the Mikel - Ramires pairing again. With our attacking players actually tracking back now it would be more than interesting to see how this pivot would work; they played well together under RDM last season already so this combo definitely deserves a fair chance.

[The only place to be 11,313]

I want to see the Mikel - Ramires pairing again.

Last year's season review is available at the megastore.

[Kojo 4,676]

Thought he did ok when he came on. Kept it simple but showed a bit of urgency in his movement which has been sorely lacking for a while now. Maybe he's getting the kick up his arse he sorely needed.

Mikel usually does play decent against United, that's because we always stay in our own half.

He was definitely an upgrade from Ramires that game, Ramires was very poor, he couldn't keep the ball or anything. Whereas Mikel can be trusted with that job and you can have confidence on Mikel keeping the ball. Unfortunately that wont change anything in the future, we aren't going to have many games like we did against United where we are sat more deep, we are going to be stretching a lot more, and there will be a shit load more space to be covered and we all know Mikel can't do that.

[robsblubot 3,502]

Still early to draw any sort of conclusions about how Jose plans on using him but it's possible that mourinho might favour Ramires in the holding role. Although I agree with Choulo that in some ways Ramires as a defensive midfielder is like trapping a bird in cage, but at the same time if mourinho persists with playing him (rather than Mikel) in that position, I completely see why.

Most of the people I know who are football fans tend to be Nigerian so I've been following the national team for a while now. I just think that with the type of attacking players we have, whoever plays as the holding midfielder, their game has to be more about athleticism than anything else and from what I've seen of Mikel, being a chelsea supporter and following the Nigerian national team, I'm convinced that he can't play that role. If we still had players like Kalou, Malouda, Anelka and Drogba, then Mikel would be my first choice defensive midfielder, always. But with Hazard, Mata, Kevin et al you need a runner in central midfield. That's just my opinion though.

Having said that, I think Mikel's ball playing skills are very much underrated. From some of the comments, people seem to be under the impression that he plays as a number 10 for Nigeria - that's not true. He plays as a centre midfielder (or deep lying midfielder) and it's actually quite remarkable how good he is in that role especially under Stephen Kelshi (the current coach). His performance against Spain would have been classified as "world class" if it weren't for the name on the back of his shirt and I guarantee that many on here would be crying out for us to sign him for the pivot. Would love to see what he can do if he were playing in Lampard's position.

Anywho, all of Mikel's touches against Spain. Absolutely a brilliant performance from him.

Fair enough, but Spain were not very good in the conf cup. Italy gave them a much harder time than Nigeria for example - not to mention Brazil trashing.

Mickel also, when playing for Nigeria, hardly gets harassed when carrying from deep, so he has time to build up his own speed. BPL games are far more dynamic and Mikel lacks pace. That's less of a problem for Nigeria than it is for Chelsea.

Although I wish we had better than Mickel, I do agree that we cannot afford to sell him without getting a replacement. Unless Essien miraculously recovers some of his game.

[Kojo 4,676]

Probably should have started this game or at least came on earlier, we where in our own half and Jose knew that would happen hence the decision to stick deep all the time even when we where on the ball.

The game would've benefited him as he wouldn't of had to cover as much ground, he came on and played well, it just proved it.

I'm still not convinced that he can be a starter for a full season however, but he really should have started for me.

[meetdoscar 335]

Well nice to see he isn't being blamed for our lack of domination of teams as he hasn't even started a game. For me he would have been far better than lampard for this game and also vs ManU

[BlueLion. 21,491]

I thought he played very well when he came on. Mikel is brilliant in the big games.