Saturday, November 1, 2008

MIKEL: I'LL KEEP ON GOING

Many individual performances will have caught the eye this season, but for a model of consistency look no further than John Mikel Obi.

The young midfielder has been a hugely steadying influence in the defensive midfield role, making it his own after injury to Michael Essien and the departure of Claude Makelele.

In addition, we have conceded just four goals all season, thanks in no small part to Mikel's shielding of the defence. The player himself is more than satisfied with his campaign so far.

'I am very happy with my performances this season and am going to keep going because it's important for the team,' he said.

'I'm 21 years old, and I know I have to keep doing what I am doing. It is so important that the manager has confidence and believes in me, knows that I will always give a good performance and hopefully I won't disappoint him and can keep on until the end of the season.'

With Essien likely to be missing until at least January, Mikel has become an automatic choice in the role, and he believes he is benefiting from playing under Luiz Felipe Scolari's brand of attractive football.

'It does help my game, I don't have licence to go forward like those in front of me, but I have to make sure I help in defence and help the rest of the team play well. We are playing well, so hopefully it will carry on.

'I am happy with everything, the goals we are scoring and the way we are defending. This season we are playing fantastic football, the manager gives some players a free role and looking through the team we have our balance and we are defending well, creating chances and scoring a lot of goals.

'If we keep doing that we have a very good chance of winning titles this year.'


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