₦airaland Forum

Predicted lineup(4-3-3):-
----------------Enyeama---------------

Ambrose-Omeruo-oboabona-Echiejile

------------Mikel-----Onazi-----------

-------------Ideye(moses)------------

Musa------Emenike--Moses(ideye)

According to reports 4rm d training camp,the players were divided into two groups,team A and team B.
These are d players dat made up team-A.They played mini-matches against d rest of d players who made-up team B.
So definately team-A is likely d XI that would start against ethiopia.
But whats uncertain is who would play d no.10 role behind Emenike wether Ideye or Moses.
Moses may be d one to play there becos thats where he has been playing at liverpool.
If so,then ideye would play on d wings.
But those are d likely players to start

write2obi: Carrick was the best midfielder last season, and Carrick is 7 yrs older than mikel

Oga did i argue with u on that ?

omar22: Michael Carrick will still be a Chelsea because he has all the attributes thats keeping Mikel in the squad and he is more mobile than Mikel, he make more forward passes than Mikel.

Same thing i tought about mata.
Mata now works harder and tracks back even more than some players dis season,i tought dat would make jose to place him back were he belongs as a regular starter.But that didnt/hasnt happened.
No matter how good u are,no matter the qualities/attributes u have,if u dont play d way d manager wants,u wouldnt be a regular under him and u wont be vital.
You never can say "What would have been" ?

omar22: but why was Luiz moved into the midfield?

Note first:-Luiz was played in midfield ONLY 7 times in all competitions last season.Only thrice in PL matches,3 times in the europa league,Once in d Club worldcup.
Out of those 7 times,he patnered with Mikel 2 times(In d semi-finals of d clubworldcup and anoda match).
On 3 other occasions Luiz played in midfield when mikel had a minor injury(hip) where he was out for 2 weeks during march/april and Mikel was unavailable for selection(he wasnt even on d bench).
So in real sense Luiz was chosen over Mikel in Midfield only TWICE last season!!.

The simple reason Luiz was TRIED first in midfield by benitez was this:-
Luiz was a calamity in defence during dat period(november/december).He was the cause of a lot of goals chelsea conceeded.He caused goals by either misplacing passes in dangerous areas or always been caught out of position due to his indisciplined joining of d attack too frequently 4 a defender.
But still in those,his pin-point/dangerous passing abilities was obvious.
His ability to make defence splitting/dangerous passes 4rm defence attracted benitez becos his passing skills was really lacking in d chelsea midfield.
All 3 MFs Lampard,Mikel and ramires didnt/dont have d kind of passing skills Luiz had/has.
So benitez probably tought:-
"Why dont i try him out in midfield ??.His passing abilities could be more useful there.And even when he makes his regular mistakes/misplaced passes from midfield,it wouldnt prove so costly becos defenders would always be at his back 2 cover up,unlike when he makes those foolish mistakes 4rm defence".
Also the midfield department was tooooo THIN.With only Lampard,Ramires and Mikel.And games were coming thick and fast.Chelsea was playing 3 matches a week then.
So benitez(Mr Rotator) probably thought only 3 players in d midfield dept wasnt enough to do a constant rotation to prevent fatigue.
Another reason why luiz was put in midfield.

omar22: Carrick will keep his place, actually when Ranieri bought Lampard, it was Carrick Ramieri wanted but Lampard was wanted out after his uncle and dad was sacked by West Ham

And who told u that carrick would have gone ahead and be a vital player under every of d 6/7 managers dat came after??
You never can say what would have happened.
Lampard and carrick were never in d same class.
That lampard kept his place doesnt mean Carrick would have kept his place.Even benitez was benching lampard sometime last season dat d british media and fans criticized him 4 doing so.
Nobody can say what would have happened.

And when we say mikel has been outstanding THROUGHOUT this year 4 nigeria,some people look only at AFCON.AFCON matches werent d only matches dis year.
Confederations cup ??
Worldcup qualifiers ??.
They say nigeria have been doing well becos of TEAMWORK.
YES,but no matter d teamwork there must def be outstanding players.
Mikel didnt win the most valuable player at AFCON but he was given d Man-of-the-match award in most of our matches.
They could have as well given the Man-of-the-match awards to all d whole team becos of "TEAM WORK.
IMO nigeria's OUTSTANDING players dis year were:-Moses,Mikel and Emenike.
Moses and Emenike were absent for most times due to injury.
But mikel featured THROUGHOUT dis year and excellently,so he is definately NIGERIA'S MOST OUTSTANDING PLAYER this year.

Our U/17 recently won d worldcup.Their team-work was 10times better dan d super-eagles.
But definately there must always be outstanding player/players.And who were they ??.Iheanacho,Yahaya,Mohammed..

Spain won d worldcup by TEAMWORK,but who was d outstanding player ??
INIESTA

When we say Mikel has been outstanding 4 nigeria few of u dont agree and say its team-work lol.Some say nigerians are just bias to mikel.

Guess they havent read articles by various british/foreign journalists around d web about mikel's "outstanding" performance 4 nigeria dis year.Guess they are bias too.

elektra80: And ur point is? I am a man UTD fan and Michael Carrick is a vital player for man utd, but he is not a world class player, neither is he a squad player. Man Utd and Chelsea are 2 different teams with different styles of play. And yes Man Utd has the worst midfield out of the top 5 clubs in the EPL. But the way they manage their midfielders is different from the way chelsea does theirs. In Man utd, carrick is vital,(not a wolrd class though), in chelsea, Mikel is a squad player (Also not a world class). Yaya will displace both carrick and Mikel if he goes to either teams.

.

CURRENTLY,YES !!At the moment Mikel is a squad player at chelsea,and so is Juan Mata,So is de bruyne and d likes.
Doesnt mean they are bad players.
My point is that Mikel hasnt been a squad player THROUGHOUT his career like some people say.
Mikel was a very vital player under some managers.
Chelsea has changed managers about 6 times since mikel came to chelsea.
But can that be said about Man-U ?
Different managers come with their different philosophies.
One managers salad,might be another manager's soured egg.
Dont know about yaya,But if a player like Carrick had been at chelsea with all the constant sacking and replacement of managers,u cannot be sure that he would have been a vital player under every of d managers.

Micheal Carrick vs Mikel
Comparison of no. Of games STARTED in d PL per-season for Man-U and chelsea respectively 4rm 2007:-
2007/2008:-
Mikel=22 starts/Carrick=23 starts
2008/2009 :-
Mikel=33 starts/Carrick=24 starts
2009/2010 :-
Mikel=21 starts/Carrick=21 starts
2010/2011:-
Mikel=28 starts/Carrick=23 starts
2011/2012:-
Mikel=15 starts/Carrick=26 starts
2012/2013:-
Mikel=20 starts/Carrick=34 starts.

Looking very well at these anybody that says Mikel HAS ALWAYS BEEN a squad player all through his chelsea career should also agree the same for carrick.
Man-U is a big club.
Chelsea is also a big club.
Man-U players suffer 4rm injury.
Chelsea players suffer 4rm injury.

omar22: You are still ignoring stats and facts about the 2011 season

1 SEASON OUT OF HOW MANY ??.
The fact about dat season ??
OKAY here:-
AVB didnt fancy Mikel,he kept mikel on d bench for soooo long.He hardly even brought in mikel 4rm d bench.
But what happened ??.Chelsea had their worst ever run of results during dat period.Chelsea was struggling in Mid-table.
AVB was sacked in feb or march.
Di matteo was appointed.
Di matteo re-installed Mikel back into d Midfield as an Undisputed starter.And what happened ??
Chelsea won their 1st ever Champions league and won d FA cup.The season ended as one of chelsea's best ever season.
That was the FACT about dat season !.SIMPLE.

Wes Brown :-
2003/2004:-15 starts
2004/2005:-18 starts
2005/2006:-17 starts
2006/2007:-17 starts
2007/2008:-34 starts
2008/2009:-6 starts
2010/2011:-4 starts
2011/2012:-0
He started above 50% of man-U's games per season only ONCE in the 9 YEARS of his Man-U career.

elektra80: john oshea stats:
2002/03: 32 app
2003/04: 33 app
2004/05: 23 app
2005/06: 34 app
2006/07: 32app
2007/08: 28 app
2009/10: 15 app
2010/11: 20 app.

So with all these appearance for man utd, would u say oshea is a world class player? Definitely no, he was a squad player.

Lol I said STARTS !!.Even Kalou was making 32 appearances,but out of those appearances 60 % were from the bench.
Here are John Oshea's STARTS:-
2003/2004:-31 starts
2004/2005:-16 starts
2005/2006:-32 starts
2006/2007:-10 starts
2009/2010:-13 starts
2010/2011:-18 starts
He only STARTED more than 50 % of manu games in only 2 seasons out of d 6 yrs of his career.

omar22: Essien was ruled out for more than six months in 2008 when he sustained cruciate ligament damage in Libya does that answer your question



Michael Essien missed the most of the season from Dec 2009 to the end of the season

Yeah becos Essien was the only midfielder chelsea had.And essien was injured throughout d 7 years of mikel's stay at chelsea.
Injuries happen to all teams.
Wether d whole chelsea team was injured or not,
The fact is dat Mikel STARTED above 50 % of chelsea's 38 PL games in every season aside 4rm 2010/2011 season.
Not a definition of a "squad player" to me.

write2obi: The only serious suitors Mikel had was Gala, and like seriously is that the best Mikel can get?.

According to reports 3 clubs were interested namely:-
Monaco,Gala,Napoli.

write2obi: 1.
If being in a big club for a long time makes one a good player, then John O'Shea would probably have won the ballon d'or

Why is Mikel still at chelsea? Same reason why O'shea, wes brown, lasted at Man United, He is a valuable squad player.

Not just staying at a club for long.
I doubt O'shea or West brown were starting above 20 PL games per season for man-U.
West Brown was a very good defender.Injury was what CRIPPLED his career.

omar22: Makalele left at the end on the 2008 season, but Chelsea's midfield 3 were Essien, Ballack and Lampard, like someone said Mikel comes in to see out the game or used tactically in away games like When Gus Hiddink used had an extra man in the 0-0 game at the Nou Camp, Michael Essien had 2 major knee injuries which gave Mikel a long run in the team

U can only play a maximum of 38 games in the EPL per season.
2008/2009=Started 33 games,CAME 4RM THE BENCH ONLY ONCE.Missed only 4 games.
"Player that comes in to see out games" ?? Or 2nd fiddle ??.Dont know how.

2009/2010 Started 21 games CAME 4RM THE BENCH ONLY 4 TIMES.
According to transfermarket.co.uk,He was out for a total of 9 weeks that season and not available for selection.Afcon 6 weeks plus Minor injuries on difff occasions:-3 weeks.
"A player dat comes in to see out games" ??.
I dont know how.
I dont know how a player they say "comes 4rm d bench to see out games" comes 4rm d bench only 1-4 times per season.
Doesnt makes sense to me.
I might not be able to remember all chelsea's matches thru d years.But d records and statistics are there.

elektra80: He is a squad player. Someone that can take one for the team, someone to receive the blame when team is not playing well, someone that will sit on the bench without complaining. Every team needs a squad player.

Lol i just posted mikel's number of appearances and starts per season.
And that still reflects to u as a player that has been a squad player or someone that has been sitting/coming-in 4rm the bench all thru dese years ??.
Do squad players START majority(60-70 %) of their club's games per-season ??.
Dont judge by this season alone.
His apperance statistics are there,view them again.
I compared mikel's appearance/starts statistics with Lampard.
I discovered that Mikel made more appearances and started more games than lampard in about two seasons.
And in the seasons where lampard had more appearances and started more games than mikel,the difference wasnt dat much.
So by ur logic lampard has been a squad player for chelsea all through these years ??
The only season(aside his 1st season) dat mikel STARTED less than 20 games(thats about 50 % of games) in d EPL was d 2011/2012 season during AVB's tenure.AVB was d only coach that didnt really fancy mikel. (remember u can only play a maximum of 38 games in the EPL.
From my opinion of squad players,they hardly START more than 50 % of their club games per season.
Those are d likes of past chelsea players like Kalou,Zirkhov,Deco e.t.c
Man-U players Chicarito,Anderson,Cleverley
These players hardly started more than 50 % of their club games per season.Check their stats.
Thats my opinion of what a squad player is.

[quote author=CARLISTO77][/quote]Lol.This one no sabi anything.Oga go and learn and stop acting like u know what u dont know.They've tried to educate u but u remain ignorant.
Dont u know google ??.
Dont u know Wikipedia ??.
Search for what "Competitive match" means and what "Non competitive" match means.
No dey do over sabi.Educate urself.No dey fall ur hand for here.
Did that goal.com post tell u "Ideye's brace extends Eagles 10yrs unbeaten run in COMPETITIVE MATCHES" ??.
Nigeria last lost a match at home 10yrs ago against brazil(3-0).
Nigeria last lost a COMPETITIVE MATCH at home in 1981.
Use Google,Wikipedia or FIFA's official site to educate yourself on what a "COMPETITVE MATCH" means and no dey do over sabi.

I compared those appearance statistics with Lampard(the only midfielder that has remained all thru these years with mikel) and i found out that mikel even made more appearances and started more games than lampard in some seasons.

Here are all mikel's no Of starts and appearances all through the years in d EPL,apart 4rm his 1st season where he was only a learner(remember u can only play a maximum of 38 games):-

2007/2008:-30 appearances,22 starts.
2008/2009:-34 appearances,33 starts.
2009/2010:-25 appearances,21 starts.
2010/2011:-29 appearances,29 starts.
2011/2012 :-22 appearances,15 starts.
2012/2013:-23 appearances,20 starts.

If all the worldclass managers that have coached chelsea thinks/thought like you,then mikel wouldnt have made those amount of appearances and starts per season.
The only season mikel started less than 20 games in d EPL was d 2011/2012 season during AVB's tenure.AVB was d only coach that didnt really fancy mikel. (remember u can only play a maximum of 38games in the EPL
).

write2obi: Football has gone digital mahn!
*Goal keeper are now expected to be excellent in handling, shoot stopping, reflexes and even ball distribution
*Centre halves are now required not just to stop strikers, but also to play from the back, composed on the ball, bring the ball out of defence, with excellent pass accuracy
*Full backs these days, if you like stop Messi and Ronaldo combined together, if you can't attack and cross then your as good as a squad player
*winger are now required not just to cross but to also score goals and also track back and assist the fullbacks
*goals are now excepted from midfielder
*strikers are no longer judged solely by their goal return, but also their workrate, link up play, and ability to hold up play and bring others into play
*******
Makelele style is outdated.
Noni lemmie ask you one question?
Name 20 world class Central Midfielder, and tell me who still play the Makelele style among them

N*B Gomes is a better goal scorer than Manzdukic, but the former lost his place to the later, cos of Manzdukic's workrate and linkup play

Chicharito is a better scorer than Welbeck, but Welbeck is getting more game time than Chicharito, cos of his workrate, linkup play and being able to play from the flank

Its not just my opinion, Mikel is really an average player

Then if everybody thinks like u and agrees to your opinion:-
mikel wouldnt still be in a big club like chelsea till now.
Since mikel moved to chelsea in 2006,A lot of midfielders have been bought and off-loaded,but mikel still remains.
He wouldnt have been handed a new 5yr contract last year.If d club hasnt been satisfied with him,mikel would have been off-loaded long ago like others.
A stern coach like mourinho would have purchased d modern defensive midfielder u're talkin bout who can score and all(Chelsea have all d money to do so),and mikel would have been d 1st to be off-loaded by jose,either on-loan or on sale(Clubs like monaco,galatasaray were chasing him,but jose said mikel aint going anywhere).
Mikel wouldnt be playing important games for chelsea at all,just like essien.
I Know mourinho VERY WELL,if he is not satisfied with u and u're not playing d way he wants,u wouldnt even be playing AT ALL.Just like de bruyne and Essien at the moment.
Mourinho in an interview some weeks back said he is happy with the way mikel is playing.
Mikel isnt starting every game 4 chelsea at d moment,but i can bet with u its just 4 a short while.
You dont know football better than all d chelsea coaches that have rated mikel highly and have been an important part of their plans all through these years.
Thats why i said its ur opinion.
Doesnt mean ur opinion is RIGHT,neither does it mean ur opinion is WRONG.
Many would agree with u.
Many would also disagree.

elektra80: Accepted Makelele didn't score many goals in his Real Madrid and Chelsea Career, but no denying he was a very vital player. One of the best DM in his time. And yes there are not too many players like Makelele, Viera and Roy keane in modern football. Mikel tends to lean towards that category but is he really doing enough to be ranked among them?

Not yet but he still 26 and 4rm his performance recently(club and country),he is definately improving and can only get better.Even though he isnt a regular starter,his game for chelsea dis season has definately improved under mourinho.He now works harder and joins d attack more compared to before.And he makes brilliant passes forward.You cant say
Mikel has been a squad player in all 7 year's of his career.He was an undisputed starter under some managers.No club changes managers like chelsea.Different managers have their different philosophies and dats also d reason why a worldclass player like mata is a squad player under jose.
I can bet dat its just a matter of time,he(mikel) will retain his spot as a regular starter in d chelsea midfield becos lampard is obviously fucking up.Still has lots of great years ahead.Could turn out to be a better makelele.

@Write2obi Alright.Your opinion.
Everybody has different opinions about mikel.And everybody is entitled to theirs.
Mikel is a player that divides opinion among fans equally.
Thats not a new thing.
But Note:-Makelele only scored 2 goals 4 chelsea.
And I havent seen any modern DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER that plays as makelele did tactically.
Mikel aside compared to modern defensive midfielders(J.Martinez,Lucas,Busquet,e.t.c) Makelele wasnt known for bombing forward frequently.
No arguments Again !!

elektra80: Thank u very much bro. No doubt Mikel is a good player but he is not in the same level as Yaya. And people should stop using the excuse of him being a defensive midfielder to cover his inability to shoot. Essien was playing defensive midfielder when he was in his prime and he scored some cracking goals. Roy Keane, Patrick Viera, Makelele, Jarvi Martinez, Sergio Busquets.. are all deep lying defensive/holding midfielders but they stamp their authority on games and are not afraid to go forward and not forgetting their defensive roles. This is why Mikel is a squad player while Yaya is a vital player.

I ask again not for d 1st time:-
Who said Mikel is better or as good as Yaya toure ??
You can read thru d comments again 4rm page 1

And later dem go say these boys bi 35yr olds.

From what im seeing,If mikel eventually wins it,there is gonna be a lot of "transformer huggings" in nigeria.
Dem fit even fall sick.Haha.Lol.
Some nigerians fit even do fasting and prayers for mikel not 2 win it.
Na so e worse reach.SMH.

omar22: Chelsea fans are loyal to their players but they are not stupid...

Its like asking Chelsea fans to vote who is better between Torres and Messi!

Only a few Chelsea fans will vote Mikel over Toure anywhere in the world apart from Nigeria. It will be a landslide result

Lol did BBC ask "WHO IS BETTER" ?.Or did they say "VOTE FOR WHO IS BETTER"??.
If votes are open to every body to vote for the Ballon 'door nominees.I can bet that 70 % of chelsea fans would vote for Eden hazard no matter how undeserving he is to win it.Why ?
Becos hazard is their own.
Messi and d likes deserve to win it,but they are not theirs.
Many chelsea fans would rather vote for a chelsea academy player than to vote for yaya toure
Why ?.Becos yaya toure is not theirs.Wether he wins it or not wouldnt affect chelsea.But if their player wins,it would have a positive effect on their player(confidence and all) which is a good thing for d team in general.
You can click dat link and view d comments.http://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com /2013/11/12/5095072/vote-mikel-for-bbc- african-player-of-the-year
Majority of the fans say they've voted for mikel,some say they've voted multiple times.Same case in other chelsea fan-blogs.
Only 1 person says he'll vote 4 yaya.
And i am a member of dat site.Only about 2 or 3 out of those comments are 4rm nigerians.
I'll post links later of d "Vote for Mikel" on other chelsea blogs for u to read d comments.
Same on twitter,foreing fans are voting for mikel.
Not everybody is like u you know.
Not all chelsea fans are like u(thats if u really are a chelsea fan).
And not everybody is a mikel-hater like u.
Read other posts on that particular site and read the comments 4rm chelsea fans worldwide.
There are many foreing fans who really love mikel.

elektra80: As for Kotongo, he was the captain of the Zambia national team in AFCON 2012 and he scored 2 vital goals for them, he was outstanding during the 2012 nations cup, he was named player of the tournament. I mean there was no other player that really matched him and Yaya was not that outstanding in club football like he is now..

.
Lol just begining to read some of d wrongies u posted.
I think u lot are been awed and blinded by yaya's terrific performance dis new season which is ONLY 3 months old.The goals,d free-kicks and all.
Last season(2012/2013) was yaya's worst ever season in man-city.Not talkin bout trophy-wise but PERFORMANCE-WISE.
Take away dis new season that is ONLY 3MONTHS OLD.And judge his performance in d 2nd half of last season.Judge his performance 4rm January to mid-august,u'll get what i'm talking about.
2011/2012 was yaya's best ever season PERFORMANCE-WISE at City.
He was on hot FIRE then.
Compare his performance of last yr from January to december with that of dis year 4rm January to present(and not only dis new season dat is only 3months old).
His last year's performance was 10 times better than this year(Jan to present).
And u tell me Katongo who did well only in Jan/Feb last yr didnt have anybody dat matched him ??.
Lol.
U forget dat drogba who was on FIRE and was d reason To chelsea's champions league triumph was also nominated ??.And still Katonngo won.
I guess u didnt watch football last year.Drogba and Yaya had their best years last year.
Anybody that believes that Katongo deserved to win it ahead of drogba and Yaya toure last year should also agree that mikel deserves to win it dis year ahead of yaya.
Why ?
Becos Mikel's performance THROUGHOUT dis year was a lot better than Katongo's performance THROUGHOUT last year.
And yaya toure's performance THROUGHOUT last year was a lot better than his(yaya toure) performance THROUGHOUT this year.
If u dont agree then u aint judging rightly and U Just dont like Mikel.
FACT !!

electra80: The BBC award normally goes in favor of a player that performs exceptionally outstanding in AFCON if the award is given in an AFCON year.
.

Did BBC tell u dat ?.Dont say what u dont know.By BBC:-
"THE AWARD GOES IN FAVOUR OF THE CANDIDATE THAT HAS THE HIGHEST VOTES !!!!!!!.
As Simple as THAT !!!!.
All these "exceptionally outstanding" "AFCON" "CLUB" crap are just naive assumptions.
Gyan wasnt d exceptionally outstanding player at AFCON 2010.
Egypt's Ahmed Hassan was.And it was him dat won the player of d tournament award.

According to BBC journalist @Oluwashina "the player with the highest no. Of votes from fans wins it".
BBC's voting isnt d same as Big brother where it is counted based on country.
BBC even reveals the amount of votes each candidates got when d winner is being revealed.
Past winners had huge numbers like 200,000 votes,100,000 votes.
That shows dat d voting isn't done collectively by countries like d Big brother.
If 1 million nigerians vote for mikel,the 1 million votes will be counted and added to d rest of d votes 4rm other countries.
E.g if 1 million nigerians vote for mikel,
100,000 ghanaians vote for mikel
200,000 4rm d rest of africa vote for mikel.
Mikel's votes would be 1 million plus 100,000 plus 200,000
Total =1.3 million votes.
Thats how its done.And not d BBA method.

baby-boy:
Who the hell told you that, anyone from the 4 corners of the world could vote on line, last year Man City didnt advertised it on there website this year they did, Man City fans will vote in the thousands.

Well im not so sure of that.
And who told u liverpool and chelsea arent encouraging fans to vote for moses and mikel ??.
The official chelsea site only announced it,wether dey ENCOURAGED or not doesnt stop fans 4rm voting their club's player.But various chelsea-fan blogs are encouraging fans to vote 4 mikel.E.g here is one 4rm CHELSEA'S BIGGEST WORLDWIDE FAN-BLOG:-
http://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2013/11/12/5095072/vote-mikel-for-bbc-african-player-of-the-year
And i've seen d same in about 3 other fan-blogs.
So chelsea fans would vote in thousands too.
And remember the chelsea WORLDWIDE fan-base is multiple times larger than City's.

If BBC thinks Emenike did better than Mikel,then Emenike would have been nominated.But he wasnt.
IMO we won d afcon due to teamwork.
But there must definately be outstanding players no matter what.
Emenike,Mikel and Moses were nigeria's outstanding players IMO.
Its hard to say who was best among d three.
Emenike wasnt nominated,but mikel and moses were.
So i go for Mikel.