Mikel Obi was one of the best young attacking midfielders after the 2005 Under-20 World Cup, but Mourinho altered his position when he joined Chelsea
Former Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho has revealed that he changed Nigerian international Mikel Obi to a defensive midfielder because the former Super Eagles star had the attributes to play in that position, Soccernet.ng reports.
Mikel was only second-best to Argentina attacker Lionel Messi at the 2005 Under-20 World Cup. He was superb in that competition and helped Nigeria to a second-place finish in the competition.
After the competition, Manchester United were interested in signing him, but after some drama, he ended up at Chelsea under the tutelage of Mourinho.
After his transfer to Chelsea, Mourinho surprisingly converted Mikel to a defensive midfielder. The former Super Eagles star then went on to play as a defensive midfielder throughout his stay at Chelsea. Nonetheless, he still played as an attacking midfielder for the Super Eagles.
Mourinho has now opened up on his reason for changing Mikel's position.
“I liked everything about Mikel. If you go through all the positional[defensive] midfield players that I have had during my career, there are lots of similar things,” Mourinho said on the ObiOne Podcast.
“Aside from Claude Makelele who was small, I had them all tall and physically strong. They also knew how to occupy space and they have what I call ‘the simplicity of football', which is fundamental in that position.
“The team needs balance, with or without the ball. A defensive midfielder needs to be humble in the sense that they recognize that the team is more important than themselves.
“With me at Chelsea, Mikel was a fantastic positional midfield player, very quick thinking, one touch, two touch, everything was simple, and the game was flowing.
“He was not a guy to win a race of 100 meters, but everything was fast with him on the ball and he understood the situation of the game.”
Mourinho's decision to play Mikel as a defensive midfielder eventually paid off, as he had a trophy-laden eleven-year stay at Chelsea.
To be honest defensive midfield relegated Mikel Obi football. All the world cup display of Obi went down the drain after joining Morinho at Chelsea. It was very unfortunate. Sure inside Obi, he will always regret his decision to join Morinho’s Chelsea.
mikel has won almost all the trophies in the game of football I don’t think he has anything to regret in his career as a professional.
truly I am not happy wit mourihno till now, he kill mikel Career and unknown to mikel
Let me tell you the truth, their are very few African that can do well in that attacking midfield for big teams. Mikel Obi played his real position at Chelsea.
Mourinho robbed Nigerian Super of proper services of Mikel only to benefit him and Chelsea.
The disaster called Mourinho still gloats on Nigeria’s injury.
I Definitely Agree With You Saka AND Those Who Think Obi AND Nigeria Was Robbed.
Mikel I Think Was Never Fulfilled Until His Time Under Di Mateo. Under Di Mateo He Played His Game. He Was Better AND Won The Champions League.
Mourinho, did that for his coaching career, not for the profit or prosperity of Mikel Obi as a footballer. And for posterity!
I Definitely Agree With You Saka AND Those Who Think Obi AND Nigeria Was Robbed.
Mikel I Think Was Never Fulfilled Until His Time Under Di Mateo. Under Di Mateo He Played His Game. He Was Better AND Won The Champions League.
This great coach robbed Nigeria and the world of the real Mikel. I also blame Obi and his camp, Ferguson(who Mikel had previously agreed with verbally) would not have converted him into a defensive midfielder, Scholes was already ageing. The matter went to court even.
It’s same kind of thing Mourinho was to do to Pogba, but Pogba refused and it cost Mourinho his job. Pogba insisted he wanted to be more attacking.
Oh my, the real Mikel was an attacking midfielder, a diadem to behold. Look he was clearly better than Messi in that youth World Cup where he won 2nd best to Messi. Mikel was the captain of his Norwegian team(as a teenager), Lynn, when Chelsea signed him.
Mikel was so good with the ball, that even when he was converted to a number 4 role, he eventually became one of the best in that role. It’s his intelligence! Such very intelligent guys can play almost anywhere.
If you tell Messi to play as a DM today, he would do it well. A section of Arsenal fans are saying Saliba should be tried as a striker. What they are actually doing is acknowledging his intelligence, great positional awareness and his ability to simplify things(like Mou said of Mikel).
It is good for Mikel’s health that he doesn’t ponder on what would have been, because if he truly does he probably will need help not hunt down Mourinho with a gun or something.
Mourinho’s huge accolade in coaching bamboozled Mikel and he abandoned his real identity. Oh come and see Mikel picking up red cards in his early days at Chelsea, one of those days he was almost in tears and yet angry at thesame time, he wanted to charge towards the referee but teammate Didier Drogba held back the young lad firmly, calming him and asking him to simply obey the red card.
This was a Mikel that ordinarily is a stranger to fouling people, he dribbles precisely, assists and scores. Many in England never knew this Mikel, if they did they will weep for him.
Well, kudos to him that even in his new role he was an important piece of Chelsea’s success at a time.
Whoever wants to blame Mourinho is entitled to his opinion but the truth is, Chelsea couldn’t have gone far in his career as a super regular in a team because he’s not that creative as an attacking midfielder. A lot of budding talents in his previous position. He would have been relegate and made irrelevant in a team. He achieved virtually everything as a professional footballer and lasted longer than expected.What a Mourinho saw as a Manager many did not see it. because if stiffer competition. The. He