I've been pondering a response to
mgarbowski 's excellently argued post in the Andrea thread. The Pirlo debate is so diffuse and sprawling at this point that it needs its own index by whoever is hammering away at the stadium index. At least most of the discussion there exists in a single thread.
If I were to follow up
mgarbowski 's post at this point, I would need to do a decent amount of research and context setting, and the prospect of adding that to my life right now is a little exhausting. Responding without doing that kind of leg work would feel disrespectful. But since you're asking...
Sans exhaustive research and context setting – I acknowledge his athletic and defensive shortcomings. I acknowledge that his direct free kicks have been vastly underwhelming. I think a midfield of Herrera, Ring and Maxi is a better default midfield than one which includes Pirlo, although I'd like to see Pirlo flanked by Herrera and Ring with Maxi in at left wing, at some point.
On the other hand, I also think his contributions are underappreciated, both defensively and offensively, due to a combination of emotional bias and different ways of understanding the game. His defensive positioning is still superior to anything that Ring and Herrera offer. His composure, vision and ability to pick out a ball is unparalleled. His indirect set pieces are still the best on the team IMO. His assist stats have dropped slightly, but his key passes stats remain roughly at pre-NYCFC level, which indicates there is an adjacent-player quality deficit. Villa and Maxi are several passes closer to the key events, meaning less links in the chain towards key events that can fail. You might criticize Pirlo for not adapting his game, if anything, as Villa certainly has. Pirlo has always had skittish moments. So has Ring.
In short, my stance hasn't really changed much. Before we saw more of Herrera, I was open to him being a better option, certainly in the medium-to-long term. I don't think I expected to see Herrera as an 8, or for Ring to become a more passable 6.
I don't think we see Pirlo (or Tommy) all that differently, but the way you and I write about him differs dramatically in both severity and tone. I
still don't think his negatives dramatically outweigh his pluses – he's still an RoI positive player IMO – but I do think the RoI of alternatives are slightly better against most teams in most scenarios.
