Mikel John Obi

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Excellent performance today; he worked his butt off. Dunno about the second half but he had 97% passing accuracy in the first half which just crazy. Was very much involved and did some excellent defensive work.

Dude, sometimes you've just got to tip your hat to a decent performance.

He didn't hurt the opposition (although his defensive work did), but he linked up play well. The problem was Mata not doing anything with possession in the first half.

So I was exaggerating when I said that people scapegoat Mikel, right?

[kellzfresh 7,229]

Was good today, especially as mourinho brought on lampard and oscar so he had more bodies in the middle.

But once again we don't win when mikel starts, is he having a bad omen??

[Phil Driver 503]

bleed_blue, on 07 May 2013 - 3:42 PM, said:

bleed_blue, on 07 May 2013 - 3:42 PM, said:

Since Mikel's return from African's Nations Cup, he has started 9 games for us. We have won 3, drawn 2 and lost 4 of them.

In the 14 games during this period when Mikel did not start, we have won 12, drawn 1 and lost 1. The one we drew, he played as a sub for 38 minutes and the one we lost, he came on after 60 minutes when we were leading 2-1 and ended up losing 3-2.

Long and short range stats are only pointing one way on this one. W3 D2 L5 when in the team W12 D1 L2 without .

Lampard's stats for instance are very positive during the same period,but then again when you score you do tend to win or draw .

[zolayes 14,489]

Was good today, especially as mourinho brought on lampard and oscar so he had more bodies in the middle.

But once again we don't win when mikel starts, is he having a bad omen??

he had a decent game ..we didnt have the luck today ...move on

[Phil Driver 503]

Sorry forgot to include our wins against Hull and Villa and a point away v Utd in those stats so without Mikel should read W14 D2 L2 ,with Mikel W3 D2 L5 since he returned form the African nations last season, of course it could be a freak stat? that shows no relevance to his contribution at all?

[bleed_blue 136]

Excellent performance today; he worked his butt off. Dunno about the second half but he had 97% passing accuracy in the first half which just crazy. Was very much involved and did some excellent defensive work.

So I was exaggerating when I said that people scapegoat Mikel, right?

And he starts playing the victim card now. TYPICAL

[bleed_blue 136]

Sorry forgot to include our wins against Hull and Villa and a point away v Utd in those stats so without Mikel should read W14 D2 L2 ,with Mikel W3 D2 L5 since he returned form the African nations last season, of course it could be a freak stat? that shows no relevance to his contribution at all?

Choulo19 will tell you that results and performance of players are two independent variables that are mutually exclusive.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

he had a decent game ..we didnt have the luck today ...move on

I know but it was just something bad luckish I noticed.

Ps. Didn't kno pple have stated it

[bleed_blue 136]

Did you guys see his defensive work on everton goal?

Got drawn out of position, put in a half hearted tackle, osman escaped and played played a lovely one two while mikel decided to stand and applause the phase of play.

[Phil Driver 503]

Did you guys see his defensive work on everton goal?

Got drawn out of position, put in a half hearted tackle, osman escaped and played played a lovely one two while mikel decided to stand and applause the phase of play.

Shades of Ya Ya Toure there and many others including Willian when at Shakhtar ,hopefully we did not just buy Willian because he breezed past Obi ,because difficult that aint.

[The Skipper 20,593]

Did you guys see his defensive work on everton goal?

Got drawn out of position, put in a half hearted tackle, osman escaped and played played a lovely one two while mikel decided to stand and applause the phase of play.

Lol yeah let's blame Mikel for the goal even though it was Cech's and Ramires' fault. Ridiculous.

[Phil Driver 503]

bleed_blue, on 07 May 2013 - 3:42 PM, said:

Since Mikel's return from African's Nations Cup, he has started 9 games for us. We have won 3, drawn 2 and lost 4 of them.

In the 14 games during this period when Mikel did not start, we have won 12, drawn 1 and lost 1. The one we drew, he played as a sub for 38 minutes and the one we lost, he came on after 60 minutes when we were leading 2-1 and ended up losing 3-2.

Sorry forgot to include our wins against Hull and Villa and a point away v Utd in those stats so without Mikel should read W14 D2 L2 ,with Mikel W3 D2 L5 since he returned form the African nations last season, of course it could be a freak stat? that shows no relevance to his contribution at all?

Throw up those action area stats to trump these again. It could be a statistical oddity which has no relevance at all I suppose?

[Jase 43,479]

Remember this incident? Oh dear..

[OneMoSalah 8,776]

Did you guys see his defensive work on everton goal?

Got drawn out of position, put in a half hearted tackle, osman escaped and played played a lovely one two while mikel decided to stand and applause the phase of play.

Because Rami, Eto'o, Luiz and Cech covered themselves in glory didn't they?

IF WE CONCEDE ITS MIKELS FAULT SORRY GUYS FORGOT

[OneMoSalah 8,776]

Remember this incident? Oh dear..

Course Clattenburg just decides to come out and say it about a season after, what a fucking twat he is.

[bleed_blue 136]

Lol yeah let's blame Mikel for the goal even though it was Cech's and Ramires' fault. Ridiculous.

LOL

Go and watch the goal again. I am not saying it was only Mikel's fault, but he shares a major portion of the blame. He gets drawn out of position, puts in a half hearted tackle and once Osman gets rid of him, Mikel just gave up. It was a chain of events after that.

But lets forget that, Mikel completed 93% of his passes. He must be really good. Scoreline does not matter.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIIub70pZBQ

The above video will show you, only if you don't have blinkers ON.

and the berks blaming Luiz for that goal, you will have to excuse him for trying to close down on Ross Barkley having a free shot at the goal while our DMs went jogging. Barkley has a pretty good shot on him, people who watch football will tell you that.

[Barbara 15,149]

wow... I came here to post about his match today and maybe have a debate with you guys about us using a 4-1-4-1 with him being the holding DM '1', but I came across the weirdest posts posted yesterday (09/13).

I don't even read beyond page 180 because it seemed I was entering the Twilight zone...

Anyway, the 4-1-4-1 thing. It doesn't make much sense, I'll be the first to say, but he was good defensively today - as he is usually - that I thought maybe that would be the solution for our AM in some matches and a good alternative for when the 4-2-3-1 isn't working (I'm still convinced our players fit better a 4-3-3 formation than a 4-2-3-1 formation, but Mourinho will insist on the latter)

What if we play him ahead of the defense and ahead of him Hazard - Oscar - Mata - André/Willian/Kevin and a striker ahead of them. Oscar and André are options against more dangerous team as they have impressive work rates - like for example ManUtd as their midfield wasn't exactly threatening. Willian for matches when we need a fast-dribbling player in the wing (some of our home games against weaker sides that will sit deep against us) and Kevin for the matches in the between of both scenarios (matches against mid-tables teams at home or cup games) . It does sacrifice both Ramires and Lamps at once (reason alone why it will never happen, sadly), but this is not something I think we should play at all matches, but when we want to bring something different, have an unexpected game play or fix matches that aren't going our way. It could have been the case today as I see Everton the kind of opponent that we wouldn't miss much having only one player in the pivot. There was so many players Barry could mark by himself especially if we have both Oscar and Mata in the middle. As I said, as an alternative, not our most used formation. I can envision it working and the only CM that could make it work for us is Mikel.

[bleed_blue 136]

Sorry forgot to include our wins against Hull and Villa and a point away v Utd in those stats so without Mikel should read W14 D2 L2 ,with Mikel W3 D2 L5 since he returned form the African nations last season, of course it could be a freak stat? that shows no relevance to his contribution at all?

After 3rd Feb 2013, we have played 32 games. Mikel started 10 of these games.

Our results when Mikel started: 3 wins, 2 draws and 5 defeats

Our results in the other 22 games: 17 wins, 3 draws and 2 defeats.

The 2 defeats when Mikel did not start: vs Rubin Kazan away when we were leading 2-1 before Mikel came on as sub and we lost 2-3 and the Super Cup defeat to Bayern on penalties.