"ideal player" to bring balance to Chelsea's
midfield after the Nigeria international shone in
Sunday's 3-0 victory over Crystal Palace.
Mikel was a surprise starter alongside the
returning Cesc Fabregas at Selhurst Park with
Nemanja Matic dropping to the bench, and
completed 78 of 82 passes from the base of
midfield as Chelsea produced their most
convincing performance of the season to move six
points clear of the Premier League relegation
zone.
Goals from Oscar, Willian and Diego Costa
provided an emphatic scoreline for Chelsea but,
speaking at his news conference after the match,
Hiddink was keen to highlight Mikel's less
glamorous but equally important contribution to
the win.
"He played very well as he also did in the previous
games," the Dutchman insisted of Mikel. "He's the
ideal player in my option to bring balance to the
team.
"If the team is not willing to defend well or have
the right balance then you concede a lot of goals.
I thought John Obi can be one of the key figures
in getting the balance back. On top of that the
talented players can then explore their qualities.
"He can recover the radar. He knows the game
very well. He knows where the strength of the
opponent is and he knows exactly how to cope
with that. He has a very good eye, a very good
nose, and a very good sense of where to recover.
"He doesn't do it in a very brutal way -- he's very,
very elegant. What I like to see very much is not
just a quality player but a player who can defend
so smoothly. It's beautiful to see. He doesn't lose
many balls, he's good in short passing. I don't
expect and I don't ask him to make the decisive
final pass. He can but no, we let the other players
do that."
Chelsea have now kept back-to-back clean sheets
in the Premier League after securing a goalless
draw against Manchester United at Old Trafford
last month, and Hiddink admits tightening up the
defence was his first priority upon returning to
Stamford Bridge as interim manager.
"If the team hasn't been doing well for a long
period then it is important to look for security," he
added. "That's why we emphasised good, hard
work in a tactical defensive way. I don't like to see
a team drop back very far and seek false security
but to look forward and get the ball forward as
soon as possible. When they get the ball they
know how to play.
"We don't need to add a lot to the quality of the
players
. They are blessed by nature with a big
quality but they have to know that when things
are not going well, you have to look for the
causes.
"That's why the very talented players started
working on the dirty work and not just the
beautiful game -- because this league is very
demanding and if you think you can do it just on
your natural quality this league will kill you.
"The attitude is okay and automatically their
quality comes through. The efficiency of this
quality in the past half-year has been very low.
We talked about that, we did it in training -- small
conversations -- but if they have this quality and
the team is well organised they must produce
and then we can enjoy how they play."
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