Pirlo And Tactics Against Him

[Gotham Gator]

Yesterday was a blast. The second half featured the kind of soccer that we've been waiting all year to see. Plus, Pirlo was a delight - not only with his pinpoint passes to places nobody knew were there, but also with his ability to hold the ball against defensive pressure, with misdirection and other trickeration. As I mentioned elsewhere, every fan in the stadium was completely entertained with the team's shiny new toy.

But, as sure as Sunday saw Pirlo's debut to the league, Monday saw the league beginning to game plan how to stop him, slow him down, or exploit his weaknesses. It's worth considering what those could be and whether they might work.

An interesting article on the MLS site brought one example to bear from yesterday's game. A longer quote is below, but the author - after saying many nice things about Pirlo - pointed out how he strayed from his central spot to receive a pass, didn't get it, and then didn't close down that space when the ball was stolen. As a result, Kaka had lots of room and eventually found Larin for his 3rd goal. To be fair, what also happened (that the author didn't mention) is that Jacobson was way up the pitch. That's one adjustment we can make to limit the issue.

Link to Video

He is a puppetmaster who, at his best, controls the tempo of the game and the shape of both teams. In the history of our sport, only Xavi has been better at that.

But he's not invincible, and just as Thierry Henry, and David Beckham, and Steven Gerrard and everyone else learned: In this league you will get scouted and swarmed and run at. For NYCFC that brings up the danger of "the gap," which showed up on this goal right here:

This goal is not his fault, but it's not not his fault, either. It's just how he plays -- he comes to the ball in situations like that, and if the ball doesn't come to him, you get Kaká wide open in Zone 14 and poor Josh Saunders picking the ball out of his net. The fans will eat up the Pirlo highlights this week, but that Cyle Larin goal is the bit of film that Kreis will be obsessing over.

Regardless, NYCFC should win a lot of games now just by outscoring you. But they're going to give you every chance to outscore them, too.

http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...nalyst-pirlo-party-age-youth-and-more-week-21

 

[roxfontaine]

Calle and Mix have to learn to be Pogba and Vidal. And they can. Mix is mostly there and will get better under Pirlo's direction and Calle will follow suit.

 

[sbrylski]

A longer quote is below, but the author - after saying many nice things about Pirlo - pointed out how he strayed from his central spot to receive a pass, didn't get it, and then didn't close down that space when the ball was stolen. As a result, Kaka had lots of room and eventually found Larin for his 3rd goal. To be fair, what also happened (that the author didn't mention) is that Jacobson was way up the pitch. That's one adjustment we can make to limit the issue.

Exactly, I've been saying this since the Pirlo rumors started. Jacobson is needed, and we have to drill into his head to stay deep!

In FIFA terms, Pirlo has a medium offensive work rate and low defensive work rate. Jacobson has been a medium/medium. He needs to be a medium/high or low/high now.

Calle and Mix have to learn to be Pogba and Vidal. And they can. Mix is mostly there and will get better under Pirlo's direction and Calle will follow suit.

They will need to shuttle back, but I actually prefer matching them up with the fullbacks. Calle on the left covers for Angelino, and Mix can cover for Iraola. This way, defense is only of background concern, and they can focus on being high/medium players supporting Villa mainly.

If you pull out Jacobson, you're going to end up isolating Villa on top again, because Calle and Mix will need to have defense on their minds a TON more.

 

[gbservis]

Yesterday was a blast. The second half featured the kind of soccer that we've been waiting all year to see. Plus, Pirlo was a delight - not only with his pinpoint passes to places nobody knew were there, but also with his ability to hold the ball against defensive pressure, with misdirection and other trickeration. As I mentioned elsewhere, every fan in the stadium was completely entertained with the team's shiny new toy.

But, as sure as Sunday saw Pirlo's debut to the league, Monday saw the league beginning to game plan how to stop him, slow him down, or exploit his weaknesses. It's worth considering what those could be and whether they might work.

An interesting article on the MLS site brought one example to bear from yesterday's game. A longer quote is below, but the author - after saying many nice things about Pirlo - pointed out how he strayed from his central spot to receive a pass, didn't get it, and then didn't close down that space when the ball was stolen. As a result, Kaka had lots of room and eventually found Larin for his 3rd goal. To be fair, what also happened (that the author didn't mention) is that Jacobson was way up the pitch. That's one adjustment we can make to limit the issue.

Link to Video



http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/artic...nalyst-pirlo-party-age-youth-and-more-week-21

With the arrival of Pirlo/Angelino/Iroala Jacobson should never be up field. His primary role should be covering for those guys to allow them to join the attack. If he continues to go forward we might as well take him out and play with 3 CBs.

Its going to be interesting to see how many games it takes before we find a team that just tires to man mark Pirlo and take him out of the game. When it happens Mix and the other midfielders are going to have to capitalize on the additional space and make them pay for it. Hopefully as I think you said in another post just having Pirlo on the field eliminates the put 3 guys on Villa option and he gets a bit more space to operate in as well. He clearly doesn't need much day light to put the ball in the net.

 

[gbservis]

Exactly, I've been saying this since the Pirlo rumors started. Jacobson is needed, and we have to drill into his head to stay deep!

In FIFA terms, Pirlo has a medium offensive work rate and low defensive work rate. Jacobson has been a medium/medium. He needs to be a medium/high or low/high now.



They will need to shuttle back, but I actually prefer matching them up with the fullbacks. Calle on the left covers for Angelino, and Mix can cover for Iraola. This way, defense is only of background concern, and they can focus on being high/medium players supporting Villa mainly.

If you pull out Jacobson, you're going to end up isolating Villa on top again, because Calle and Mix will need to have defense on their minds a TON more.

The fifa analogy is spot on, Jacobson needs to be low/high from here on out.

 

[roxfontaine]

If you pull out Jacobson, you're going to end up isolating Villa on top again, because Calle and Mix will need to have defense on their minds a TON more.

Nope. 'Cause Poku!!!

 

[Tom in Fairfield CT]

I disagree that we need Jacobson. The thinking seems to be that pirlo can't play defense, so Jacobson has to play that role. The way Pirlo looked yesterday, he is by no means a "destroyer" in the Beckerman, Jones vein, but he did enough on defense to harass the attackers trying to move through the middle. Jacobson provides nothing in the build up, he doesn't even make himself available for passes from the wings or from Saunders. Saying that he needs to be there just for defense means that he is a center back. It makes no sense to try to play with 3 CBs on this team when there are better players available that fill a defined need.

Let the CBs play defense and let Pirlo run the attack from the deep midfield. Use jacobson's spot for another of our many talented players.

 

[sbrylski]

I disagree that we need Jacobson. The thinking seems to be that pirlo can't play defense, so Jacobson has to play that role. The way Pirlo looked yesterday, he is by no means a "destroyer" in the Beckerman, Jones vein, but he did enough on defense to harass the attackers trying to move through the middle. Jacobson provides nothing in the build up, he doesn't even make himself available for passes from the wings or from Saunders. Saying that he needs to be there just for defense means that he is a center back. It makes no sense to try to play with 3 CBs on this team when there are better players available that fill a defined need.

Let the CBs play defense and let Pirlo run the attack from the deep midfield. Use jacobson's spot for another of our many talented players.

Our CB's already get little support from our attacking fullbacks. Is it really enough to let Pirlo "harass" the other team's attacking midfielder by jogging at him? I pointed out in the formation thread that Pirlo logged zero defensive statistics last game.

In one of our best games of the year, we beat Toronto 2-0 and completely shut down Giovinco. We did that by putting Jacobson on him all game long just to elbow him in the head a few times. For some unknown reason, we let Giovinco run free the next time we played Toronto, and he scored a hat trick against our porous back line.

We need the Jacobson from the former game to show up each week. Man mark their attacking midfielder or secondary striker and just disrupt attacks. Pirlo could never do this. When Jacobson does this, our defense looks orders of magnitude better.

 

[Tom in Fairfield CT]

Our CB's already get little support from our attacking fullbacks. Is it really enough to let Pirlo "harass" the other team's attacking midfielder by jogging at him? I pointed out in the formation thread that Pirlo logged zero defensive statistics last game.

In one of our best games of the year, we beat Toronto 2-0 and completely shut down Giovinco. We did that by putting Jacobson on him all game long just to elbow him in the head a few times. For some unknown reason, we let Giovinco run free the next time we played Toronto, and he scored a hat trick against our porous back line.

We need the Jacobson from the former game to show up each week. Man mark their attacking midfielder or secondary striker and just disrupt attacks. Pirlo could never do this. When Jacobson does this, our defense looks orders of magnitude better.

With a midfield that doesn't turn over the ball 50% of the time, that role is not as important, and I think the spot could be better used elsewhere.

 

[roxfontaine]

Man mark their attacking midfielder or secondary striker and just disrupt attacks. Pirlo could never do this. When Jacobson does this, our defense looks orders of magnitude better.

With a midfield that doesn't turn over the ball 50% of the time, that role is not as important, and I think the spot could be better used elsewhere.

Both accurate. Let's hope Kreis is capable enough to use both situations as necessary. We have plenty of midfield options provided they stay healthy.

 

[bxsully]

Its going to be interesting to see how many games it takes before we find a team that just tires to man mark Pirlo and take him out of the game. When it happens Mix and the other midfielders are going to have to capitalize on the additional space and make them pay for it. Hopefully as I think you said in another post just having Pirlo on the field eliminates the put 3 guys on Villa option and he gets a bit more space to operate in as well. He clearly doesn't need much day light to put the ball in the net.

I think this happened yesterday. When Orlando brought on the substitute striker it seemed like he was man marking Pirlo on defense. Definitely seemed to me that when we had the ball he was just shadowing him. Did seem to be a little effective in stopping the CBs from immediately shuffling the ball to him.

 

[sbrylski]

With a midfield that doesn't turn over the ball 50% of the time, that role is not as important, and I think the spot could be better used elsewhere.

Agree to disagree. I think my strategy would lead to 2-1 wins, and yours would lead to 4-3 wins, lol.

 

[Tom in Fairfield CT]

Agree to disagree. I think my strategy would lead to 2-1 wins, and yours would lead to 4-3 wins, lol.

Its nice to finally be able have a tactical discussion that doesn't center on the lesser of two evils

 

[Kjbert]

I think what you saw yesterday is what you will see moving forward. 4-2-3-1.

Jacobsen played as an 8, but had to cover a lot of ground defensively and get back. Will be interesting to see how he adjusts to that. Pirlo will float from a Sweeper position to a box-to-box position. Lampard will play furthest forward with Mix and another player (Calle? Balloucy? McNamara?) on the opposite side.

Poku is now Frank's caddie.

 

[Midas Mulligan]

I think Pirlo doesn't want Jacobsen or anyone else back there around him when we have the ball, so whoever is in the midfield is going to have to get forward to some degree. We'd essentially be cannibalizing Pirlo's operating space by planting Jacobsen back there with him.

I don't think there's any way around it if we let the Maestro be the Maestro then we can't really have a dedicated defensive mid in any traditional destroyer sense. Our spacing will get better, and Mena looks like he may be physically capable of emergency defending requiring some pace.

I just really think Jacobsen creates the need for Jacobsen, or as I have oft-repeated, his presence insists upon itself.

 

[LionNYC]

Remember after David Villa scored against New England? For the next 5-6 games, besides injuries, he was double teamed, fouled, etc. etc. Same tactics we used on Giovinco. A team can't do the same on Villa and Pirlo going forward. The field will open up and hopefully lead to goals if we can finish.

 

[The Toe]

I think Jacobson, especially the second half of the year, has been really, really good.

 

[roxfontaine]

I wouldn't say really, really good but I would say markedly improved. Early on, I called him all fire and no talent. He's still more fire than talent to me but I think that energy is necessary. He's involved and he takes the game very seriously.

 

[Kjbert]

if you aren't going to play a 4-2-3-1 with Jacobsen as your defensive partner (1) Jacobsen has been really good and 2) I understand why you need to give Pirlo space), you are then playing a 4-1-4-1.

Like I said, you can only play one of Jacobsen and Poku. Lampard is playing Central Midfield. Pirlo is playing Central Midfield. Mix is playing and someone is playing LM.

In a perfect world, Frank can play RM with Iraola providing defensive cover and Mix plays LM. Pirlo plays deep with Jacobsen and Poku in front of him. That's a perfect world and that puts our 10 best outfield players on the pitch at the same time.

------------Saunders------------
Iraola--Facey--Mena--Angelino
--------------Pirlo--------------
Lampard--Jacobsen--Diskerud
--------------Poku--------------
-------------Villa--------------

 

[Midas Mulligan]

if you aren't going to play a 4-2-3-1 with Jacobsen as your defensive partner (1) Jacobsen has been really good and 2) I understand why you need to give Pirlo space), you are then playing a 4-1-4-1.

Like I said, you can only play one of Jacobsen and Poku. Lampard is playing Central Midfield. Pirlo is playing Central Midfield. Mix is playing and someone is playing LM.

In a perfect world, Frank can play RM with Iraola providing defensive cover and Mix plays LM. Pirlo plays deep with Jacobsen and Poku in front of him. That's a perfect world and that puts our 10 best outfield players on the pitch at the same time.

------------Saunders------------
Iraola--Facey--Mena--Angelino
--------------Pirlo--------------
Lampard--Jacobsen--Diskerud
--------------Poku--------------
-------------Villa--------------

I like the 4-1-4-1 for us. Your set up isn't my platonic ideal of how I'd like us to play, but it could work.

I kind of like the idea of playing a 4-5-1 that breaks down to be a 4-1-2-2-1. Basically, I would swap Jacobsen out for Mullins, and have Mix and another mid behind a front 3 of Poku, Villa and Mullins. Poku would sit the deepest of the three off to the right with Villa and Mullins switching back and forth from a LF/AM role and CF.

Eta: yes, I realize you could call that a 4-3-3. But that's way too simple if we're going to be proving we're soccer geniuses.

To hell with 5-3. Let's hang some 7 spots on the board.