Mikel John Obi

[didierforever 7,349]

Again, you're missing my point. I just said that Rami has been our best pivot player. Consistently putting in 6-7/10 is still consistency which is what we were discussing. Mikel has not been brilliant (except maybe in the Everton game) but he has been good in almost every game up until yesterday.

he has been consistently average in almost every game until last night.

the level of at which mikel is "consistently" playig is not the level that is expected of our players, and the fact that he is being displaced by a 35 year old lamps at his own game, for his own spot goes on to say a lot.

and please dont use this "mikel get the stick for no reason" thing. have a look at the FL thread. look at people having a go at him. people here (except for phil, obviously) have given mikel the benefit of the doubt plenty of times before but he has almost always failed to deliver.

[Weckerz 3,781]

He has failed to deliver for over 3 years now.. he's lost all the playmaking abilities that endeared us to him when he came to Chelsea. We need a man with a spine and the ability to make things happen going forward, not this guy, sadly.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

he has been consistently average in almost every game until last night.

the level of at which mikel is "consistently" playig is not the level that is expected of our players, and the fact that he is being displaced by a 35 year old lamps at his own game, for his own spot goes on to say a lot.

and please dont use this "mikel get the stick for no reason" thing. have a look at the FL thread. look at people having a go at him. people here (except for phil, obviously) have given mikel the benefit of the doubt plenty of times before but he has almost always failed to deliver.

That wasn't really the point here, though, was it? The point was about consistency. Saying that Mikel is consistently playing at a level below that which is expected of our players is obviously not true. If that were the case he would not have played in 18 of our 24 matches so far this season.

Mikel had his first bad game for us this season yesterday. Granted he wasn't brilliant in the games before, but he was consistently 6-7/10 as you put it. And on the first bad game a whole lot of people come here saying stuff like he should go while our other pivot players have had more bad games this season than John. That's what I meant by double-standards.

[didierforever 7,349]

That wasn't really the point here, though, was it? The point was about consistency. Saying that Mikel is consistently playing at a level below that which is expected of our players is obviously not true. If that were the case he would not have played in 18 of our 24 matches so far this season.

Mikel had his first bad game for us this season yesterday. Granted he wasn't brilliant in the games before, but he was consistently 6-7/10 as you put it. And on the first bad game a whole lot of people come here saying stuff like he should go while our other pivot players have had more bad games this season than John. That's what I meant by double-standards.

double standards!!! what double standards??? agains i would simply go back to a previous point of simply having a peak at the FL thread and see how many people have critisized him and asked for lamps to simply retire and never play football again.

but to be honest, i would expect a few poor performances creeping into lamps game when he is playing 3 games a week at the age of 35 years. on the other hand, mikel is 26, prime of his career, peak of his physical fitness, and yet if this is the best he can do then i am sorry, we deserve better. honestly, i cant see the difference in keeping chalobah/romeu instead of him, i am sure they would be capable of giving those 6-7/10 consistent performances too but unfortunately we need much more than that from the only recognized DM in our squad.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

double standards!!! what double standards??? agains i would simply go back to a previous point of simply having a peak at the FL thread and see how many people have critisized him and asked for lamps to simply retire and never play football again.

but to be honest, i would expect a few poor performances creeping into lamps game when he is playing 3 games a week at the age of 35 years. on the other hand, mikel is 26, prime of his career, peak of his physical fitness, and yet if this is the best he can do then i am sorry, we deserve better. honestly, i cant see the difference in keeping chalobah/romeu instead of him, i am sure they would be capable of giving those 6-7/10 consistent performances too but unfortunately we need much more than that from the only recognized DM in our squad.

That's because Frank has not been himself since the injury in 2010. Since then he has struggled to find a run of form. And this season he has had some truly terrible games. It wasn't just one or two. It was a whole bunch of very bad games. That's why a lot of people are criticizing his performances now. But Mikel is getting stick and people want him gone after the first bad game this season.

Romeu? Chalobah?! Come on. You are underrating the level at which Chelsea play at beyond belief. I'm all for them being given a chance at Chelsea, but to say that a player who's played half a dozen games in the last year and another who can't get into a championship side can perform consistently at Chelsea is not at all realistic. It's not easy to perform, what you are calling "average", consistently at this level. Those two are very far from regular first team action with Chelsea. Maybe Oriol would be close if he continues the rest of the season like he has played the past couple of games and continues to be a nailed on starter for Valencia.

[ChelseasMessiah 304]

Exactly people are shanking the dagger into Mikel's back after one poor performance whilst conveniently being oblivious that his midfield partner was and has been poor. The quicker we get Lampard out of the starting 11 in the CM/DM role the better.

[Phil Driver 503]

I

That's because Frank has not been himself since the injury in 2010. Since then he has struggled to find a run of form. And this season he has had some truly terrible games. It wasn't just one or two. It was a whole bunch of very bad games. That's why a lot of people are criticizing his performances now. But Mikel is getting stick and people want him gone after the first bad game this season.

Romeu? Chalobah?! Come on. You are underrating the level at which Chelsea play at beyond belief. I'm all for them being given a chance at Chelsea, but to say that a player who's played half a dozen games in the last year and another who can't get into a championship side can perform consistently at Chelsea is not at all realistic. It's not easy to perform, what you are calling "average", consistently at this level. Those two are very far from regular first team action with Chelsea. Maybe Oriol would be close if he continues the rest of the season like he has played the past couple of games and continues to be a nailed on starter for Valencia.

Do you really believe the stuff you right ?

[remains of the day 564]

The game we won 3-0 against an excellent team? He can't have been that bad. And against Spurs he was as poor as everyone else in that first half. You can't single him out.

Yes the game where we won 3-0, also the same game where Cech made a string of saves in the 1st half to keep us in it and the game were Mikel turned over possession three times, to put that into perspective, the only other players who lost possession that many times were all offensive players and out of all the defensive players, including Ramires, Mikel received the lowest rating on WhoScored. So yes, he was that bad.

Point it is, Mikel has been the most consistent of our pivot players this season, granted that he has had a lesser role than Rami and Frank. But Frank has had as many bad games as good ones if not more and even Rami has had a games were he was pretty bad, especially recently. Saying that Mikel has had more bad games than good when the other players have been far more inconsistent is an example of the double-standards that most use against John.

Our most consistent midfielder? Really interested to know what basis you're using to gauge that - surely it can't be the 8 PL & CL matches he's only managed a start in? Look, I generally agree that Mikel has been 'good' (and I use that term loosely, because I think he's only been better this season compared to last than 'good') but calling him our most consistent midfielder in the pivot when he's only started (if i'm not mistaken) 5 games in the league is ludicrous in every sense of the word. You might not think that Lampard & Ramires have been consistent or that Lampard deserves to be starting over Mikel, but the stats disagree. They both consistently average more tackles per game than Mikel does, they both work harder than he does and offensively, they're far better than him. Your argument really has no basis to it.

[zolayes 14,489]

IMO Mikel has a very poor season throughout ,,but the last game he had me screaming ,, He broke down so many of OUR moves by taking too

long to get the ball forward ,, Gale is the worst most biased commentator we get ,, BUT he got it 100% correct about Mikel ...

He stops any chance of a quick break from us when he gets the ball .

[JDY 1,290]

Yes the game where we won 3-0, also the same game where Cech made a string of saves in the 1st half to keep us in it and the game were Mikel turned over possession three times, to put that into perspective, the only other players who lost possession that many times were all offensive players and out of all the defensive players, including Ramires, Mikel received the lowest rating on WhoScored. So yes, he was that bad.

I still can't tell which game you mean. The home or away win? If I recall correctly, I was happy with his contribution when he came on vs. Schalke away. Looked really tidy on the ball, we needed to take a bit of the sting out of the game and Mikel did that perfectly.

In the home game the whole midfield and defence was all over the place in the first 15-20 minutes. But after that I thought everyone recovered and played well.

[remains of the day 564]

I still can't tell which game you mean. The home or away win? If I recall correctly, I was happy with his contribution when he came on vs. Schalke away. Looked really tidy on the ball, we needed to take a bit of the sting out of the game and Mikel did that perfectly. In the home game the whole midfield and defence was all over the place in the first 15-20 minutes. But after that I thought everyone recovered and played well.

Yes. The home game against Schalke - thought I had specified? But you're right, the team eventually got a foothold in the game after Schalke began to sit back a bit. Mikel though was pretty poor in that first half from what I remember. On at least two occasions, he gave away possession cheaply that we nearly conceded from.

edit: Found the highlights.....see 1:57 & 2:37

Mikel has only started 10 matches this season ( I could be wrong) but I don't think he's started more than 10. In the handful of games he has started, he's had some good performances (West Ham, Fulham, the capital one cup game against Arsenal..... those were decent performances) but he's also had some poor ones. He's been okay for the most part, but to say he's been more consistent than Lampard & Ramires? That's such an exaggeration.

[JDY 1,290]

Yes. The home game against Schalke - thought I had specified? But you're right, the team eventually got a foothold in the game after Schalke began to sit back a bit. Mikel though was pretty poor in that first half from what I remember. On at least two occasions, he gave away possession cheaply that we nearly conceded from.

edit: Found the highlights.....see 1:57 & 2:37

Mikel has only started 10 matches this season ( I could be wrong) but I don't think he's started more than 10. In the handful of games he has started, he's had some good performances (West Ham, Fulham, the capital one cup game against Arsenal..... those were decent performances) but he's also had some poor ones. He's been okay for the most part, but to say he's been more consistent than Lampard & Ramires? That's such an exaggeration.

Those two mistakes were shocking. It's not the fact that he sloppily gave the ball away that annoys me (most) there, it's the half-arsed attempt to get back and defend.

And I agree with the latter part. It wasn't me that said he's been more consistent than Ramires and Frank this season (if you're mistaking me for someone else), I was just arguing the point about the supposed bad game vs. Schalke. As I said, I thought the first 20 minutes was poor but he recovered to play well. I remember Cahill also had a shaky start but then went on to put in a MOTM performance.

[didierforever 7,349]

That's because Frank has not been himself since the injury in 2010. Since then he has struggled to find a run of form. And this season he has had some truly terrible games. It wasn't just one or two. It was a whole bunch of very bad games. That's why a lot of people are criticizing his performances now. But Mikel is getting stick and people want him gone after the first bad game this season.

Romeu? Chalobah?! Come on. You are underrating the level at which Chelsea play at beyond belief. I'm all for them being given a chance at Chelsea, but to say that a player who's played half a dozen games in the last year and another who can't get into a championship side can perform consistently at Chelsea is not at all realistic. It's not easy to perform, what you are calling "average", consistently at this level. Those two are very far from regular first team action with Chelsea. Maybe Oriol would be close if he continues the rest of the season like he has played the past couple of games and continues to be a nailed on starter for Valencia.

now i can safely say that u r not getting my point.

mikel's performances this season have been so average that that i feel even romeu/chalobah could have filled his shoes. his and lamps performances coupled with mvg's season long injury have almost made it compulsory for us to go out and buy a DM.

let me try anothr way, do u think chelsea should buy a DM this winter. as u r a chelsea fan, i would guess your answer is YES. lets say we buy sven bender.

now our pivot options would be sven, rambo, lamps and mikel. and i can safely assume that mikel will be the 4th option, a job which can very well be done by chalobah when he comes back from his loan spell.

[happy_juan 64]

Mikel has started just 9 of 24 games, lets not paint a rosy pictures by saying he has played 20 out of 24. But then, mikel fanboys have nothing but false claims and lies to fall back on.

His only competition is a 35 year old, out of position Lampard. If that doesnt tell you how mourinho rates Mikel, then you need to take off those tinted glasses.

[The Skipper 20,593]

Mikel has started just 9 of 24 games, lets not paint a rosy pictures by saying he has played 20 out of 24.

'Starting' and 'playing' (i.e. coming on as a sub) are different things you do know that?

[happy_juan 64]

'Starting' and 'playing' (i.e. coming on as a sub) are different things you do know that?

And when you count games where mikel came on as sub in the last 5 minutes to indicate his importance to the team?

Talk about defending the indefensible. ..

[The Skipper 20,593]

And when you count games where mikel came on as sub in the last 5 minutes to indicate his importance to the team?

Talk about defending the indefensible. ..

That hasn't always been the case though, there have been numerous times Mikel has been brought on with like 20/30 mins left in a game. That's all I'm saying,

[happy_juan 64]

That hasn't always been the case though, there have been numerous times Mikel has been brought on with like 20/30 mins left in a game. That's all I'm saying,

If mikel were to score an own goal in every game, people like you and choulo19 willl still defend him and say "look he is so consistent".