Player Focus: Mikel Key in Chelsea's Rebuilding Process

The single biggest change that Guus Hiddink has made to Chelsea’s line-up since his arrival to replace Jose Mourinho in December has been the elevation of John Obi Mikel to the starting XI. Mikel has been a bit-part player for most of his 10-year Chelsea career, but Hiddink has started him in every league game since he arrived apart from his first - the 2-2 draw with Watford, in which he came off the bench. 

Hiddink liked Mikel in his first spell at Chelsea as well, starting 10 of his 13 league games in charge in 2008/09 when he came in as interim manager following Luiz Felipe Scolari’s brief reign. Notably, he missed the only two league games Chelsea didn’t win in that stint. 

Perhaps there is something nostalgic in Hiddink’s use of Mikel. As the great core that sustained Chelsea through the early years of Roman Abramovich’s reign despite the repeated changes of manager has been eroded with the departures of Didier Drogba, Frank Lampard and Petr Cech, Mikel is a reminder of how things used to be. He is the spirit Chelsea used to have. 

But Mikel also offers defensive discipline and reliability in a team that this season had lost it. There have been wobbles - most obviouslu in the 3-3 draw with Everton - but in the seven games Mikel has started under Hiddink - he started only two under Mourinho this season - they’ve kept four clean sheets. Nemanja Matic is not the figure of strength this campaign that he was last. Playing the two together has bolstered the Serbia international and has also freed up Cesc Fabregas to push forward. His form has improved as a result. 

Yet Mikel is an odd case. Although it’s widely perceived now that he is a holding midfielder, a limited player who operates within a very strict set of parameters, when Chelsea and Manchester United were squabbling over his signature when he was 18 years of age, he was seen as a midfield creator. His debut for Nigeria came at the 2006 Cup of Nations when he came off the bench and transformed a drab game against Zimbabwe, setting one goal up and scoring another in a 2-0 win. 

However, in the quarter-final of that same tournament against Tunisia, he operated as a defensive midfielder. Daniel Amokachi, the former Everton striker who was Nigeria’s assistant coach at the time, could barely contain his excitement. “He’s very confident and comfortable on the ball,” he said. “He’s unique. He’s his own style of footballer. He can play as the man in the hole, you can use him as a defensive midfielder and he can work easily on the left or the right.” 

There’s a perception in some quarters that Mikel lacks technical quality, yet he has a pass completion rate of 89.3% this season, the second highest figure in the squad, behind only John Terry (89.9%). That might suggest a series of short simple passes to more creative players - and there is certainly an element of that, which is fine because that’s part of his job - but he averages 2.1 long balls per game. It’s not all simple sideways stuff.

2.2 tackles per game and 1.2 interceptions per game are not huge figures - both lower, for instance, than Matic’s (2.8 and 2.1 respectively), but that, in a sense, is testament to his positional awareness. That, in part, has been Mikel’s problem all along. Since Mourinho decided he was a holding player, his contribution is an often invisible one: he does not make big hits or sliding challenges. He just *is* in the right place at the right time, a breakwater slowing the force of attacking waves before they can crash into the back four. 

It may be that when Chelsea emerge from their slump and start looking to take the game to the opposition again, that Mikel fades once more from the picture. For now, though, he is a key part of their rebuilding.

How important has John Obi Mikel become for Chelsea under Guus Hiddink? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below