Mikel John Obi

[robsblubot 3,231]

I can't get past the image of Mikel freaking jogging! behind spurs attack when they scored. He should've been sprinting at 100% then.

[Phil Driver 503]

Oh dear if ever two halves summed up what difference a single player can make to a team ,today was it ,we were slow and backward in the first half ,letting Tottenham take the game to us ,second half when we get two proper midfieders in there who can run and play and we dominate ,Jose made a great decision to whip Obi off at H/T and Rammy and SFL ran the game second half .

Another bad day for Obi's stats lost 1-0 and were awful with him on ,won 1-0 and were the much better team with him off .

[Milan 17,835]

Why they did it? they won easly...

It was Tony Hibbert's testimonial. He never scored for the club before and this was actually his first goal for Everton. And the fans promised that if he scored, they would go crazy and invade the pitch.

[OneMoSalah 8,615]

Lampard was at fault for Spurs goal not Mikel. Mikel was pressuring the ball, they work it to Eriksen who turns Lamps far too easily...

[Strike 6,965]

with van Ginkel gone, midfield looks thin. Lampard-Mikel is an awful pivot. Ramires needs to start almost all games. Need that energy in midfield

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Lampard was at fault for Spurs goal not Mikel. Mikel was pressuring the ball, they work it to Eriksen who turns Lamps far too easily...

Plus Ivanovic fails to cover for Luiz and track Siggaurdsson's run. Ivanovic is the main culprit for me. Not sure what Mikel did wrong, though.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

with van Ginkel gone, midfield looks thin. Lampard-Mikel is an awful pivot. Ramires needs to start almost all games. Need that energy in midfield

Not sure how much MVG was going to be involved in the first place. His injury was a real shame, but Essien is capable of filling in for the appearances he would have made. Now if we were to lose Rami or Mikel, then our midfield would be very thin.

[happy_juan 64]

Stealing a living, this man

[Phil Driver 503]

Doesnt look good for Obi ,yesterday summed Chelsea up graphically in one game and two halves.

Some of us were aware of it before then ,but the 1st and the 2nd half emphasised his stats beyond doubt, 1st half awful and lost 1-0 ,2nd half dominant with two proper midfielders who worked together and pushed Spurs back and we dominated and won 1-0 , Jose said he could see what was wrong at H/T and he changed it and we dominated.

The slow sideways passes and the sitting back letting Spurs dominate was gone,our two midfielders dominated and pushed Spurs back.

This seven year experiment now looks over as Jose would have learned a lot yesterday and he saw what was wrong at Half Time (his words).

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Doesnt look good for Obi ,yesterday summed Chelsea up graphically in one game and two halves.

Some of us were aware of it before then ,but the 1st and the 2nd half emphasised his stats beyond doubt, 1st half awful and lost 1-0 ,2nd half dominant with two proper midfielders who worked together and pushed Spurs back and we dominated and won 1-0 , Jose said he could see what was wrong at H/T and he changed it and we dominated.

The slow sideways passes and the sitting back letting Spurs dominate was gone,our two midfielders dominated and pushed Spurs back.

This seven year experiment now looks over as Jose would have learned a lot yesterday and he saw what was wrong at Half Time (his words).

Right...come back when he starts again vs Steaua

[Phil Driver 503]

I have come back after our and his performance against Spurs ,to be honest he did what he always does ,the question is "Is that enough" .

When the best manager in the world is quoted as saying "I could see the problem at H/T and we changed" and the whole performance of the team changed ,surely it emphasises the problem we had and the change that made the difference ,our two midfielders pushed up and took the game to Spurs ,it was very obvious and the midfield was ours ,Spurs looked slow and Mikel like 2nd half and we dominated.

If Mikel plays against Steau we are in danger of a poor performance again,the firat half and the second half v Spurs showed that perfectly ,you do not need stats for that.

[zolayes 14,489]

Plus Ivanovic fails to cover for Luiz and track Siggaurdsson's run. Ivanovic is the main culprit for me. Not sure what Mikel did wrong, though.

took a long time to come up with that defence of Mikel ,,,Of course you can NEVER see anything wrong with his play ,,,You should

go to Spec Savers

[Sovieticus 743]

Love the quote:

Conceded a goal? Blame Mikel nooooow!

[Phil Driver 503]

If you are sitting back and letting the other team dominate they will create chances and then when we do gain possession it it results in a slow sideways pass they will recover their shape,if like in the second half you are pushing them back and you are attacking you will dominate and create chancesand their defenders will look slow and will be at fault.

You can't sit back and defend and not expect your opponents to create chances to score and Spurs did and won the first half 1-0 and dominated.

You can blame anyone for conceding a goal ,but the fact is if you are defending deep and letting your opponents control the game they will create chances.

With Mikel we sit back and other teams create chances and when we do win posession we are slow and sideways,yesterday showed this emphatically and supporters should have learned a lot about our game ,we had a big problem in the first half ,the manager saw it and changed and it changed the whole shape of the game in one simple but obvious move.

Lampard and Ramires completely dominated the midfield in the second half because they engaged the Spurs midfield and made them look slow and this put us on the front foot and instead of us blaming Ivan for enabling them to create a chance ,Spurs were looking at their defenders to see who was at fault for the chances we were creating.

[The only place to be 11,313]

took a long time to come up with that defence of Mikel ,,,Of course you can NEVER see anything wrong with his play ,,,You should

go to Spec Savers

Be careful mate.

Yesterday his removal changed the game. After two good games, he went back to his old self and that's exactly what some people were worried about. Needs to pick himself up and put his heart into his next appearance.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Be careful mate.

Yesterday his removal changed the game. After two good games, he went back to his old self and that's exactly what some people were worried about. Needs to pick himself up and put his heart into his next appearance.

Fair point. He certainly wasn't brilliant yesterday, but I think people need to re-watch the moment involving the Spurs goal - it was Lampard who lost his man rather than Mikel. Nevertheless it was a sloppy goal to concede.

With Mikel yesterday, his withdrawal was more tactical than down to his own individual performance. There was space to exploit and Mikel isn't the man to facilitate that. So whilst I would would agree that he looked more like his "usual self" yesterday, his withdrawal was moreso down to the fact Mata was better suited to the match than he was himself.

I'm not exactly a Mikel fanboy but I do appreciate his contribution to the team - but I have to concede that, whilst he wasn't our worst player yesterday (I thought Lampard had a lackadaisical game in truth), he certainly didn't put in the same some of panache we've seen in the last couple of matches. Typical Mikel, really!

[zolayes 14,489]

I don't really have anything against Mikel ...he is a decent squad player my objection is against posters who can see NO faults in their favourite

players but are quick to denigrate others ,,not just mikel but we are seeing it with Mata Hazard and others ..yet Willian is universally dammed

after only arriving.

[The only place to be 11,313]

I don't really have anything against Mikel ...he is a decent squad player my objection is against posters who can see NO faults in their favourite

players but are quick to denigrate others ,,not just mikel but we are seeing it with Mata Hazard and others ..yet Willian is universally dammed

after only arriving.

Don't worry about it. Take a step back and you'll realise that there's only a few posters who consistently defend him whilst the vast majority of supporters view him how you do. It's easy to get sucked into the never-ending debate about him, but it's really pointless.

Praise him when he does well, criticise him when he doesn't and ignore the rest of the bullshit fanboys bring to the debate.