Mikel John Obi

[The only place to be 11,313]

Mikel consistenly makes good passes whenever i watch him for Nigeria, regardless of opposition. He has more freedom as they're 2 other combative midfielders beside him, and also like i said during the African Nations Cup, Nigeria's forwards look to make runs in behind just like Ideye did for that pass.

But at Chelsea you have Hazard, Oscar and Mata just standing in the middle and passing the ball sideways

Edit: From what i've seen of Schurrle, he's a different type of player, and he stays wider a lot of times - able to get behind fullbacks.

Maybe we should get rid of Hazard, Mata and Oscar and get these Nigerian stars. That way Mikel can be at his very best.

The alternative is that we sell Mikel and buy a player who can operate with 3 of the best young talents in world football.

Sophie's Choice indeed.

[ANDRECHO 432]

Maybe we should get rid of Hazard, Mata and Oscar and get these Nigerian stars. That way Mikel can be at his very best.

The alternative is that we sell Mikel and buy a player who can operate with 3 of the best young talents in world football.

Sophie's Choice indeed.

lol

[Sheva. 5,373]

Maybe we should get rid of Hazard, Mata and Oscar and get these Nigerian stars. That way Mikel can be at his very best.

The alternative is that we sell Mikel and buy a player who can operate with 3 of the best young talents in world football.

Sophie's Choice indeed.

Because that was my point, smh. Hazard, Mata and Oscar are too similar, which is why our play is so narrow.

Moses - before Afcon - made a big difference whenever he was in the team and Schurrle can do the same if he settles in well. This way there is an option out wide for Mata, Mikel, or whoever is playing centrally, when the opposition decide to pack the middle of the pitch.

[robsblubot 3,530]

Because that was my point, smh. Hazard, Mata and Oscar are too similar, which is why our play is so narrow.

Moses - before Afcon - made a big difference whenever he was in the team and Schurrle can do the same if he settles in well. This way there is an option out wide for Mata, Mikel, or whoever is playing centrally, when the opposition decide to pack the middle of the pitch.

Your original point is fair, but logically it would have to apply to other midfielders who eventually replace Mikel. And we see that they ALL (even Luiz who isn't a midfielder) do a better job linking up with the same midfielders Mikel has trouble with. Whoever replaces Mikel also scores goals and assists, yes, even Luiz! Perhaps the problem lies in Mikel himself?!

BTW, Don't think the 3 AMs are that similar: both Mata and Hazard like to keep the ball, but Mata will try to pick up a pass or an assist, while Hazard will burst and try to beat his marker one way or another. Oscar is more alike Mata than Hazard, but he does not keep the ball for long, can track back and does a decent job defending deep in the mf. Both Mata and Hazard are really poor markers.

[JDY 1,290]

That was my point in my Mikel/Fellaini piece back in January, Mikel could be used further up.

Here's an intetesting read as well on that subject: That's Santapelota on "Busquets as an advanced midfielder" ?

http://santapelota.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/busquets-as-an-advanced-midfielder/

Further up but at the expense of Mata?

Not only the ability to hold the ball higher up the pitch, but also to disrupt oppositions deep lying creative players. There's been a growing trend with these players in more advanced positions, Fellaini in the EPL, Guarin more advanced at Inter, Mueller in the latter stages of the Champions League

[robsblubot 3,530]

How many assists Xavi and Modric have ? Not that much for midfielders, that's because they're often in the buildup of the goal, the pass before the assist.

Good example yesterday, Mikel created two goals by picking the diagonal or through ball that led to the short cross then tap-in. Not an assist, but arguably the pass that allowed that simple combo short cross, tap in

The game against Tahiti again... :banghead:

BTW, bullshit:

Xavi (La Liga): Apps 24(6) Goals 5 Assists 8

Modric: 25(8) 3 3

You prob meant Xabi, not Xavi.

Xabi: 22(6) - 5 (he was better attacking @pool)

Khedira: 19(6) 3 2

BPL:

Carrick: 34(2) 1 4

Toure: 32 7 5

Arteta: 34 6 3

Mikel: 19(3) - -

Only (top side) BPL holding mid with (almost) just as poor attacking stats is (coming from career-threatening injury) Lucas Leiva from lpool.

Lucas: 24(2) - 1

And I believe he's got far better defensive stats than Mikel.

...

BTW, Modric is overrated IMO.

[Stingray 9,441]

But at Chelsea you have Hazard, Oscar and Mata just standing in the middle and passing the ball sideways

Now that is the root cause!

/goober:

Comon - be serious.

[Kostas 1,468]

well look who finally crawled out from under a rock!

I'm gonna crawl back under promptly. This season had way too much football for me to spend even more time on discussing it. Not to mention that now that Mou is back I don't really have to worry about 90% of the things I did.

on a serious note,

he plays that pass against Tahiti and we are discussing his ability to "lay it off perfectly for a speeding runner"

Good Lord.

I'm less willing to watch Tahiti matches that respond to wind-ups such as this. If you can't admit the only two things he does brilliantly (retain possession under pressure - release on the path of his teammates) there's no contribution you can make to the topic.

That was my point in my Mikel/Fellaini piece back in January, Mikel could be used further up.

Here's an intetesting read as well on that subject: That's Santapelota on "Busquets as an advanced midfielder" ?

http://santapelota.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/busquets-as-an-advanced-midfielder/

Heh, what do you know .. exactly the function I had in mind. Your point on such a move freeing up Oscar to play his original deep lying mf role complements the idea nicely, Mata is the only one I have doubts about fitting in such a system.

[Blue Armour 4,312]

Kalou detractor and a fan of Mikel's play. One wasn't fit to be a starter for any PL club (and earned more than some) while the other used to be amongst our top 4 most technically astute players up until a few transfer windows when we started signing the likes of Mata. Up until last season he was (in my eyes) the easiest player to pick for our starting XI after the likes of Cech and A.Cole.

On a more relavant note, I see the tiring discussion regarding his value/talent absolutely redundant and only wonder whether Mou will be the first Chelsea manager to experiment with him since he did back in the day (apart from a brief attempt by AVB). Mikel's ability to hold the ball under any sort of pressure and lay it off perfectly for a speeding runner could be quite usefull further up the pitch.

Back when Carlo used his diamond formation, I used to think Mikel could serve as an option for the head of the diamond behind the 2 strikers, with his quick passing and ability to hold the ball...

But that was a LONG while ago...I don't think he's going to be changing his role, and I don't think we should go into the season being the first choice DM...Not unless we sign a quality CM to compliment him..

[Jase 43,479]

Speaking about long passes from Mikel, have a look at the 2nd goal here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqffYs3XOg8

[Tomo 21,733]

One does wonder where Mikel would have been today had he signed for United...

Not great if Anderson is anything to go by.

[Tomo 21,733]

Rumours circulating that Galatasaray's bid would be around £13 million. Not bad considering that's around the rumoured figure for De Rossi.

So that would mean putting net spend into account De Rossi would effectively be a free transfer.

Fuck sake im starting to sound like a Liverpool fan :banghead:

[Tomo 21,733]

And Torres scored 22 goals this season, some great ones in the Europa League, but I can't find many people here who want him to be at the club.

Really? for some weird reason their still seems to be a fair few.

[Jase 43,479]

And Torres scored 22 goals this season, some great ones in the Europa League, but I can't find many people here who want him to be at the club.

Really? On Twitter, there seem to be quite a number of people that still thinks it's worth keeping Torres on the basis of "oh. Torres is improving. He's getting his confidence back." and all that.

And that is rather funny considering basically everyone here is against keeping him at the club.

[The only place to be 11,313]

So that would mean putting net spend into account De Rossi would effectively be a free transfer.

Fuck sake im starting to sound like a Liverpool fan :banghead:

A few years out of a solid pro like De Rossi before a few of the youngsters step up with no real transfer fee....I think even Mikel's staunchest supporters would see the sense in that.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

That was my point in my Mikel/Fellaini piece back in January, Mikel could be used further up.

Here's an intetesting read as well on that subject: That's Santapelota on "Busquets as an advanced midfielder" ?

http://santapelota.wordpress.com/2012/02/06/busquets-as-an-advanced-midfielder/

That's a very interesting point. Mikel definitely has what it takes to play with his back to goal, but if he is to played further up the pitch, can he, after laying the ball off to a fellow midfielder, then join the offense and attack the second/third ball and score on a regular basis? Unless you mean that he is still deployed in the pivot but only exchanges places with Oscar during the play?

If it is the latter, I think there will be plenty of gaps if we lose possession because Mikel is usually the one who covers and protects the back 4 when we lose the ball. We may have to play him next to another defensive midfielder for that work.

But again, very interesting proposal. Would love to see someone attempting to implement here or even at Barca with Busquetes.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

The reason why he's never in dangerous positions or positions to score goals is because he indeed stays behind to cover.

But I think that's something we can work on with a fluid interchanging midfield with a player in every position whatever happens, if Mikel pushes forward then a midfielder ahead of him takes a few steps back. Oscar is clever enough to do that

So you think we can implement this while having our usual pivot of Mikel-Lampard/Ramires? Tbh, I've always wanted to see what a pivot of Mikel-Romeu would look like.

I think it would take a lot of work on the training ground to be implemented as well as some stability both in the team and in the results to allow the manager to make such experiments.

[The Mak 4,459]

Again, I'm not discussing his performance which is of course expected to be great because he is by far the best player on the pitch, I'm talking about that pass in particular. It was a great pass. It's not a big deal, it's just a pass and I was just making a remark that it was a great pass just like I made a comment that Oscar's was a great pass as well. It would have passed a regular remark just like the one about Oscar if some people didn't get butt-hurt every time someone gave Mikel a deserved compliment. So, I'm sorry Mikel made a great pass if it is going to hurt you so much.

'Not a big deal'? Says the guy who took the time to post:

Brilliant through ball to set up Nigeria's 5th:

It 'not being a big deal' is my argument! If it's not a big deal, why did you post it?! And I hope you didn't edit that image yourself; it would be an awful lot of trouble to go through for something that's 'not a big deal'.

I'm sorry you feel the need to glorify every small positive move made by Mikel; especially against a pub team while being up 5-1