Is the solution to Mourinho’s midfield dilemma right under his nose?

Currently sitting fourth on the Premier League ladder, the 2013-14 season has by no means been a poor one for Chelsea. With Jose Mourinho back at the helm, the Blues are slowing figuring out their new attacking identity again and while they might not quite be living up to the status that many thrust upon them at the start of the season, they are still a very strong and talented—on both an individual and collective level.

Yet despite the Blues’ obvious strength and talent right across the field, there’s also a real sense that they aren’t quite themselves this season.

They rank inside the bottom three English teams this season in Squawka’s Defensive Score despite sitting inside the top six for both Attack and Possession Score. They’ve posted good results at home to Manchester City as well as away to both Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur, yet have followed that up by dropping points to Newcastle United and West Bromwich Albion in their last two games.

Part of the reason behind their struggles, has been their ability to “hold it all together” at times.

They’ve been good in patches—or in certain parts of the field—but haven’t been able to translate that to consistent success from every player on the field at the same time.

As a result, Chelsea have struggled to translate possession and territorial advantage into goals—leading to a slight frustration towards the Blues for their lack of attacking “bite”.

Their team Passing Maps against both Everton and West Brom (games in which they dominated in both possession and attacking chances) supports this opinion. When they start to get into a good attacking position and work their opponents back into their own half, that next stage just hasn’t been there from Chelsea and their midfield has struggled to get the job done.

With youngster Marco van Ginkel out for the remainder of the season and Ramiresnot quite thriving as well as he has done in previous seasons, Mourinho may be tempted into utilizing John Obi Mikel in the middle of the field more often. Mikel has played just two full games out of three starting appearances so far this season, but has showed in such limited time that he has an important skill-set to offer the West London club in central midfield.

Mikel is by no means the best central midfielder in world football, but he is a nice complement to Frank Lampard, who continues to demonstrate his significance for the Blues. No other Chelsea midfielder has a higher passing accuracy this season than Mikel, and what makes that even more incredible is the fact that the vast majority of his total passes are going forward (72.3 percent).

The 26-year-old still needs to improve his tackling percentage and success rate in aerial duels given that both of these see relatively low win-rates for Mikel, but again, it’s worth noting that neither of these percentages are out of step with the figures Chelsea have attained collectively. Mikel wins just under half of his tackles and just over half of his headers—as have the Blues this year.

Against Fulham, Mikel offered the Blues a great presence in the middle of the field and established a strong platform for their more creative players to thrive off. His biggest key, though, was his ability to constantly move the attack forward and not simply knock it around the backfield—chalking up time spent with possession, but not really displaying effectiveness.

If Mourinho is looking for a man to reignite his team’s attacking firepower and chances of topping the league, Mikel certainly wouldn’t be the worst player he could find.