Amokachi defends Mikel

Eagles’ assistant coach Daniel Amokachi stated that John Obi Mikel is not to be blamed for Liverpool’s opening goal at Chelsea in an English Premier League tie Sunday.

Mikel seem to dawdle over the ball around the Chelsea box only for Charlie Adams to rob him of the ball and set up Maxi Rodriguez for the first goal of the match as Liverpool went on to win 2-1 at Stamford Bridge.

However, Amokachi said Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Cech ought to take the blame for this goal.

“Cech caused the first goal against Chelsea. He should not have passed the ball to Mikel knowing that he was backing the ball. You can’t expect Mikel to control the ball at that moment,” argued Amokachi, who as a player featured for Liverpool’s city rivals Everton.

“In a high profile match like that, a goalkeeper is not expected to pass a ball to a player who is not composed.”

He added: “I’m not backing Mikel because he is Nigerian, but giving the ball to him when he was backing the pitch would always put him under pressure.”

Mikel’s participation in this top EPL game was already a talking point before the game after Eagles coach Stephen Keshi said he would be disappointed if the midfielder played the game after he stayed away from the friendlies against Botswana and Zambia because of a back injury.

“If Mikel has chosen to play for Chelsea ahead of his country, so be it,” said Keshi.

“All I can tell him is that Nigeria is bigger than Chelsea.”

However, Keshi said the player’s attitude to the national team will not stop him from inviting Mikel to the Super Eagles.