Alexander Pirlo appears to have incredible handling speed, passing accuracy and vision. Every time he receives the ball, no matter how little time and space he has, he seems to know where every teammate on the pitch is, and quickly passes it to the player in the best position, with quickly executed long and short passes. There is so little time for the opposition to close him down.

Pirlo constantly, successfully deploys killer passes. They are passes that break one or two lines and take a number of opposition players out of the game. I only saw him mishit one pass. I haven't seen a player as good in this facet of the game as he is.

However, I cannot remember seeing Pirlo win any hard balls, or even making intercepts. He probably misses his old mate for Italy, Gennaro Gattuso, one of the best ball winners and hard men of all time.

Edited by Erebus: 16/6/2014 12:57:42 PM

Andrea?

fixed subject...

People do realise that Pirlo has been playing like this for 10 years yeah?
He was crucial with Italy's 2006 title and has been doing this for the past 3 years with Juve leading them to 3 titles. He was also doing it at Milan before that.

I just :lol: that when Italy finally are shown on TV and Pirlo does what he always does, everyone starts going mental.

I actually blame the fact that Serie A is not shown in Australia. Its also why players such as Marchisio and De Rossi are criminally underrated by the EPL-only watching masses.

Doesn't matter Erubus - people get caught up in their own likes what to watch.
EPL has always been the fab here going back from my young days in the 70's - FACup finals etc was all we could see and still today its more widely than ever before, unless you have cable then you may watch other leagues incl Serie A.

I mentioned yesterday to friends after his typical class performance one of the best deep lying playmakers I can remember in all my years watching our game and our Azzuri !

Decentric he doesn't need to win the hard balls etc......

Pirlo looks "lazy" because he is always shuffling/jogging :lol
But if you watch him off the ball, he is always moving, shuffling/jogging and sees the game 3 moves ahead of everyone else. When the ball is won by the team, he is always nearby to collect it. He is always dictating play with and without the ball.

Next time Italy play, pay attention to Pirlo when the ball is no where near him and/or Italy are defending.

The only criticism I've ever had for him is that he is always so reluctant to shoot. He gets into good positions outside the box but always opts to pass it instead of having a crack.

All players have strengths and weaknesses.

I've listed Pirlo's strengths. I can also add his phenomenal first touch. He can stop the ball dead, or turn the ball away from his opponent to shield the ball superbly.

However, his weaknesses are:

1. Doesn't make many intercepts from good reading of play in Ball Possession Opposition.

2. Does not win many tackles, or even contest them.

3. Doesn't beat players in 1v1 attacking actions on the ground.

4. Doesn't cause turnovers and break up attacks, like our Jedda and Millsy do.

5. Does not appear to have much pace to run down and dispossess opposition players as they run towards Italy's defensive goal, or recover if beaten, like Jason Culina did.



It is important to analyse players over a broad spectrum of facets of play, rather than put them on pedestals.






Edited by Decentric: 16/6/2014 01:57:00 PM

His performance in the euros were better, England didn't put any kind of pressure on him at all. Fantastic player though.

Those 2 had great games. Roma made this infographic for De Rossi's game:

TBH when he hits free kicks like this I still go mental http://gfycat.com/CompetentDefensiveGosling =p~

Decentric, you're listing jobs for defensive enforcers and traditional no.6s. Pirlo is not that, and has never been that.
He tackles when it is needed, but he isn't the engine room. He is there for the possession and starting/completing the attacks.

At Juve he has Vidal and Marchisio/Pogba to do the dirty work for him. At Milan/Italy 2006 he had Gattuso especially to do it for him.

You can't say "he doesn't do XYZ" when he is on the pitch to do "ABC", because you could then do that for every single player on the pitch.

Yeah I kinda thought his throw back to the Gattuso partnership was confirmation enough of that?

Thanks for that link ! :d what ball movement in flight !

You make good points Decentric and in that case Prandelli should drop him :lol:

What he lacks what you state doesn't his positives far outweigh your points ?

Please - oh please don't make mention of Jedda Millsy - they don't bat an eyelid to Pirlo, they can cut off ball and break up attacks but they hardly win games like Pirlo, put their fellow players into attacking/scoring positions game in game out in top shelf games not just in Serie A.
Euro '12 he owned it till we got run over in the Final.

All.of.this.

Please put your "how to play football" textbook away.

The fact that you've listed what he doesn't do means you don't understand what he is there to do.

The way you describe him, looks like you are also talking about bresciano..

Both careers took different paths, pirlo still at a top club but bresciano cashing in.
Did bresciano had the same potential if he would have choosen to continue his career
In italy?

Look I think Pirlo is a fantastic player. That is why I started the thread. Without doubt, he is one of the best players in the world.

All I'm trying to do is elucidate that all players have weaknesses, even Messi, Robben and C. Ronaldo. There is no complete player.

A coach would be even more pleased if Pirlo was a more effective ball winner, with more pace, to augment his fantastic pre-existing assets.

When Bresc has been effective in 2 and 3 of the five aforementioned weaknesses I've elucidated in Pirlo.

There has been a lot of response to this thread I've started on Pirlo, with a degree of adulation that lacks objectivity.

I thought England's Sterling was equally as effective for the Poms with a different skill set and started a thread on him. Nobody has responded. Is this because he is a relative unknown?










Edited by Decentric: 16/6/2014 05:35:24 PM

A coach that asks a player like Pirlo to do that role would be a fool.

Like has been mentioned above, Pirlo's role is not to breakdown play and pressure the opposition. He is there to ensure Italy control possession and start attacks.

A guy like Vince Grella could do both.

Patrick Viera may be another, a better player than Grella.

Admittedly, Grella was nowhere near as good at starting attacks as Pirlo, who is peerless.

But you still did not answer my question.

Needs more panenka

Bresc doesn't have Pirlo's talent.

Few have.

Pace is part of Bresc's game. As he lost some of it his efficacy in Italy diminished.

I'd rate Bresc, along with Cahill, Grella, Culina, Kewell (early 2000s), possibly Emo, as our best players ever. None are as good as Pirlo though.

Few of the supposed Aussie superheroes of the eighties/ nineties have been tested for sustained periods at international/top level.

Edited by Decentric: 16/6/2014 05:53:12 PM

So what you are saying is that you can't have someone do it all. Pirlo should just focus on his strengths and leave the pressuring of the opposition and breaking up of their play to De Rossi, Marchisio and Candreva - i.e the roles they've been asked to play by their coach.

I don't get the big deal. Missed an easy free kick and walked around doing nothing for the rest of the game.

I guess when you play has-beens, you get pedestrians. Will get shown up against quality opposition rather than barely scraping past sub-par teams like England.

Easy enough when you're passing at static targets.

No I'm not.

I'm saying there are more complete players in a similar position to what he plays.

Overall though, given his great strengths, Pirlo may be more of an asset to a team.

I've done a lot on stats. In that game, Pirlo , was often under considerable opposition pressure in terms of time and space.

To still have a pass completion rate of 93 % is exceptional.=d>

Even more impressive are the number of killer passes he delivered. Killer passes are defined as ones that break one or two lines and take a number of opposition players out of the game.






Edited by Decentric: 16/6/2014 06:22:47 PM

Fairly over rated.

Well everything bar the beard anyway.

-PB

You gave two retired players as examples.

Also covered 10.5kms in that game. More than the majority of England's midfield.

So the current England team is a bunch of sub-par has-beens?

This post is just the worst.

Pirloless?

:d

:d :d :d =d>

Its a troll.

I feel privileged for having the opportunity to see him live at the 2000 Olympics.

I've just watched the England game for the third time just to watch him. He knows all the options before he even gets the ball, and always- always dammit- picks the right one. What's more he is constantly moving to offer a clear receiving lane. This is all about what is going between his ears. Pirlo's brain works on a different level to anyone else's.

Yes, there is no perfect player. But whereas the modern-day play makers like Ozil and Iniesta play out wide Pirlo owns the middle of the pitch. He as as close to perfect a deep lying creative mid you'll see.

Pirlo overated? guy is a freak , i remember reading something in world soccer saying Pirlo is one paced,one legged, cant defend etc etc but you'll will find a place for him in your team . One of the best deep lying playmakers ever

And I still :lol: at Allegri for stating that Pirlo didn't fit into his plans/system at AC Milan and let his contract expire.
Juve signed Pirlo on a free.

nekminnit Juve win 3 titles in a row :cool: #-o :lol:

:lol: Thanks Allegri. Best signing ever.

I kinda know why ac Milan got rid of some of their older players , but letting Andrea pirlo go was the biggest fuck ups ever . You can see it at Juve and with the National team he makes them tick .