Being very harsh on Mikel..

Harsh on Mikel. Lampard is the deadweight here. His time is up.

Tiote suceeded last season in a tight, compact system that didn't look to dominate possesion/control the midfield. Functional but not creative/dynamic - basically he's everything we're (supposedly) trying to move away from.

not very harsh, this guy concedes us games, and when hes not doing that he is putting in average perfromances.
Lampard not much better, he nearly played a juve player through at the beginning of the second half.
I would prefer Lampard as a striker or in goal atm!

But atleast lampard at one stage had it, and can sometimes pass or hit a decent shot.
Mikel sadly cannot

Did you not see his pass for Hazard's penalty shout?

40-degree day - Tiote may have been succeeding in a certain system, but his skill set and style of play indicates he's capable of adjusting to another system.

Tiote is better defensively than Mikel and Fellaini; he is better offensively than Mikel, but not as good as Fellaini. This is fine, because we are already heavily tilted towards the attack (even our central defenders love to go forward), so I think a defensive player like Tiote would bring balance to the team, as well as functioning as a fulcrum in the middle of the field.

Anyone have any suggestions for players from other leagues that could fill the defensive mid role for us?

The problems with Mikel are evident: he doesn't contribute to the attack, he only passes to whoever happens to be nearest to him, his shots always end up somewhere on the moon, he doesn't dribble enough,
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And Makalele did????????????????????????????

Tiote is not that solution as his ball retention is cack, It's as simple as that.
Just need to utalise Romeu more often.

Etienne Capoue(Toulouse) would be a great option as a DM, If we needed one.

*Tiote is not the solution