A40: Schalke are completely out of it. While we are hoping the Bundesliga 'idol' performs a miracle Leverkusen as useless as they can be were a CL team prior to his arrival
Fingers crossed Wolfsburg or Gladbach can squeeze through
The other Idol Papa Djibiti is collecting his own shellacking as I type 5-0 already
gykes: Bro, I'm a Rivers man and a proud Ikwerre son... In as much as I would love to learn the Yoruba language, but for now, could you translate what you wrote in English?
Means
You called a man. When we call the name of a brave warrior we strike the sword on the ground in honor of him
gykes: I have heard yarns of his exploits and campaigns during the war and even that of General Benjamin Adesanya Maja Adekunle "The Black Scorpion". These two where the real heroes of the civil war.
Okunrin lo pe. Bi a ba pe ori akoni a fi ida lale gaaraga
Ibime: I thought you said we lost because our attackers couldn't finish and it was nothing to do with midfield? Now you are saying Guus should have bolstered the midfield. Oscar is not more defensive or more hardworking than Willian, and more importantly he will lose the ball and invite more pressure. In no world does Oscar bring more stability to a midfield than Willian. I agree with the last point. Matic was the best bet to add more solidity to the midfield, and hope to nick a goal.
Fat has covered your retina. Read the post below
Nihilist: PSG's midfield yesterday was Rabiot-Motta-Matuidi
That's 3 defensive midfielders. Motta is 34 and as slow as or slower than Mikel. Rabiot is a benchwarmer that has started less than half Of PSG's games this season. I think Matuidi is a very good player but our midfield oga here once said that he only a slightly better Ramires.
Anybody that watched that game without bias would have noticed that PSG's midfield was just as bad.
How many times did Willian and or others steal the ball and run unchallenged through the midfield to their box 18?
Just before halftime we wanted to kill them sef.
This game was lost for 3 reasons in my opinion
1. Tactical - PSG played 3DMs in the middle of the park vs Fab-Mikel and will always have the numerical advantage there. See the way those guys were playing rough, and if not that the ref was an oloshi, they should have chopped red very early in the game. We essentially played 1 DM versus 3 specialists and we're blaming Mikel?
2. They simply had to be better attack. We had almost as many chances as PSG but we just couldn't convert.
Ibra-Moura-Angel are better than our attack. That's just a simple fact. That game could have very early ended in our favour. When Costa left we didn't even know where the post was again...and Luiz was just bullying Traore like a schoolboy.
^^ Though both Ibime and Nihilists are weedhead but for this week nihilist igbo is better. Ibime just dey smoke nonsense
Hindsight is 20/20 but I think vs PSG you need workers who are ready to fight all game given that PSG dropped Pastore and Cavani and played with 3 battlers in midfield and 2 runners in Di maria and Moura you cant have players just faffing around
nonsoroyalty: Samuel Eto’o: "I have always done well, the only explanation is that perhaps the black men in that club (Real Madrid) were not loved.” "I was not quiet. When I was 16 and I was in the Real Madrid cantera nobody respected me. My comrades, even, I do not even greeted." “They (at the Real Madrid academy) treated me like I was the last to arrive, despite the many goals I marked it."
I hate this racism stuff that Etoo always raise everytime
In Barca he said it was racism that made him sold, In Madrid it was racism too
Pepe is black, Marcelo Madrid vice captain is black, Varane is black, Danilo is black Casemiro is black
nateevs: I am with Ibime on this one and even with the goal in question and everyone knows I am not a Mikel hater. I am just being objective on this one.
Watch how Mikel slowly recovers from marking Verratti. The problem was that he didn't spot the danger and realise that Di Maria, at the very least, had free 10 yards to run at the back four. With a little more verve, defensive tactical awareness, decisiveness and pace (which is the koko here) Mikel, truly could have zeroed out the space in front of Di Maria, despite being in front of Verratti only moments ago.
This is not to say other players do not share in the blame but you can see how that move develops and how Mikel could easily have made the choice difficult for DM.
The problem here is that, I have seen that slow recovery happen 100s of times before and consequently, it is not wrong to criticise Mikel in this instance, again.
Mikel was marking Verrati. There were only 4 PSG players in your half and 8 Chelsea players. What were the other 8 doing while Mikel was marking Verrati?
Di Maria went towards Rahman and still roamed midfield and the other players were doing what exactly?
When Di Maria played the pass Cavani was with Chelsea 4 defenders who were all glued to the ground or were they waiting for Mikel to also go and chase Cavani too?
Every instance Mikel was marking someone, who were the other players marking?
Ibime: You started this conversation telling us there was no overload in midfield and we lost solely because our sttrikers fluffed chances.
Now you've spent your last few posts telling us that we were overloaded all over the park and Mikel is having to cover too much.
sleekdot: Ibime could it be that Mikel was paying attention to the black DM in PSG
His name skipped me
WHile expecting Willian to track Rabiot
PSG played 3 DM yesterday you cant expect Mikel alone to track all of them
This was my first post on this topic
Which is it?
BTW, is 7 seconds too much to ask for a central midfielder to cover a 5 metre space? Mikel knew Di Maria was his man and accepted the responsibility. 7 seconds later he is still 5 metres away. Was Di Maria sprinting?
In 7 seconds most players can run from box to box, but Mikel the escorter cannot cover 5 metre space to a player who isnt even running.
Why should Mikel be the one to track Verrati and also in 7 seconds also be challenging Di Maria, what are the job of the other 7 people on the team?
Ibime: Mikel left Veratti and started tracking Di Maria from 6:33.
Di Maria played his pass at 6:40.
7 second recovery run and he jogged 15 yards.
He is still recovering now. Infact he needs 1 full minute to transition from one phase of play to another.
They don't call him Mikel Slowbi for nothing.
Mikel was the one on Verratti, he is also supposed to be the one on DiMaria 7 seconds later. What exactly is the job of the other 9 teammates?
Watching the 2nd goal yesterday sef. A pass came from the left, towards Rabiot, Mikel went towards Rabiot but Rabiot missed so the ball went to Motta. Mikel had to change direction from chasing Rabiot to chasing Motta and before he could get to Motta the pass had already een released
Thats why I asked what is the job of the other players on the field if Mikel is responsible for chasing everyone and the other players are just expected to hang out on the field
Ibime: Thanks for the screen grab which highlights the highway that Mikel gave Di Maria to turn, lift his head and pick his man under zero pressure.
Now Focus. I'm talking about Mikels incompetence here, not Ivanovic. Ivas incompetence does not excuse Mikels.
If that is Javi Martinez or Ngolo Kante, does Di Maria even get opportunity to trap that ball? Therein lies ypur answer
Mikel was recovering from the left while Di Maria was already checking into the middle with no one following his run
Before Mikel could get into Position DiMaria already trapped the ball and threw the pass
If Javi Martinez or Kante was on the left wing while DiMaria ran to the middle their teammates would have stepped in to cover for them since they know neither Martinez nor Kante is a omnipresent to be everywhere all the time
PSG had 4 players, CHelsea had 8 players plus keeper 9. thats more than enough to do 2 Chelsea players per PSG player but you ignore the other 7 players and chose to focus on Mikel
This is a screen grab of the time the pass was released and you honestly think theres no one who deserve the blame other than Mikel
Your 4 defenders couldnt track the run of Cavani yet na Mikel you go blame
PSG had 4 players, CHelsea had 8 players plus keeper 9. thats more than enough to do 2 Chelsea players per PSG player but you ignore the other 7 players and chose to focus on Mikel
Ibime: Fabregas was on Ibra. That is the difference. Ibra had to do a skill to buy 3 yards from Fabregas.
What did Di Maria have to do to get 5 yards from Mikel? Mikel was busy running in treacle.
If that is Javi Martinez or Ngolo Kante, does Di Maria even get opportunity to trap that ball? Nonsense!
Thank God you noticed Baba passed Di Maria on to Mikel. He did the right thing. It is not Babas job to follow Di Maria into central midfield anymore than it is Mikels job to follow Blaise Matuidi into his own half.
Mikel was just coming from the left wing. Di maria was on the right and drifted to the middle
What were Ivanovic and Cahill looking at that Cavani made a run beside them and they were caught flat footed
Ibime: In Paris: 1st goal - Lucas breezes past Mikel leading him to foul. Ibra scores Now watch the 2nd goal. See how Di Maria drops 2 yards from the snail Mikel, and the snail gives him 3 seconds to chill, lift his head and play in Cavani for the 2nd goal.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLhNrGapXWg All 4 goals in this tie has his incompetence involved in it. Can you imagine Di Maria having such leisure on the edge of our box with any decent DM marking him?
2nd goal that you posted here
Mikel was just coming back from the left side of the field while Fabregas that was supposed to stay on Zlatan was easily dispatched
Baba rahman was tracking Dimaria but also dropped off
Is it that other 9 players have no responsibility on the field and everything revolves round Mikel?
When Mikel was not playing earlier in the season how many games were you winning
Ibime: Thats why I said I wish the clip started 2 seconds earlier.
Matuidi is the attacking midfielder. No such thing was happening.
If that is the case and Matuidi started a run from his own half, do you expect Mikel to be within 20 yards of him by the time Matuidi enters Chelsea box? He no get sense?
How can you claim to be playing 4-2-3-1 and the DM expects the No10 to be the last man in midfield chasing someone from behind?
DM is a position on the pitch, not a detail to follow the opposing attacking midfielder into his own half.
I don't know of Makelele finding himself in such a position. Have you seen Maka following Iniesta into his own half before?
You should always run into the DM if you run in a straight line from the halfway line, unless it's a counterattack.
Every team member in Chelsea is expected to do their part
Mikel cant just sit down in the DM area of the field and not track his man. So what happens when AM goes to the wing to double team the full back?
Should Mikel just sit down in his DM position on the pitch and act like it doesnt concern him?
The space doesnt hurt teams its when players occupy the space that it hurt. Thats why a defender can play a high line because no opponent is occupying the space