#Brazil World Cup: 3Days To Go..... Can Mikel Shoulder Nigerians Midfield Responsibilty?

It's three days before the big kick-off with the opening ceremony and the world will see the host nation Brazil play against Croatia while Nigeria will battle it out against Iran on Monday the 16th of June in Arena da Baixada, Curitiba at about 8pm Nigerian time. Winning in first games especially at the world cup will be a huge boost for any team that must survive their group stage.
In Nigeria for instance ,what will determine our hope and believe in the Super Eagles will be when we see our midfield and other departments play so well. They must come with understanding, unit play, and enough tactical discipline.  Who will shoulder this task ?  That man must be tailored by Keshi to understand what it takes to be 'The engine room of a team'

I watched all the build up matches played by the super eagles en-route world cup .  I commend them in all the matches but i think they still need to improve especially in the midfield.I was looking for the sort of fight they gave at Nations Cup in South Africa and i haven't seen one for a team representing Africa as champions. I will love to see a Super Eagles that will take responsibility. We need a play maker and Mikel Obi falls in that category . Would we see the John Obi Mikel we saw at Holland U20 world cup? A player full of praises and admiration , so inspirational and fun to behold . Lets not forget that a holding midfielders primary role is to break up the opposition’s attacks and help protect a team’s back line by sitting in front of the central defenders and do not contribute as much to attacking plays. An ability to tackle is a key attribute. Most good teams have a player capable of screening the defense, acting as an insurance policy should the team surrender possession. What i loved about Mikel back then is that he did all the a fore mentioned and yet found the energy to advance even further made so many to score goals.What has happened to Mikel ? Its quite sad to see that all of that has changed a great deal , Possession like i have noticed will be super eagles greatest problem , why ? because of  in-activeness of our core anchor men. For lack of time i would only analyze Mikel Obi playing time  at Chelsea this season . It will help us to further understand the direction of my write up .

Mikel played 24 Epl games in 2013/2014 season. He scored one goal and one assist.
7  UEFA Champions League starts and got 3 yellow cards ,no goal , no assist.
2   England - FA Cup and 2 Capital one Cup game starts. I will love to say that  this is just statistics and shouldn't be a reason why any player should under perform especially when most players would love to use this world cup as an ample opportunity to send messages across to their various coaches and transfer markets. Would Mikel make use of it ? Can Nigerians see a different Super Eagles ? Lets see how it goes....    

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