Kicking myself for missing it. I need to get my priorities straight.
Kicking myself for missing it. I need to get my priorities straight.
I do use Pirlo to give IF Villa and IF Giovinco full Chem and sub SIF Keita at kickoff.Why don't we just play it out where it really matters? FIFA Ultimate Team. The bane and reason of my existence.
Completely disagree with this. He's there to be the spark plug in the midfield. The reason we had to work so hard in the first half hour or so was because of their strong and active high press. Pirlo's job is to receive the outlet ball from that or to move up the field in parallel to one of the guys on the wing carrying the ball upfield. His job is to be in the center and run the offense, getting the play started. It's not his job to be in the back line and rescue our defenders from a press.
He could just be a Royal Navy man.
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I will never love an NYCFC player as much as I love David Villa. This guy is special.
It seemed they were marking Pirlo in the first half and he wasn't trying all that much to free himself.
You've presented a balanced and well-reasoned argument for both positions on Pirlo that will leave neither side unhappy with what you've said. Your thoughts were clearly stated and backed with solid reasoning.I've seen a couple of comments on Pirlo being man marked in the first half and not trying all that hard to free himself. This seems like one of those Pirlo things that will strongly divide the pro/anti Pirlo camps based on the bias of the observer:
If you are anti Pirlo you see an old, slow, possibly lazy player being man marked and doing little about it. You notice spots where if he freed himself he could have relived some pressure from our backline by taking a pass in space and starting the offense. Which as many in the anti-Pirlo camp will point to as "What he's in there to do."
If you are pro Pirlo you see him knowing he's not going to break free from a younger faster player and instead he chooses to occupy that player thus reducing the number of players available to press our backline. In the process you see subtle movement by Pirlo to drag his marker around to create pockets of space for either our defenders to carry the ball forward or for Ring/Maxi to drop into and receive a pass. The moment we have a player with the ball in that space is when Pirlo breaks the man mark because stays close enough to force his man marker to choose between staying with him or going to stop the player with the ball in space. If the man marker leaves him to press the ball Pirlo typically moves to find space of his own and wants the pass.
At this point I still fall in the pro Pirlo group, but I can see both sides. Regardless this seems like a more interesting discussion topic than the endless he sucks at defense/he's not in there for defense argument.
This reminds me of another thing that I love about our CBs, that I meant to mention earlier.Through Week 7, David Villa leads all players in the Audi Player Index. Chanot is 7th.
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I've seen a couple of comments on Pirlo being man marked in the first half and not trying all that hard to free himself. This seems like one of those Pirlo things that will strongly divide the pro/anti Pirlo camps based on the bias of the observer:
If you are anti Pirlo you see an old, slow, possibly lazy player being man marked and doing little about it. You notice spots where if he freed himself he could have relieved some pressure from our backline by taking a pass in space and starting the offense. Which as many in the anti-Pirlo camp will point to as "What he's in there to do."
If you are pro Pirlo you see him knowing he's not going to break free from a younger faster player and instead he chooses to occupy that player thus reducing the number of players available to press our backline. In the process you see subtle movement by Pirlo to drag his marker around to create pockets of space for either our defenders to carry the ball forward or for Ring/Maxi to drop into and receive a pass. The moment we have a player with the ball in that space is when Pirlo breaks the man mark because he stays close enough to force his man marker to choose between staying with him or going to stop the player with the ball in space. If the man marker leaves him to press the ball Pirlo typically moves to find space of his own and wants the pass.
At this point I still fall in the pro Pirlo group, but I can see both sides. Regardless this seems like a more interesting discussion topic than the endless he sucks at defense/he's not in there for defense argument.