Here's the thing, which is so obvious that I wonder if certain Pirlo defenders are actually this clueless or wilfully obtuse.
We are allowed but 3 DPs on the team. Each uses up $480,625 of the teams' $3,845,000 cap. Which means Pirlo represents 33% of an extremel;y limited asset and $12.5% of the team's also precious cap space. For this, at his best, he does not fit well on the team.
Who are you comparing him to?
Ben Sweat was supposed to be a backup who almost never plays and makes $65k. Look, if you want to make the point that Pirlo is better than Ben Sweat, have at it. What the hell is the point. It's actually pretty embarrassing to have that as your defense: Pirlo is not as bad as a MLS also-ran making $65k.
As for Brillant, with guaranteed comp of almost $320k, he's overpaid. Which has not been a contentious topic on the forum at all. The main difference between he and Pirlo is the forum is not filled with a bunch of blindly loyal Belgian league fans who can't admit he isn't working here.
Comparing Pirlo to our other 3 DPs, he has arguably added the least value, which is remarkable considering he has been roster available roughly 4 times as much as Maxi and twice as much as Lampard. He's been a DNP-coach's decision repeatedly this year. That's a fiasco for a DP slot. For his salary, Sweat is holding his weight. Dollar for dollar, and DP slot for DP slot, Brillant is nowhere near the albatross that Pirlo is. Nor are TMac, RJ or even Lopez. Given the league salary and roster rules, Pirlo is the giant sucking black hole on our roster. No contest. Not even close.
But yay, he had one game with more tackles than two players who use up less combined cap space and infinitely fewer proportional DP slots. Let's stop talking about him so the Serie A fans won't feel bad.