{"id":66636,"date":"2022-06-13T14:24:22","date_gmt":"2022-06-13T13:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/epl-real-reason-mourinho-changed-my-position-at-chelsea-mikel-obi"},"modified":"2022-06-13T15:34:23","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T14:34:23","slug":"epl-real-reason-mourinho-changed-my-position-at-chelsea-mikel-obi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-real-reason-mourinho-changed-my-position-at-chelsea-mikel-obi","title":{"rendered":"EPL: Real reason Mourinho changed my position at Chelsea \u2013 Mikel Obi"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Former Chelsea midfielder, John Obi Mikel, has given a reason why the club\u2019s former manager, Jose Mourinho, changed his position at Stamford Bridge.<\/p>\n

Mikel normally plays as an attacking midfielder during the early stage of his career, both in club and country.<\/p>\n

But the former Super Eagles captain was made to play in the defensive midfield role under Mourinho during their time at Chelsea.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old made 119 appearances under Mourinho, who is known for his strict management approach.<\/p>\n

Speaking with Nigerian station Naija FM 102.7 in Lagos, Mikel said Mourinho converted him to a defensive midfielder because he wanted him to take over from Claude Makelele.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cMourinho decided that he wanted me to play a defensive midfield position. At the end of the day, he is the coach and will make decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we discussed and he felt that because of the big players he had then in his squad at Chelsea so he decided that I should play the defensive midfield role.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd also Makelele was just finishing his career at Chelsea, so Mourinho wanted me to take over from Makelele at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Nigeria<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Nigeria. Former Chelsea midfielder, John Obi Mikel, has given a reason why the club\u2019s former manager, Jose Mourinho, changed his position at Stamford Bridge. Mikel normally plays as an attacking midfielder during the early stage of his career, both in club and country. But the former Super Eagles captain was made to play […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":66635,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,28,18,26],"tags":[1570,2140,485,885,3549,2715,254],"class_list":["post-66636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-nigeria-2","tag-chelsea","tag-epl","tag-mikel-obi","tag-mourinho","tag-nigeria"],"yoast_head":"\nEPL: Real reason Mourinho changed my position at Chelsea \u2013 Mikel Obi - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Chelsea midfielder, John Obi Mikel, has given a reason why the club\u2019s former manager, Jose Mourinho, changed his ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-real-reason-mourinho-changed-my-position-at-chelsea-mikel-obi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EPL: Real reason Mourinho changed my position at Chelsea \u2013 Mikel Obi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Chelsea midfielder, John Obi Mikel, has given a reason why the club\u2019s former manager, Jose Mourinho, changed his ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-real-reason-mourinho-changed-my-position-at-chelsea-mikel-obi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-06-13T13:24:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-06-13T14:34:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2022\/06\/postQueueImg_16-62a74ad9d8006.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-real-reason-mourinho-changed-my-position-at-chelsea-mikel-obi#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-real-reason-mourinho-changed-my-position-at-chelsea-mikel-obi\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"EPL: Real reason Mourinho changed my position at Chelsea \u2013 Mikel Obi\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-06-13T13:24:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-06-13T14:34:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-real-reason-mourinho-changed-my-position-at-chelsea-mikel-obi\"},\"wordCount\":210,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-real-reason-mourinho-changed-my-position-at-chelsea-mikel-obi#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2022\/06\/postQueueImg_16-62a74ad9d8006.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Nigeria\",\"chelsea\",\"EPL\",\"Mikel Obi\",\"mourinho\",\"Nigeria\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"Sport\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-real-reason-mourinho-changed-my-position-at-chelsea-mikel-obi#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-real-reason-mourinho-changed-my-position-at-chelsea-mikel-obi\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/epl-real-reason-mourinho-changed-my-position-at-chelsea-mikel-obi\",\"name\":\"EPL: Real reason Mourinho changed my position at Chelsea \u2013 Mikel Obi - 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