Mikel Obi Suffers Fourth Straight Defeat In Chinese Club

Mikel Obi Suffers Fourth Straight Defeat In Chinese Club

It’s not been all rosy for John Obi Mikel since his move to Tianjin TEDA in the money-spinning Chinese Super League as their poor run of form in warm-up games continued Monday with a 3-0 defeat to Ukrainian side Dynamo Kiev.

Tianjin were completely outclassed by the Ukrainians with goals from Denys Garmash, Andriy Yarmolenko and Artem Gromov in the 27th, 54th and 87th minutes respectively settling the one-sided tie, CompleteSports writes.

Despite an aggressive transfer policy in January that saw the recruitment of Mikel and a host of other stars from Europe, Tianjin continues to look wobbly going into the new Chinese Super League season.

The defeat to Dynamo Kiev was their fourth in as many pre-season games raising doubts over their prospect of improving on their 10th place finish last season.

We reported that they lost their first friendly game against German Bundesliga side Borussia Monchegladbach on Wednesday, January 11, going down 2-1.

On Saturday, January 14, they were thrashed 6-2 to another German side St. Pauli as Mikel opened his account for the club, and three days later, they were pipped 1-0 by Dinamo Bucuresti.

Super Eagles coach Gernot Rohr has said Mikel remains in his plans so long as he stays competitive, but his opening weeks at the club continue to raise doubts over the move and his future with the national team.