Welcome to the second edition of the Chelsea Roundtable, where we get a few contributors to give their view on important Chelsea matters.
As always, our old pal and trusty Community Leader Alan McGuiness is with us. And this time I wanted to get a non-Chelsea point of view too, so I caught up with Manchester United fan, Steven Ho.
I asked both of our contributors five questions and and not surprisingly their answers (and mine) vary and in some cases, totally differ. So without further ado, let's get going...
1. Has he done better than expected?
Salomon Gonzales:
Having arrived with huge reputation, I'd say he has slightly under-achieved.
He has been the under-study to the departed Makelele, ever since his move to Chelsea and Lassana Diarra, who was the original under-study, was sold to accommodate him. His positioning awareness as a defensive midfielder is far from what you'd expect a starting player at Chelsea to be.
However, we need to keep in mind that Mikel, prior to moving to Chelsea, was not a holding player. For his old Norwegian club and the U-18 Nigerian National side, he was used as an attacking midfielder. He was, if i remember correctly, voted the second best player in a U-18 tournament with Nigeria. First place was taken by Lionel Messi, and it is widely believed that Messi was chosen as number one solely because Argentina beat Nigeria in the final. Either way, this goes a long way in showing what a real talent Mikel represents.
Having said all this, Mikel has been one of the shining lights at Chelsea this season. Frank Lampard aside, he has been the consistent performer in the side.
With this in mind, I am well pleased with the progress he has been making.
Steven Ho:
I don't think so. In fact I think he's failed miserably to live up to the expectations set for him when he first signed for the club. Of course, expectations always differ from person to person but we must remember that he was not only courted by Chelsea but also by Man United, so it's very probable that he was rated as one of the potential outstanding prospects in football.
And yet, in the two seasons he's been at Chelsea he's done nothing to live up to that claim. Based on the games I've watched, he's shown himself to be nothing more than an average player of average technical ability and average footballing intelligence. I have yet to see an outstanding performance from him that would warrant his place at a club like Chelsea, one of the biggest football clubs in Europe.
He's also popularly tipped as the natural successor to Claude Makelele—the man whose name is synonymous with the "holding midfielder" role—who left last summer. Yet he's so deficient in the qualities that made Makelele the great player he was. He can't hold the ball well; he can't defend well; he lacks intelligence, anticipation; and he's not a great passer too.
And you know what? People talk about Berbatov being a lazy player, but if you really watch Mikel in games you'll realise that often he's one of the most static players on the pitch.
All in all, based on what he's produced so far I feel only the staunchest Mikel fan would say that he's lived up to, or exceeded, expectations.
Alan McGuiness:
I'd heard a lot of hype about him before we signed him so my expectations were quite high. He has lived up to them. I've always been a big fan and defender of him and I feel that now he is showing that my stock in him is high for a reason.
2- Does he deserve all the critisism that come his way?
Salomon Gonzales:
No players are perfect and they are all rightfully critisised when they put a foot wrong. The other week Chelsea were detroyed 3-0 by United, but John Terry hardly put a foot wrong all game. Still though, he had to shoulder some of the critisism that came his way simply because he is a football captain. Being critisised is part and parcel of being a footballer, so in that sense, he deserves some of of critisism that comes his way.
The level of critisism thrown at him though, I feel is a tad unfair.
"He can't pass to save his life", "He can't shoot to save his life either", "He doesn't know how to tackle".
These are some of the critisism that is hurled at him week after week. Granted his passing isn't up scratch, but how do you expect someone to produce a great pass or a killer through ball when every single time he is possession of the ball he has 2-3 players standing on top of him waiting for the short 3-yard pass? As soon as he gets hold of the ball Lampard, Deco, and Ballack all make runs towards him expecting a pass. Very rarely has he had the chance to move forward with the ball, and have the time to produce a good pass.
Yes he can't shoot but, quite frankly, he isn't meant to have shots at goal. His job is to protect the back four, and that's what he does. How many goals did Makelele score in his career?
To be fair, his tackling has vastly improved from previous seasons when he used to receive yellow and red cards on a monthly basis. Nowadays, since he has matured, he does not go ground that easily. Hence, rash tackles are eliminated. He still has some way to go though but he is getting there.
Steven Ho:
It's a bit absurb to say that he deserves ALL the criticism that comes his way, but obviously he deserves the ones that can be evidentially justified.
Like, for example, one of my biggest criticisms of him is that he has a terrible lack of concentration. We've seen it in numerous matches so far this season: Roma, Fulham, Man United, Arsenal, Blackburn, are just a few off the top of my head. But it seems to happen in almost every game, which is inexcusable.
Another criticism I have for him is that he's actually very poor technically. A lot of passes from him have been made to look good by his teammates, rather than being a good pass by itself. And he's also lost the ball numerous, and crucial, times simply because his control hasn't been good enough.
Just look at Roma's third goal in Chelsea's 0-3 away defeat, and how he gave away the ball so cheaply to Park Ji Sung in their recent 3-0 defeat to Manchester United; just two examples that perfectly illustrate how clumsy he has been in crucial matches this season.
Mikel is not being made a scapegoat in the face of Chelsea's recent poor form. The criticisms he's been receiving can be clearly justified and so, yes, he does deserve them.
Alan McGuiness:
A few seasons ago he deserved some of it, because he was rash with his tackling and did make a number of mistakes. He got a few needless red cards.
However, some of them were not red cards and his reputation began to work against him. But since then he has come on leaps and bounds. Nowadays he is much calmer on the ball and an overall better player.
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