The importance of Andrea Pirlo to Juventus

Andrea Pirlo – A player that deserves applause every time he plays

Andrea Pirlo, Italy’s most iconic midfielder, is looked upon as a liability of late rather than as an invaluable asset.

The maestro is ageing and the recent performances of Paul Pogba have cast a doubt on the future of the former Milan player. Pirlo is undoubtedly one of the best visionaries of the modern football; however, he has failed to put an impression on most of the Juve tifosi of late.

And yet Pirlo, no matter how old and liable he is to the team, is still the most important midfielder in this Juve team.

Let’s rewind a little. Milan have won the league, Berlusconi is throwing a big “bunga- bunga” party for the Rossoneri. Galliani seems to be an enforcer in the mercato by publicly announcing the target of winning in Europe.

Allegri is given massive appreciation heading into the next season. But they didn’t know that they had lost even before the season began; lost their best player in recent years, a player they cast out.

Galliani was brave enough to announce that Pirlo was no longer good enough to play for a team that competed for trophies. And there started the decline of a club that has Sulley Muntari as one of their important midfielders at present.

The player who missed most of the 2010 world Cup moved to direct rivals Juventus, a team that finished seventh on two consecutive occasions in the Italian Serie-A.

Little did the team that survived the Calciopoli scandal know of the team that was sent down to hell, which had to be rebuilt brick by brick, with Pirlo at the heart of team.

Fast forward into the future. Juventus don’t lose a single game the entire season in the league, going on to win the Scudetto after nine years and reaching the final of the Italian Cup.

Pirlo was one of the most important players in the Old Lady reclaiming the throne back. He gave the first assist in the new Juventus Sports Arena to Lichtsteiner, who opened the scoring. Milan got rid of their experience in the forthcoming season and two important players while Juve were beginning an assault to take over Italy.

The team from Turin retained their Scudetto successfully, unchallenged for most of the season, with Pirlo at the heart of the team.

Will Pirlo continue to play at a high enough level?

Pirlo is one of the most ambitious footballers in the world at present. He will continue to impress whether he is a part of Italy’s most coveted team or anywhere else.

He never gives up the desire stop growing and to keep winning, which is very important for a team that has lacked this mentality post the infamous scandal. There are many clubs, one of which is led by Don Carlo, that could well exploit his ambition to strive for success and look to succeed eventually.

On winning the World Cup and the Champions League, most world-class players show a deterioration in ambition, if not form. Pirlo on the other hand, has been able to use these victories to inspire himself to become better over the years.

A magician never reveals his tricks and that is Pirlo’s biggest trick. He is by far the most under recognized player in the world, and an under-achieving player in terms of personal accolades.

This may be one of the reasons he is playing for – an award that belongs only to him and differentiates him from the rest, a reason that ensures he is more beneficial to the club than the club is to him, a reason that makes him better and the club grow.

Where does Pirlo play?

The architect started as a trequartista but was dropped deeper to a regista by Carlo Mazzone – to play the role of a deep lying playmaker exploited to maximum use by the likes of Ancelotti, Lippi and Antonio Conte. The first of its kind, perhaps!

Pirlo by nature lacks pace and abilities such as work-rate and defending. He over compensates for that by “passing”. “Passing” is a term often used by any critic to evaluate the final performance of any team.

While others look to create chances beyond the midfield, Pirlo drops deeper and creates chances at the midfield, if not between the defence and the midfield. The most versatile passer in the world, Pirlo participates in collecting the ball from the defence and distributing it to the other areas of the field.

Given a free role by Antonio Conte, Pirlo looks to dictate play from anywhere between the trequartista to the regista, moving to the flanks on certain intervals or sticking to the centre to receive the ball and dictate the play.

He’s the greatest dictator the modern world has ever seen, a dictator hailed by most and loved by all. Operating at the heart of the team, Pirlo is responsible for maintaining possession while drawing as much stamina as possible from the opponent.

Being adept with both feet and armed with great ball control, Pirlo does it all with ease. His a role that is not easy to step into, not overnight at least.