We need 2 players in Midfield in our formation. Nobody wants Oscar to play in the role that Mikel plays. It's the other role which people are talking about

When you have a team with this formation, you need both dm's to be able to pick out passes and tackle hence both need to be "pivots" Classic case is Real Madrid last year, Alonso and Diarra, both have good passing and both can defend.

If anyone should be competition for Mikel it should be Ramires IMO!

Oscar I think would be able to be moulded perfectly for the more advanced role in the 'pivot', if that's what we're to play!

This whole formation is rubbish, when a team wins the midfield battle, we are screwed e.g Swansea. When a team is defending throughout the whole game we are also screwed as we lack urgency to break them down, only when teams attack us do we break through.

Formation and team from now on:

Cech
Ivan-Terry-Cahill-Cole
Ramires-Luiz-Lampard
Hazard-Ba-Mata

When full team is available:

Cech
Ivan-Luiz-Terry-Cole
Ramires-Mikel-Lampard
Hazard-Ba-Mata

I'd like to try return to 4-3-3 considering the current formation we play we rarely dominate the midfield or if we do not for very long until the manager just adds another midfielder and we get overrun

What happened to Mikel

A load of bollockss.
Kalou was average verging on awful, he is the one that used to dribble into people losing the ball cheaply with his ridiculously woeful end product(this is why he always found himself on the bench, never established).
Jury is out on Marin, for me still hasn't had near enough tone on the pitch to prove his worth(not sure he will do either if we sign a new winger in the next few days).

*time on the pitch

Kalou was better than Marin, he was not awful, Jose saw that, Carlo saw that, Hiddink saw that and Di Matteo saw that.

The only managers who doubted his abilities were Scolari and AVB who were both the worst managers of the AVB era, the team Scolari had and failed with is 3x better than this team.

Oscar can definitely work in a deep position next to a holding midfielder, no doubt in my mind.

*Roman era

Oscar dosen't have the the strengh or the anticipation to play there. Mikel reads the game well that's why he works well there.

Oscar doesn't seem to have any end product. Against Arsenal he constantly got into threatening positions then did nothing with the ball

Surely the worst team in the league has the most potential? As in, they have the most to improve?

I'm sure Man United are upset that they've not got much potential. I bet winning countless cups makes up for it though.

Potential can mean the future ability of the current team. The worst team in the league have no players with good futures therefore no potential in life

Actually on second reading my last post sounds abit harsh

Oscar will show his worth in time(showed glimpses of what he can do under Robbie), still settling into the league at a young age give it time.
Kalou was at Chelsea for 6+ years and never improved, just the same average level of performance.

We are a team in transition.

Is it just me or does it seem like Mikel does not use him size and apparant strength enough when going into challenges. I think he's a bit wary nowadays when going into a tackle. I remember he got quite a few red cards a few years back for some questionable tackles. Since then he's seem a little too respectful of opponents in the middle of the park.

But the point is he was reliable and a great option of the bench. Marin seems not so much. A player who is eager to impress dosen't nearly get sent off with a stupid 2 footed tackle in their first start.

Mikel does not use his size and apparent strength enough when going into challenges *

He got pretty physical with Tiote last year if I remember

He's got the potential to be really good for us Ron. I just dont know if he's tapping into his abilities that much for us.

We'll go back to 433 and then fans will be asking for the 4231 again in 6 months time. New personnel, new formation, have patience. It's never going to be perfect straight away