nelson abeg shut up, what logic do you need. mikel and haruna plays in the same position, but haruna is better. all these igbo boys don't want to admit that haruna is far better than mikel because they think he is full hausa, by the way haruna lukman mother is from south east his igbo name is ifeayi.

haruna deffinately, the guy plays with passion, honestly i dont mikel is a passionate player, especially when playing for the national team, he is just ok, and will probably never rise above that

c'mon all mikel haters. take a close look at those matches that nigeria wins or plays well in , one constant factor is the fact that mikel was oustanding inthose matches. lets face it, he is d heart of the nigerian team.

chidichris:

@purestboy,
after scoring 7 goals in a season, what did he win at the end of the day? is football all about the team or about the individual? chelsea is such a club that players are restricted to certain duties and if u are a soccer follower, u will know that chelsea break a lot of histories this just concluded season including highest goal scored in a season by a coach hence i tell u chelsea did not lack goal scorers.
how many strikers are in arsenal and how many goals did they score? the achievements of a defender is never determined by how many goals he scored rather how many that were scored against him and that is why your vermalean can never win best defender because his home is not protected while he goes for goals.
it is good that nigerians are not praising mikel because we are too slow in reasoning and very very retarded as a people to know the difference between good and bad. no wonder no nigerian is a coach and no nigerian is a referee. we lack good sense of judgement.
ask haruna tomorrow and he will tell u his dream is to be like mikel.
can haruna wear chelsea jersey talkless of benching ballack the german captain?
where can haruna play in english league.
haruna has 10 yrs of steady progress to get to where mikel is.
at the moment, only one nigerian player can play in chelsea and his name is mikel.
chelsea is a star studded player team hence playing in chelsea takes another dimension in ppl's soccer life.
with all haruna's goodness, how much is he earning at the end of the day? why is his face not being used in all big adverts concerning this world cup and other big boys adverts?
haruna is a good player but his main problem is that bhe forgets himself at the middle of the game. he tries to be over stylish that on two differnt occassion during the under 20 world cup, he lost the ball to our oponents and the end product was goals against nigeria.
how many clubs will u mention before u mention monaco in the european clubs and how many will u mention before u mention chelsea.
my prayer is that haruna grow up to be like mikel that plays in a big club and earn better money and at the end of it all win trophies.

finally, mikel is the most popular nigerian and haruna is not and u can check this up on this forum by the number of topics on mikel's name and that of haruna.
from the way things are going on with this mikel's comparisms, soon, we are going to compare mikel with tuface idibia or mikel with pete edochie.

anyways, that is always the case with a super star.
mikel don dey more popular than our president.

Dude did you just type all that BS out. ?? I can bet you are prolly with Mikel sucking on his Nuts. . . . . Wtf!

deene:

c'mon all mikel haters. take a close look at those matches that nigeria wins or plays well in , one constant factor is the fact that mikel was oustanding inthose matches. lets face it, he is d heart of the nigerian team.

like the match vs north korea?

o boy u just want want to be noticed. what stupid thread is this? who is Haruna? Mikel has a permanent shirt in CHELSEA (one of d best teams in the world) and u r comparing him with some guy who's playing in lowly monaco. close this thread, daft

how many long passes have u seen from haruna?

Forget abt scoring goals what abt the numerous assist,so u dnt count those ones.
For mikel,he's good in passing the ball wt those long accurate passes and he cn mark well too,his problem is nt bn attack minded and he usually slows down d pace of the game wheneve we need to increase the pace of the game.
Haruna cn score more goals and he's attack minded,he moves d ball fowards,no dull game wt hm and cn shoot when in position to do so. His undoing is his bad tackling that cn earn us a red and he gets most of hs passes incomplete.
Conclusion,they are both good bt mikel should be playing behind hm for a beta performance in subsequent competition.

U will never know the importance of what u have,until u lost it.Now that Obi is out,lets jst wait and see.

mikel is the most popular person on nairaland.
everybody wants to talk about mikel and practically everybody has been compared to mikel.
mikel is a very big boy.
i know haruna is dreaming to be like mikel.

chidichris:

mikel is the most popular person on nairaland.
everybody wants to talk about mikel and practically everybody has been compared to mikel.
mikel is a very big boy.
i know haruna is dreaming to be like mikel.

I like that.

I think Haruna has the potentials to be better than Mikel and more useful to Nigeria looking at the matter purely on the basis of who , out of the two , has the natural talent to be a match winner/changer.

If Nigeria is struggling and looking unlikely to score , not many would instinctly expect any offensive urgency or match-winning magic from Mikel. Meanwhile looking at Haruna, when he has played for club and Country, it is obvious that the lad is effective offensively as , unlike Mikel , he is always looking to drive the team forward while getting into a position to threathen goal himself like Paul Scholes does so effectively for ManU to the extent that many will always regard him as a better midfielder than Michael Carrick even as they have different midfield roles.

Haruna is also capable of getting goals himself from open play or from dead ball situations. Many may not know it but Haruna takes mean freekicks .Till today I remain dissapointed at how , for a tall lad, Mikel is so bad at heading a ball to the extent that he is almost a zero goal threat from the air when , as per his height , he should at least be useful if not spectacular !!!!

Overall , IMO, Haruna (considering what the SE needs the most right now) will probably be a better player for the SE than Mikel in future because , as we have seen from two ANC's , we will only go so far in tournaments without creativity drive and potency through the middle.

I am not knocking Mikel at all , as I believe he will remain a good player for the SE, but no one can deny that we have become a dull, slow and low scoring team no one fears anymore. I am excited at the prospect of Haruna maturing as a player because of the much needed added dimension he will bring to our game. Obi does not seem to have improved much over the years and to be honest , if push came to shove, Ayila or Etuhu could deputize effectively for Mikel if he is absent. If Haruna , on the other hand , goes on to become what we are missing badly , i.e a creative midfielder capable of making and scoring goals, he will soon become indispensible to Nigeria as Okocha was at the heights of his potency . He will then be regarded as a better midfielder than Mikel.

U will never know the importance of what u have,until u lost it.Now that Obi is out,lets jst wait and see.

How come we played the Olympics finals despite Mikel not being there?

All of you anti-Mikel shut up now!!!!. Who are you. All the world best coaches has descibed him as visionary & fantastic. Once again, who are you?

Ltrust:

All of you anti-Mikel shut up now!!!!. Who are you. All the world best coaches has descibed him as visionary & fantastic. Once again, who are you?

Why must some of you make out as if everything is war and "us against them" ? We are all Nigerians analysing our various players with a look at their strenghts and deficits . The French and the Brazilians do it also .  If Haruna has the potentials to be better than Mikel then that is something for all Nigerians to celebrate because we have all seen , beyond doubt , that  Mikel does not appear to have the natural talent to be the SE's main creative outlet.

Even Mikel , if he is highly proffessional and patriotic, will welcome the emergence of a player who can make us play better attacking football than he can. Will Makelele , in 1998 , have egotistically wanted two of himself in a France midfield or will he feel France eventually won the World cup because he had a creative maestro , in the form of Zidane, complementing his own work ?  Big ego , disunity and hero worship of certain untouchable individuals  is always a problem for Nigeria. How many players are older than Messi in the Argentinian team yet defer to his supreme talent ? It is the same for Wayne Rooney . He is one of England's youngest players yet he is the talent all of England is most reliant on !!!!

It is only in Nigeria you will hear that Mikel is superior because of age, experience and the fact that he plays for a bigger team than Haruna when we should be looking at the big picture in seeing the huge deficiency in our national game that Haruna might be able to address!!!

No Nigerian can claim to be happy with the Nigerian team of the past few years.  We were known for flair , panache and creativity in the past . Now we are just a dull, pedestrian , inneffective and low-scoring team that is terribly boring to watch!!!

Who does not want to see a change in our current playing style with a badly needed injection of creativity and cutting edge football in the middle of the park?  

Abeg we should start thinking of what is best for Nigeria instead of always look at national issues from a viewpoint of defending our heroes, ethnic group or stance.

Why must some of you make out as if everything is war and "us against them" ? We are all Nigerians analysing our various players with a look at their strenghts and deficits . The French and the Brazilians do it also . If Haruna has the potentials to be better than Mikel then that is something for all Nigerians to celebrate because we have all seen , beyond doubt , that Mikel does not appear to have the natural talent to be the SE's main creative outlet.

Even Mikel , if he is highly proffessional and patriotic, will welcome the emergence of a player who can make us play better attacking football than he can. Will Makelele , in 1998 , have egotistically wanted two of himself in a France midfield or will he feel France eventually won the World cup because he had a creative maestro , in the form of Zidane, complementing his own work ? Big ego , disunity and hero worship of certain untouchable individuals is always a problem for Nigeria. How many players are older than Messi in the Argentinian team yet defer to his supreme talent ? It is the same for Wayne Rooney . He is one of England's youngest players yet he is the talent all of England is most reliant on !!!!

It is only in Nigeria you will hear that Mikel is superior because of age, experience and the fact that he plays for a bigger team than Haruna when we should be looking at the big picture in seeing the huge deficiency in our national game that Haruna might be able to address!!!

No Nigerian can claim to be happy with the Nigerian team of the past few years. We were known for flair , panache and creativity in the past . Now we are just a dull, pedestrian , inneffective and low-scoring team that is terribly boring to watch!!!

Who does not want to see a change in our current playing style with a badly needed injection of creativity and cutting edge football in the middle of the park?

Abeg we should start thinking of what is best for Nigeria instead of always look at national issues from a viewpoint of defending our heroes, ethnic group or stance.

@Gbawe,
the keys words in ur statements are; if and will and they both relate to probability and future possibility.
we are all praying that nigeria get great players who will break records. kanu nwankwo has records on his decorations of which results are proving mikel to be running after those results. players play to win trophies and that is exactly what kanu did and mikel is doing.
let us pray that haruna start his own history but for now, he is yet to make a move.
the most funny thing about nigeria and nigerians is that they see white where others see black. who in the world of soccer has recognition for haruna at the moment?
if nigerians are saying u are good, it means u are not good. i will urge haruna to over-look nigerians and work himself out to limelight where great soccer men will recognise him.
if he based his accessments on the likes of 12large and co, he will end up been a nobody in football.
haruna has talents and i recognise that but he is yet to prove that to the world soccer men.
let us wait until a great coach finds him worthy of playing in a big club. let us wait till he makes himself available in the world market of soccer where talents meet talents. let us wait until that day he will have the guts to compete with established stars like mikel did when he said, I WANT TO PLAY IN CHELSEA not minding the world class stars on parade.
if and will can never be used as judgement terms rather we must point to achievements.
on the arrieval of mikel at chelsea, it was about red cards and the past two seasons has seen non for him so that is a great acheivement for the sensitive role he plays.
now every body is complaining about goal scoring,. what did mikel do in egypt and how many of our strikers scored more goals than mikel in egypt 2006?
let us not be as dumb as 12large and his group.
both players are nigerians, one has landed while the other is still trying to meet up.
lukman haruna can never accept monaco as his destination(god forbid). he must be working to get into world class clubs like chelsea where mikel plays, arsenal were wonder kids him him plays, man u where big guys plays, real madrid where established guys display, barca where style is the fashion etc but as long as he remains in monaco, he will continue greeting mikel with two hands.

for now i go with mikel. lukman might be better oh. but he is unproven

BrOwn*Suga:

The only reason why I regard this thread USELESS and every other anti-Mikel even more DAFT is becuase some of the best managers in the world of football (Mourinho, Scolari, Guus, Grant, Carloti, Wenger,  Ranieri,  and even Alex Ferguson including one of the few most richest people in the world Roman Abramovich today.) these people knows that John Obi Mikel is useful and can play or fit  in to the best football club in the world, Mourinho refered to him as a "Gold" from africa. so the idea of trying him down is useless if the best in the game think otherwise

My friend , we are not talking about club football here where Mikel is surrounded with some of the best talent money can buy !! We are talking , as Nigerians , about our national team . Mikel has not been able to cut it as our main creative outlet . I think , at the very least, the desire of several national coaches to turn Mikel into our attacking fulcrum , despite his defensive deployment for Chelsea, is partly responsible for our descent into pedestrian , dull , inneffective and low-scoring football that saw us not able to beat even minnows effectively in recent years !!! Nigerians , including Mikel, should support the emergence of a player who will make us play a more attacking style that will win games.

Yakubu, for example, has been waxing lyrical about how Haruna can transform the SE into a free-scoring side.  I doubt he has ever said the same of Mikel . Most Nigerians , including our players themselves , are happy that our attacking options have improved . Admitting Haruna's talent should not be taken as a criticism of Mikel because they are both Nigerian players working towards the same objective. They are both effective but one will be more important to the team than the other . That is football. If Haruna becomes the player that makes the difference between us winning and losing games then we should be happy about this because no one can look at Mikel and say that when the chips are down he will , with some magical play , galvanise Nigeria to victory like everyone expected with Okocha back then. It is about time we gained another Okocha-type player who will make others around him play better. That player is not Mikel but it may be Haruna.

chidichris:

@Gbawe,
the keys words in your statements are; if and will and they both relate to probability and future possibility.

I totally agree with you and I think that I have made it sufficiently clear that Haruna may be a good player for the SE while Mikel is already a good and established player for Nigeria.

Nonetheless , they are different players. We desperately need Haruna to be a good player for us because he is more of a missing piece to our football jigsaw than Mikel can be . Why do we think experienced SE's (and even the coach Lagerback) who have seen it all , like Osaze and Yakubu , are raving about this kid if , like the rest of us , they are not just immensely relieved that it seems as if Nigeria may have gained a midfielder who might be the attacking spark Mikel has failed to become ?

Yes Haruna is young and unproven but so was Messi. If the Argentinian went on to be the Worlds best player we can at least hope that Haruna , given his better attacking skillset compared to Mikel, can make the SE play effective attacking and winning football. As A Nigerian , I think Haruna is a better midfield prospect than Mikel because , in the end and even as every player is important , the most important player is the one you cannot win a game without. It has been a while since we had a match winning midfielder and game-changer and I think all Nigerians are aware of that hence the constant and desperate talk in the past of coaxing JJ Okocha out of retirement .

Not saying that Haruna will be anywhere near as good as JJ but he has more natural attributes to be a creative midfielder for us than Mikel has. I am glad Lagerback gave Haruna a chance instead of toe the path of previous Se coach who wanted to make Mikel an AM by all means.

Gbawe:

My friend , we are not talking about club football here where Mikel is surrounded with some of the best talent money can buy !! We are talking , [b]as Nigerians , about our national team .[/b] Mikel has not been able to cut it as our main creative outlet . I think , at the very least, the desire of several national coaches to turn Mikel into our attacking fulcrum , despite his defensive deployment for Chelsea, is partly responsible for our descent into pedestrian , dull , inneffective and low-scoring football that saw us not able to beat even minnows effectively in recent years !!! Nigerians , including Mikel, should support the emergence of a player who will make us play a more attacking style that will win games.

Yakubu, for example, has been waxing lyrical about how Haruna can transform the SE into a free-scoring side.  I doubt he has ever said the same of Mikel . Most Nigerians , including our players themselves , are happy that our attacking options have improved . Admitting Haruna's talent should not be taken as a criticism of Mikel because they are both Nigerian players working towards the same objective. They are both effective but one will be more important to the team than the other . That is football. If Haruna becomes the player that makes the difference between us winning and losing games then we should be happy about this because no one can look at Mikel and say that when the chips are down he will , with some magical play , galvanise Nigeria to victory like everyone expected with Okocha back then. It is about time we gained another Okocha-type player who will make others around him play better. That player is not Mikel but it may be Haruna.

Oh! its only in the national team now,lol interesting. by the way, who the f.uk is yakubu? what has he done for the national team as a striker?

If i understand you properly, you are trying to say that Mikel perform well for Chelsea bkos he is surrounded with talented players, and back to nigeria he doesn't play to your satisfaction becuase he plays with untalented eagles,lol interesting. In the world of football, you'll find players who do so well for there clubs and give nothing in return for there countries, e.g Messi, C. ronaldo.

SO?

I totally agree with you and I think that I have made it sufficiently clear that Haruna may be a good player for the SE while Mikel is already a good and established player for Nigeria.

Nonetheless , they are different players. We desperately need Haruna to be a good player for us because he is more of a missing piece to our football jigsaw than Mikel can be . Why do we think experienced SE's (and even the coach Lagerback) who have seen it all , like Osaze and Yakubu , are raving about this kid if , like the rest of us , they are not just immensely relieved that it seems as if Nigeria may have gained a midfielder who might be the attacking spark Mikel has failed to become ?

Yes Haruna is young and unproven but so was Messi. If the Argentinian went on to be the Worlds best player we can at least hope that Haruna , given his better attacking skillset compared to Mikel, can make the SE play effective attacking and winning football. As A Nigerian , I think Haruna is a better midfield prospect than Mikel because , in the end and even as every player is important , the most important player is the one you cannot win a game without. It has been a while since we had a match winning midfielder and game-changer and I think all Nigerians are aware of that hence the constant and desperate talk in the past of coaxing JJ Okocha out of retirement .

Not saying that Haruna will be anywhere near as good as JJ but he has more natural attributes to be a creative midfielder for us than Mikel has. I am glad Lagerback gave Haruna a chance instead of toe the path of previous Se coach who wanted to make Mikel an AM by all means.

@gbawe,
in the write up above, the key word is CAN indicating another probability. it is our dream to have another okocha or even someone who will be better and if it is haruna, glory be to God. but until then.
when did ppl starting missing okocha? at retirement i think? what were his achievements in our national jersey? no matter how good u are, u can't be good in nigeria and outside nigeria because we are very very devilish by nature. enemies of progress we are. let this much talked about haruna become what we are yieling for today, u will see this same group of ppl turning back to call him names.
u can look very good in this dry part of the world but who u are or what u are will be determined by those who sleep and wake up in the picth no natural politicians or forced kidnappers and high way robbers turn to soccer analysts that are parading themselves here on nairaland.
do u think haruna is not struggling to get to where mikel is in soccer?
my prayer to him is that he live up to expectations in this world cup so that great coaches will take him to big clubs where he can showcase his qualities and fans all over the world will have access to watching him.
soccer is an 11 man game and everyone must contribute to make things happen. no matter how great haruna is, he will not do it alone.
if u watched angola 2010, u will see many finished balls that fell for yakuba but he could not score so in such situations, haruna will cross the ball and score it himself.
mikel has gotten to the height where other footballers in nigeria are praying to be like him and that is exactly what i wish haruna and others who are trying their luck.
in today's football, every nigerian must tell u, attacking or creative midfielder, what about the other 10 players on the picth? maybe not important? my dear, soccer is made up of departments and everyone got to try to make it real.
if lukman is better than mikel, why is his face not in all these world cup star adverts?

chidichris is on mikels payroll

BrOwn*Suga:

Oh! its only in the national team now,lol interesting.

On a Nigerian forum and regarding the greatest football show pertaining to nations what should we be talking about/looking at if not Mikel's performance/efficacy for his national team ?

by the way, who the f.uk is yakubu? what has he done for the national team as a striker?

Yakubu is an effective player who has scored goals for club and Country. I think , at the very least, Yakubu is qualified to recognise a good offensive midfielder when he sees one considering that his efficacy as a striker relies heavily on the service he recieves froms midfield. He may not be your cup of tea (same as I am not too keen on him as a striker) but you cannot just dismiss his opinion.

If i understand you properly, you are trying to say that Mikel perform well for Chelsea bkos he is surrounded with talented players, and back to nigeria he doesn't play to your satisfaction becuase he plays with untalented eagles,lol interesting. In the world of football, you'll find players who do so well for there clubs and give nothing in return for there countries, e.g Messi, C. ronaldo.

SO?

Wrong !!!! My point is that Obi is not required to carry his club side on his back as he is his national side!!!  Obi does not play Lampards role at Chelsea because he is not deemed to be an attacking talent. Why should Nigeria , if not for a lack of offensive talent and ambition , persist in using a player who is a Defensive/holding midfielder for his club  as our main offensive threat when the player himself shows minimal attacking instinct?

Why can we not try and develop midfielders who are naturally attacking in style ?

Why can we not be happy at the emergence of a midfielder (Haruna) who seems happy , comfortable and able to effectively play the attacking role everyone thinks the SE needs badly?

I don't think we should hype Haruna unneccesarily but I think it is also important we recognise what he can bring to our currently mediocre playing style that Obi has shown himself incapable of delivering. Haruna ,going by the nonsense the SE have produced as football in the recent past, is far more needed in our midfield than Mikel IMO.

Anyway , na only one hour to kick off. Let us hope we have a better attacking plan than we used at the last ANC when Amodu choked our central midfield with defensive players .

some kind of quietness in da house. can somebody explain this pls.

chidichris:

some kind of quietness in da house. can somebody explain this pls.

lol

Lukman has shown why he is wayy better than Mikel Obi.

If Mikel were to be on the field today it would have been a disaster for us

[size=20pt]AFTER WATCHING TODAYS GAME IT IS CLEAR THAT WE DESPERATELY NEEDED MIKEL. NONE OF OUR MIDFIELDERS COULD HOLD ON TO POSSESSION, THEY JUST KEPT GIVING AWAY THE BALL. MIKEL IS THE CLOSEST PERSON WE HAVE TO XAVI OR SHOULD I SAY BUSQUETS.[/size] http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/02/08/when-will-john-obi-mikel-get-the-credit-he-deserves/

For further analysis of the match you should read this http://www.zonalmarking.net/2010/06/12/argentina-1-0-nigeria-tactics/

Lukman has shown why he is wayy better than Mikel Obi.

If Mikel were to be on the field today it would have been a disaster for us

@dayokanu,
there is every possibility that people told you how it went. i am not sure you watched the same game others did.
at the begining of the game, haruna suffered what i call stage tension as he could not handle the big stage. as the game progressed, he came into the game. his class was reduced with the experienced side.
like i said before the match, haruna is a good player working to get there.
if only haruna will reduce the styles and concentrate on the team.
did we see the kind of creativities most of us were rejoicing and jubilating over with the presence of haruna? if yes, how many goals did that produce for nigeria? if no, why?
my over-all rating for the team yesterday was excellent. they played with all commitments. if amodu had faced the argentine side yesterday, we wld have been 4 goals down in the first half.
we saw a coach who was uncomfortable with the result. we saw a coach who was worried. we saw a coach who went to the pitch side to pass instructions to his players and not a coach that will be hiding at the back of the bars.
we are improving, all we now is for the nff to give this kind of coach a long term contract that will give him time to build a team. that amodu i know is hanging arround for this man to finish the world cup for him(amodu) to come back for his birth right(national coach).

ME, just ME

now that the match of yesterday has forced this thread topic to an untimely death, it is left for another jobless mumu to start another mikel comparism and i do hope this time is going to be with a musician.
there is a possibility one mumu will start such comparism as; mikel vs tuface idibia, who is better despite not been in the same trade.

dayokanu:

Lukman has shown why he is wayy better than Mikel Obi.

If Mikel were to be on the field today it would have been a disaster for us

people just allow personal hatred for mikel dictate how they see matches. I somehow believe you either did not watch yesterday's match or that haruna did so excellently in the friendlies that he is still enjoying your goodwill. Haruna did not do badly but a mikel would have given the team a far better shape and would allowed the defence to settle better.