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Mikel John Obi


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TBF, given the amount of BS transfer rumours that goes around these days, I don't blame CHOULO for doing that. He's just being skeptical. That's all. Nothing wrong with that.

And I also never said it was true, merely posting a link like you do.

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Colin Udoh @ColinUdoh

Just got a call from Mikel re Galatasaray. Says he is aware of the interest, but has not agreed anything yet: 'Nothing like that.'

My take from that Mikel convo is that if Chelsea and Gala agree, he will not be averse to a move if the money is right

When I spoke to Shittu (Mikel's manager) last week, he told me its up to Chelsea. But only if Gala stumped up some stupid money

He's someone that knows a lot about African football or matters related to it and followed by many journalists on Twitter. Can say it's a reliable source of info.

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I hope these rumours are true, because it will only mean that José will find a replacement, and the future replacement will be 100% better than John Obi Mikel, who is useless 75% of the time, lets be honest.

@Kieran., dont cry, its only a rumour :tiphat:

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He's someone that knows a lot about African football or matters related to it and followed by many journalists on Twitter. Can say it's a reliable source of info.

That makes much more sense. We already know that Gala are interested, but Mikel has 4 years on his contract left so they will have to pay something like 20-25m to get him, that is IF Chelsea and Jose even want to sell him.

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Gutted if he goes but there are very good replacements available who may even be better suited for our team so if the money is good, the board have my blessing to sell him.

Any estimates on how much Mikel could go for? First time he's even rumoured to be on his way out so it's hard to say where the club value him at.

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The why I rate Oscar over Mata and Hazard for that central attacking playmaker role is because he drops, links play, he organize things being behind the ball when we build attacks ; he can play back to goal and he doesn't looks for the specular everytime (something he's been praised for in Brazil, by Parreira in instance).

A functional midfield 4-2-3-1 isn't that different from a 4-3-3 in terms of how the team presses to recover the ball.

In 4-3-3 you've two midfielders that come out to press the opponent with a anchor man sweeping behind to cover (to position himself between the ball and his goal).

If the opponent has the ball in his centre right, that's up to the left center midfielder to come out and press while being covered by his anchor man. The right center midfielder takes a few steps back and position himselfs in order to balance what happens to the other side, in order to be ready to intercept or pick a diagonal run through his zone.

Usually that's up to the anchor man to follow the opponent's support striker in his zone.

In 4-2-3-1 you've two midfielders behind another. The two midfielders aren't enough to sweep the entire length of the pitch efficiently, that's the reason they've zonal defending instructions, and why they need the wide attackers to track back. The one who comes out and press is the attacking midfielder who's supposed to be behind the ball in transitions (as if he was a third midfielder). The double pivot is only expected to close down his opponent only if he enters in his zone in order to reduce the risk to release massive gaps at the edge of the penalty area.

Every team needs his Ramires to get through opponent's lines of player. With the ridiculous squad depth that was our this season, that was utopic to expect a proper possession habit with due movements of the attackers. Ramires can play without movement & calls around him because he creates movement by inbalancing the opponent, that's usually the trigger for his team mates who can ask him the ball.

Mikel doesn't carries the ball, he's a pass & move midfielder. Technically (strictly speaking) he's close to perfection for controls, passes etc... I though Mata and Hazard didn't do enough (in the absolute): Mata because he's poor back to goal and Hazard because he never worked on his off-the ball movements (at Lille in instance) ; they weren't able to provide good enough passing options to the defenders or the midfielders.

There's two reasons why Mikel's forced to delay the release of his pass.

First one is because there's no movement alongside him. How can you expect him to give the ball away when he's left in a no-man's land and all the attackers are static and aligned like toy soldiers ?

diapositive7.png?w=547

tactics-porn.png?w=551&h=176

chelsea-passing-options.png?w=551&h=315

The second reason is indeed to create space, he's a sufficient technical ability and ball retention skills to release his pass to the very last second. That's not because he's slow or anything, that's a trick top midfielders have. They fool their opponent by letting them think they don't have a clue about what's going on around them (who presses etc...), the opponent triggers an explosive pressing run that gets past by a simple square ball released at the very last second.

Most of the time the midfielder that triggered that pressing run won't put the same energy and urgency to track back to recover his former position, his zone has already been exploited by an attacker having dropped.

That's classic stuff to create space against a packed team when it's done properly with the clear intent to trick the opponent. Because most of the time average teams produce sterile possession sequences because they really don't have a clue :lol:

What you've said is true but was at his worst with Di Matteo. The team had no offensive game plan under him and after 10 matches were very poor defensively.

And you are right about Hazard under Di Matteo, like the others, I think they had no clue about what the offensive game plan was. I've seen matches of Mata last year, and he was crowded easily and had often only square passes as options. Di Matteo is one of the luckiest manager of all time with the champion's league run.

But With Benitez, I thought that Hazard has improved a lot on his movements, what to do coming deeper, at least there was a game plan, some patterns he could rely to know what the others would do and could use his biggest asset that is to draw defenders to some places to leave space behind or on the other side of the pitch for other player's run, or very good shooting opportunities. And inside the box, I've seen that now he was ready to follow an error of goalkeeping, things he was not doing before.

And that's why I was hoping that he would have leave Lille earlier, the slow tempo with so many passes between the defenders, the midfielders Mavuba Balmont not able to do quick passes, half his matches there, he seemed bored on the pitch. Gervinho who was not able to give a pass when he was running, giving a pass 5% of the time when there was a run from behind because he was blind.

The first half of the matches was often ultra boring with either midfield battle with no one keeping possession or 50 passes between the central defenders.

To keep on the topic, I'm not a fan of Mikel because I think we could have a better player. He lacks some pace on the first meters and what you talk of tricking the opponent, there are tricks to fool opponents that he also lack or quicker turn, ball behind stance leg to go the other side that slow midfielders master to have the opponent on the wrong foot.

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That Turk newspaper are reliable when it comes to Gala, less reliable when it comes to Fener, Besiktas etc.

Kinda like how Marca favour a certain team and post actual news regarding them and then degrade their rival, or how certain papers in Italy favour Milan or Juve but post BS about other teams.

This move is a go IMO.

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Or inversely, if a player has stayed at a top team for 7 years and has been a starter for 4 years, then, either all the managers that have come to the team during that period are idiots, or the team is very shit, or the player gives the managers blow jobs before they pick the team, or, god forbid, he is at least a very decent player.

Sure, he is a decent player.

But in my view he never fulfilled his potential over these 7 years.

It was great when he was improving when he was second choice and knocking on the door of first choice, but as a first choice, we as a club need a player with stronger and better attributes than him. He can go and thrive in another league, but as of today and the future, i dont see mikel as our midfield anchor.

I understand you rate him highly, and i wish him all the best.

However, if we sell him, and he is a top player, then top teams should want him.

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Sure, he is a decent player.

But in my view he never fulfilled his potential over these 7 years.

It was great when he was improving when he was second choice and knocking on the door of first choice, but as a first choice, we as a club need a player with stronger and better attributes than him. He can go and thrive in another league, but as of today and the future, i dont see mikel as our midfield anchor.

I understand you rate him highly, and i wish him all the best.

However, if we sell him, and he is a top player, then top teams should want him.

I don't doubt that Mikel has his weakness (I keep pointing out that he's not exactly blessed with raw pace, and he is sometimes slow to react) nor do I claim he's the best in the world, but I do think that most of the problems that are attributed to Mikel by some fans are largely not his fault alone. So even if you bring in Busquetes (who, for me, is simply the best in his position) most of these problems won't magically disappear, not until we sort out the problems in our system like start defending like a team with everyone doing their job and actually come up with an attacking system to get the ball from defense to attack.

Can we improve on the position Mikel plays in by investing the transfer market? It won't be cheap, but yes we can definitely find better players. But the same can be said about every single position in our starting XI except between the posts and maybe left back. The more important question for me is: Should replacing Mikel be our priority? The answer for me is no, because I believe there are much more pressing matters we should fix using the transfer window like Mikel's partner in the pivot (if are going to continue playing 4-2-3-1), our striker situation, our first choice CB pairing, and most importantly squad depth, especially in the attacking midfielders area.

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I don't doubt that Mikel has his weakness (I keep pointing out that he's not exactly blessed with raw pace, and he is sometimes slow to react) nor do I claim he's the best in the world, but I do think that most of the problems that are attributed to Mikel by some fans are largely not his fault alone. So even if you bring in Busquetes (who, for me, is simply the best in his position) most of these problems won't magically disappear, not until we sort out the problems in our system like start defending like a team with everyone doing their job and actually come up with an attacking system to get the ball from defense to attack.

Can we improve on the position Mikel plays in by investing the transfer market? It won't be cheap, but yes we can definitely find better players. But the same can be said about every single position in our starting XI except between the posts and maybe left back. The more important question for me is: Should replacing Mikel be our priority? The answer for me is no, because I believe there are much more pressing matters we should fix using the transfer window like Mikel's partner in the pivot (if are going to continue playing 4-2-3-1), our striker situation, our first choice CB pairing, and most importantly squad depth, especially in the attacking midfielders area.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/shakhtar-signs-gremios-fernando-133600671--sow.html

Brazil-international who has started several times for Brazil (only 21) sold for 11m.

BTW, reaction time and pace are IMO the most important attributes for the role of someone who has to provide cover.

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Very good reasons why this is true from the Chelsea point of view , Mourinho is one of the worlds best coaches he will have recognised how poor Mikel is and it will come as no surprise to me that Mikel is amongst the first players he will want rid of.

Mourinho will not have come back to Chelsea without guarantees on his dominance of all things to do with the team and the players in the team as well as the players we sign and sell. I am not sure in the recent past our managers have had total control over who plays ,Jose will have this.

I am sure Galatasary and any other club who are interested in Mikel will be given encouragement to make a bid and I think Galatasary have probably made an enquiry and been given the green light .

It is great to have Jose back making the right calls at Chelsea once again ,cant wait for the season to start .

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