Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel has revealed that Andre Villas-Boas wants the Nigerian to play a more attacking style this season and push forward more often than he has done for the Blues in the past.
In my opinion, Mikel is something of an underappreciated figure at Chelsea and has done most of his work in a deep midfield position in which he plugs defensive gaps, is economic with the ball and provides a link between the back four and the midfield.
But when he was a youngster he was never seen as such a defence-minded player, which has caused his international coach Samson Siasa something of a headache as he has argued that the Stamford Bridge club have misused Mikel and are guilty of drumming some of his natural attacking instinct out of him, which many believe to be down to the influence of former Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho.
However, Mikel has been getting into the opposition penalty area during set-pieces this season as Villas-Boas hopes the 24-year-old’s height can provide an attacking advantage.
Mikel told the club’s official website about Villas-Boas’ plans for him:
“That’s the role that manager wants me to play, to get in the box for set-pieces, and maybe that’s one way that I will get my goal.
“Hopefully if I keep getting to balls in the box then I will, I might, nick a goal or two before the end of the season.”
I hope he does, although he does plenty of good work for the team it would be nice to see Mikel add some goals to his game.
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IDK, I’ve never quite seenwhy we fought so hard to capture the boy myself. Don’t get me wrong, he’s OK, but he does what he does very slowly, has poor mobility, no pace and , last season, Ancelotti also asked for more attacking input from him, no? Sure, he meant as a kind of footballing QB but, still, the only evidence of anything other than normal was the away game at Wigan, iirc, where he actually looked to be making more incisive, vertical passes to better effect.
Sadly, we only saw occasional glimpses of this after that false dawn. Certainly the continued presence of Essien has meant fewer chances for J’obi but this season he has a clean slate and hasn’t looked anything like as aggressive with his passing or movement as ANY of the other players in the squad let alone fellow MFers. I just don’t know if he’s got the talent to be a creative player at Chelsea level and , also, doubt his concentration to limit himself to the holding role properly. Maybe he really needs us to play a 4231 and that insurance alongside him would let him express himself but as it is he’s caught between two stools and as a result unable to show the doubters whether we’re wrong, or not. Toughie-I like Mikel but just can’t see the talent others do.
Joobs. A 4-2-3-1 will suit him just fine. he has it in him but can only regain it if the coach allows him to by allowing players to alternate the holding role. two over lapping full-backs and a surging defender (david luiz) make risk taking impossible. plus he needs to work on his shooting and all round sharpness. to be honest i think its up to him, he needs to show more hunger to succeed, he seems unambitious..
Wat an anti mikel coment frm joab dnt 4get dis sean mikel is d 4 th on complete tackle dis season and has d mst complete pas last season
Mikel took up the role of Makalele while playin 4 chelsea & assume as the best defensive milfielder in england right now. i believe he will also be good upfront as well.
mikel wil score goals very soon…most of nigerians dont want him 2 score.they just want him 2 kip makin mistake so they wil hav som tin 2 talk about…please people leave dis boy alone. I love mikel and torres.. BLUES 4 EVA.
Whites will always hate black players, mikel is d best defensive midfielder in d pl
Dis guy so cal mikel is superb in chelsea midfield and defence as well, he’s da best best passer play a gud futball on da pitch and control da midfield.he wil surely giv da goal put ur trust in da boy.
what a bush shit for those that write negative comment about mikel. Let me tell u. You can watch any chelsea match without mikel is either we lose or conceded goals. Nigeria people, why cant you appreciate what you have i pity your understanding….
http://www.chelseafc.com
Mikel wel score goals if he play up-front i beliv in mikel ad torres up chelsea 4 life!!!
4 me personally i really lik mikel cos is doin great @ chelsea. I hop he wil b score as arsnal playmaker ‘song’ use to do.