Mikel John Obi

[Phil Driver 503]

And I think people need to watch the reasoning for our improved performance in the second half and understand how and why that performance changed and why Spurs will be looking at why our players were not being picked up ,you can blame everyone but Mikel for any goal we ever conceded ,but the fact is if you sit deep and are slow ,you will concede chances and if you press and are quick and bright ,the opposition will be asking why Chelsea players were not being picked up ,as we saw yesterday .

[The Skipper 20,593]

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.

Watch the build up to the goal and you'll see that Mikel was actually pressing to regain the ball.

Lamps lost his man and that's why they scored.

[Tomo 21,681]

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.

Same with Schurrle, he got fuck knows how much stick because people were paranoid he was some sort of devil forcing out KDB.

[Phil Driver 503]

Watch the build up to the goal and you'll see that Mikel was actually pressing to regain the ball.

Lamps lost his man and that's why they scored.

Watch the match and you will probably not see that in the second half we were pressing and dominating and it was Dembele and Paulinho who were losing their men .

If you are hanging back or being forced back you will lose the player you are supposed to be marking .

Ramires and Lampard dictated the game we didnt lose their players because we DOMINATED . Mikel was subbed as he was the problem and we dominated the game from then on .

[Strike 6,965]

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.

there will be problems though. Ramires has to start 100% of the meaningful games now.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

there will be problems though. Ramires has to start 100% of the meaningful games now.

He had to start 100% of the meaningful games before. Marco was in no way ready to play any big game unless we had injuries and were forced to play him.

[The Skipper 20,593]

Watch the match and you will probably not see that in the second half we were pressing and dominating and it was Dembele and Paulinho who were losing their men .

If you are hanging back or being forced back you will lose the player you are supposed to be marking .

Ramires and Lampard dictated the game we didnt lose their players because we DOMINATED . Mikel was subbed as he was the problem and we dominated the game from then on .

In that post I was merely commenting on who was the main culprit for the goal we conceded.

Mikel was substituted because of tactical reasons, it wasn't Mikel that forced the team to hang back - Mou clearly instructed and set his team up in that way; Ramires on the wing - Lampard and Mikel in the pivot is way too conservative. We were chasing the game and obviously Lampard is a goal scoring threat so he moved Ramires back in midfield and taking off Mikel was the logical move - I'm not disputing that we didn't dominate the midfield after this move.

[Strike 6,965]

He had to start 100% of the meaningful games before. Marco was in no way ready to play any big game unless we had injuries and were forced to play him.

Yeah.. That's true.

[robsblubot 3,228]

Watch the build up to the goal and you'll see that Mikel was actually pressing to regain the ball.

Lamps lost his man and that's why they scored.

That's not what bothered me. It after their attack got past mikel that he jogged back instead of sprinting. I did notice that and if u watch a replay u can spot him running back trying to get back into the action - just too slow.

Lamps was never about defending, but if mikel's job isn't defending then i don't know what it is.

I guess Mourinho also did not think much of what mikel was doing or not doing in the first half.

This is what I wrote on the match thread:

As usual I'm unhappy with Mikel's performance, yes his passing was mostly good but his defensive work not so much. I don't understand, for example, why he always jogs back when he's behind the line of play; he should've been sprinting to get back and try to help as soon as possible. An additional man in the box could've prevented the passing and Spurs goal.

[Phil Driver 503]

Yes it is Mikel who forces the team to hang back and you cant dispute the fact that we dominated the midfield after his removal .

Jose said he saw the problem in the first half and he changed the problem and the game,the problem was Mikel ,nobody else.

His removal meant that we did not hang back and the result was Rammy and Lampard engaged there midfield and we dominated and they failed to pick us up ,we only managed this because Mikel was removed for hanging back and Ramires supported Lampard in taking the game to Spurs .

it was blindingly obvious . If you have one of your two midfielders hanging back the other one becomes isolated and the opposition dominate ,yesterday showed this graphically . Jose said he saw the problem and he changed it and we were much better . We took the game to them and they had to hang back and were not picking us up,Mou did not clearly set us up to hang back and let Spurs dominate . The midfield was only conservative as you put it ,when Mikel was part of it . You do remember how poor Rammy was in the Fulham game? There is a theme here and that is whoever plays with Mikel will struggle .

[Dylan_91 90]

I think the main reason the game changed was because we moved Ramires back into the middle where he belonged and we brought mata on. Think it would have had the same effect if he took lampard off and I'm sure Jose knows that.

[Dylan_91 90]

I think the main reason the game changed was because we moved Ramires back into the middle where he belonged and we brought mata on. Think it would have had the same effect if he took lampard off and I'm sure Jose knows that.

[Dylan_91 90]

Sorry about double post

[Phil Driver 503]

How could it have the same effect ?

The effect was only achieved because he took Mikel off . Any other effect is surely a fantasy? that is impossible to be sure about ,I am sure Jose knows that ,the only effect you can be sure of is the effect Mikel had on the first half and the effect he did not have on the second half.

The Ramires / Mikel combination would still have seen Mikel sitting back and doing not a lot ,right ,otherwise why didnt Jose take Lampard off and blame him for the problems we had in the first half answer - because the problems were caused by Mikel hanging back and playing very slowly in a high tempo London derby which allowed Spurs to dominate our midfield with Mikel on the pitch.

[Dylan_91 90]

At no point has Jose blamed mikel, you've just made that up. Recently Mikel has been given more freedom and hasn't just been sitting back. Did you see the ball he played over the top to Torres in the first half? If Torres controlled it he would have been through. In my opinion lampard didn't do much and was no better than Mikel in the first half. Jose just had to take one of them off so we could have Ramires' energy in the middle. I'm guessing he kept lampard on because he's a goal threat.

[Stats 6,982]

At no point has Jose blamed mikel, you've just made that up. Recently Mikel has been given more freedom and hasn't just been sitting back. Did you see the ball he played over the top to Torres in the first half? If Torres controlled it he would have been through. In my opinion lampard didn't do much and was no better than Mikel in the first half. Jose just had to take one of them off so we could have Ramires' energy in the middle. I'm guessing he kept lampard on because he's a goal threat.

This. He did not take off Mikel because he was bad. He done it because he wanted to chase the game and yes I don't think anyone acknowledged that brilliant ball he created for Torres in the first half. Thanks for picking up on that. Said it last week but his long range passing is fantastic. Shame Torres could not finish it off.

[Phil Driver 503]

At no point has Jose blamed mikel, you've just made that up. Recently Mikel has been given more freedom and hasn't just been sitting back. Did you see the ball he played over the top to Torres in the first half? If Torres controlled it he would have been through. In my opinion lampard didn't do much and was no better than Mikel in the first half. Jose just had to take one of them off so we could have Ramires' energy in the middle. I'm guessing he kept lampard on because he's a goal threat.

You seem to be quite good at guessing . No he did not have to take anybody off ,he took Mikel off ,

[The Skipper 20,593]

Yes it is Mikel who forces the team to hang back and you cant dispute the fact that we dominated the midfield after his removal .

So Mikel is the player that decides whether all of his other team mates should hang back?

So you don't think Jose instructed the players to play conservatively in the first half but rather that it was Mikel that was telling all the players to sit deep?

Didn't know Mikel was responsible for how the team's set up. Oh well. You live and learn right?