Why I converted Mikel to a defensive midfielder – Mourinho

Legendary Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho has explained why he decided to convert former Super Eagles star John Obi Mikel to a defensive midfielder at Chelsea.

After a contractual battle between Chelsea and Manchester United, Mikel eventually joined the former under Mourinho.

Before joining Chelsea, Mikel played as an attacking midfielder, especially with the Super Eagles.

But at the Blues Mourinho drafted him as a defensive midfielder, a position he played in throughout his time at the club.

Speaking as a guest on Mikel’s Obi One Podcast, Mourinho explained why he believed the position suited the former Nigerian international.

“In the national team he can be what he wants as a number four I liked everything (about Mikel) and if you go through my positional midfield players I had all in my career there are lots of similar things.

“Apart from (Claude) Makalele small I had them all tall and physically strong with a good occupation of the space and what I call the simplicity of football which is fundamental in that position (defensive midfield). And people sometimes confuse the creative player with the simple one.

The former Real Madrid coach stated that every team needs balance and the defensive midfielders have to give balance when the team has the ball and doesn’t have the ball.

“They need to have that discipline to be humble in the sense that the team is more important than myself, what I give the team is more important than what the team gives to me.

“And maybe that’s why in Nigeria he (Mikel) wanted to go and play number 10 to be the top guy.”

Mourinho added:”For me at Chelsea he was a fantastic positional midfield player, very quick thinking, one touch, two touch, he made everything simple, the game flowing.

“He was not a guy to win a 100 metres race but everything was fast with him with the ball and understanding the position in the game.“

The current AS Roma coach narrated how he got to know about Mikel.

“One day I asked for a young player to come because I needed a young player to make my training work well and they spoke with me about some Nigerian guy that was hidden in Norway.

“The first question I ask was he is 17 years and is he strong enough physically so I was told he is. I was expecting some normal player I saw immediately that he was not normal.

“Of course, Sir Alex (Ferguson) also knew he (Mikel) was not normal and there was a fight that was not normal and everything ended in the best way because he stayed at Chelsea for more than 10 years, he won everything.”