David Pizarro (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Alucard Belmont
- Start date
We want defenders. Many of us want to retain our stars. Our finances are a mess. We cannot expect high cost transfers. Rosicky will propably costs almost twice what Pizarro does, and with Udinese there's the extra benefit that we can propably load some youngsters on to them instead of paying cash.
We already have the most talented Italian trequartista save Totti- Maresca. Why not play him?
Pizarro is regista - not a trequartista. He is a terrier, and much more apt that Rosicky defensively. Unlike Tacchi and Appiah- he offers intelligent AND creative passing from defensive midfield.
I think he would be a great purchase if there's still room to get the crucial defensive signings.
We already have the most talented Italian trequartista save Totti- Maresca. Why not play him?
Pizarro is regista - not a trequartista. He is a terrier, and much more apt that Rosicky defensively. Unlike Tacchi and Appiah- he offers intelligent AND creative passing from defensive midfield.
I think he would be a great purchase if there's still room to get the crucial defensive signings.
Here is a profile on David Pizarro from Soccernet.com:
--------------------------------
It's a Pizarro world
Roberto Gotta
Remember the first word processors in your Eighties' PCs? They had a default gizmo which flared up a red on-screen warning of 'error' whenever you happened to use the words 'Udinese' and 'internationals' in the same sentence.
David Pizarro's skills have bewitched Serie A, as Milan's Gattuso would vouch. (GraziaNeri/GettyImages)
You probably never noticed because you never, ever, not even by mistake, typed those two words together, but I swear it's true.
That plug-in was removed a few years back, when it went out of fashion as soon as dear old Udinese started signing players who were actually not just up-and-coming teenagers who'd be sold on before they reached the international scene or old carthorses gone to pasture but young talents who are a vibrant part of their national team's set-up.
Israeli international Ronny Rosenthal was shamefully driven away even before setting foot in Udine when anti-Semitic graffiti were found on the team headquarters' outside walls the morning after his announced signing which was subsequently cancelled by the panic-stricken directors. Stefano Fiore became one such international but soon after - predictably - went South (to Lazio) both literally and metaphorically then made a comeback, but now the situation is such that coach Luciano Spalletti finds himself missing a few members of his squad whenever international week arrives.
The most prominent absence this week has been that of David Pizarro, the Black and Whites' 23-yr old midfield schemer, now a valuable member of a Chile squad he led to a bronze medal in the 2000 Olympics.
The mere fact that Pizarro is still playing for Udinese is perhaps baffling to outsiders who think volatile owner Gino Pozzo's club is one of the most unfashionable ones in Italy. But the truth is Udine can also be a happy place where - despite the Rosenthal incident - you'll very rarely encounter crowd trouble and fans generally respect players and managers, with little known evidence of harassment after poor performances.
Not for the Udinese people the excesses now sadly common in other parts of Italy where you can put a foot wrong during a game and risk having it cut off by a homemade grenade the next day.
With a grand view of the majestic, snow-capped Alpi Carniche and Alpi Giulie part of the Dolomites from the club's training ground, Pizarro may sometimes be reminded of his native port city of Valparaiso's eastward Andean landscape. Yet when he joined in 1999, after two seasons with Santiago Wanderers (41 appearances, three goals), Pizarro immediately found his way into manager Gigi De Canio's doghouse.
De Canio, just one in a line of successful Udinese coaches (Alberto Zaccheroni and Francesco Guidolin being the others) and the only one to lead the team to the top of the Serie A, albeit briefly, had not sanctioned Pozzo and top executive Gianpaolo Marino's signing of Pizarro, and quickly discarded him for being too inexperienced and too casual on the ball for Italian football, which explains his nine total appearances during the 1999-2000 and 2000-01 season.
At one point Pizarro was loaned to Universidad de Chile, where he even played in the Libertadores Cup and scored a couple of goals before jetting back to Udine in the summer of 2001.
By then Roy Hodgson had taken over, and the Englishman's quick assessment of his team brought to his attention the fact that Pizarro could be effective playing just behind the main strikers, where his quick thinking can be used to open up opportunities.
Although Hodgson did not last much at Udinese, his appraisal of Pizarro's skills (Çhe's got tons of talent, he can take charge of my team) have permeated his successors' view of things and the Chilean is now a feature in the middle of the Black and White's midfield, with 56 appearances and seven goals in the last two seasons.
With his diminutive height at 1.69 and low centre of gravity, Pizarro can turn quickly although he's generally not regarded as having quick feet like the player he's been compared to, Maradona, a comparison which could only make things worse for him.
His vision is excellent, and with time he's learned to get rid of the ball quicker and to take on the mantle of regista, the player who can put a foot on the ball and set the rest of the team in motion with a simple, defence-splitting pass which brings a shed of light to the whole stadium.
As the epitome of the Serie A regista (literally, movie director) has always been the hardly fleet-footed Gianni Rivera, there's nothing wrong with Pizarro's supposedly slow-churning wheels, especially as he's very good at lifting the ball slightly so that he evades sliding tackles and gains breathing space, and his play for Udinese - despite a nagging groin problem - has been a glaring witness to that.
It was actually Spalletti's decision to deploy him in a more withdrawn role, giving Dane Martin Jorgensen a freer attacking position on the left.
Pizarro hovers on the middle to left-side of the pitch, and his central role for Udinese is clear when one looks at statistics: he's in the top ten for midfielders for passes completed and successful dribbles (so much for slow feet, then), where oddly enough he's joined on the list by Jorgensen. This more than anything else explains why Udinese are among the best footballing sides of the Serie A.
Pizarro played a leading role in Chile's bronze medal at the 2000 Olympics (CliveBrunskill/GettyImages)
Pizarro covers what can be termed as a relatively small area but is very quick to make himself available to receive passes from the defenders and prompt Udinese into action.
Although prone to giving away possession when his imagination gets the better of him and when he tries to be too clever, Spalletti's trust in him is now complete and this sparkling form, along with good penalty-taking (despite missing one against Parma), has inevitably fuelled speculation that he'll join a big club long before his Udinese contract expires in 2005.
Among the usual suspects for the 8m euro rated Pizarro are player-collectors like Inter (whose owner Massimo Moratti is said to be a great admirer of him), Roma, Juventus, possibly Parma, Deportivo La Coruna and Real Betis.
Pizarro himself has hinted heavily this week at his desire to play for a big club and considering that his full name is David Marcelo Pizarro Cortez - he thus carries the surname of two of Spain's most notorious conquerors and destroyers of native Central and South America's heritage - it is perhaps only fitting that David acts out a sort of reverse conquest and goes on to leave his mark in La Liga.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If Pizarro is as good as this, I will be pleased if we get him.
--------------------------------
It's a Pizarro world
Roberto Gotta
Remember the first word processors in your Eighties' PCs? They had a default gizmo which flared up a red on-screen warning of 'error' whenever you happened to use the words 'Udinese' and 'internationals' in the same sentence.
David Pizarro's skills have bewitched Serie A, as Milan's Gattuso would vouch. (GraziaNeri/GettyImages)
You probably never noticed because you never, ever, not even by mistake, typed those two words together, but I swear it's true.
That plug-in was removed a few years back, when it went out of fashion as soon as dear old Udinese started signing players who were actually not just up-and-coming teenagers who'd be sold on before they reached the international scene or old carthorses gone to pasture but young talents who are a vibrant part of their national team's set-up.
Israeli international Ronny Rosenthal was shamefully driven away even before setting foot in Udine when anti-Semitic graffiti were found on the team headquarters' outside walls the morning after his announced signing which was subsequently cancelled by the panic-stricken directors. Stefano Fiore became one such international but soon after - predictably - went South (to Lazio) both literally and metaphorically then made a comeback, but now the situation is such that coach Luciano Spalletti finds himself missing a few members of his squad whenever international week arrives.
The most prominent absence this week has been that of David Pizarro, the Black and Whites' 23-yr old midfield schemer, now a valuable member of a Chile squad he led to a bronze medal in the 2000 Olympics.
The mere fact that Pizarro is still playing for Udinese is perhaps baffling to outsiders who think volatile owner Gino Pozzo's club is one of the most unfashionable ones in Italy. But the truth is Udine can also be a happy place where - despite the Rosenthal incident - you'll very rarely encounter crowd trouble and fans generally respect players and managers, with little known evidence of harassment after poor performances.
Not for the Udinese people the excesses now sadly common in other parts of Italy where you can put a foot wrong during a game and risk having it cut off by a homemade grenade the next day.
With a grand view of the majestic, snow-capped Alpi Carniche and Alpi Giulie part of the Dolomites from the club's training ground, Pizarro may sometimes be reminded of his native port city of Valparaiso's eastward Andean landscape. Yet when he joined in 1999, after two seasons with Santiago Wanderers (41 appearances, three goals), Pizarro immediately found his way into manager Gigi De Canio's doghouse.
De Canio, just one in a line of successful Udinese coaches (Alberto Zaccheroni and Francesco Guidolin being the others) and the only one to lead the team to the top of the Serie A, albeit briefly, had not sanctioned Pozzo and top executive Gianpaolo Marino's signing of Pizarro, and quickly discarded him for being too inexperienced and too casual on the ball for Italian football, which explains his nine total appearances during the 1999-2000 and 2000-01 season.
At one point Pizarro was loaned to Universidad de Chile, where he even played in the Libertadores Cup and scored a couple of goals before jetting back to Udine in the summer of 2001.
By then Roy Hodgson had taken over, and the Englishman's quick assessment of his team brought to his attention the fact that Pizarro could be effective playing just behind the main strikers, where his quick thinking can be used to open up opportunities.
Although Hodgson did not last much at Udinese, his appraisal of Pizarro's skills (Çhe's got tons of talent, he can take charge of my team) have permeated his successors' view of things and the Chilean is now a feature in the middle of the Black and White's midfield, with 56 appearances and seven goals in the last two seasons.
With his diminutive height at 1.69 and low centre of gravity, Pizarro can turn quickly although he's generally not regarded as having quick feet like the player he's been compared to, Maradona, a comparison which could only make things worse for him.
His vision is excellent, and with time he's learned to get rid of the ball quicker and to take on the mantle of regista, the player who can put a foot on the ball and set the rest of the team in motion with a simple, defence-splitting pass which brings a shed of light to the whole stadium.
As the epitome of the Serie A regista (literally, movie director) has always been the hardly fleet-footed Gianni Rivera, there's nothing wrong with Pizarro's supposedly slow-churning wheels, especially as he's very good at lifting the ball slightly so that he evades sliding tackles and gains breathing space, and his play for Udinese - despite a nagging groin problem - has been a glaring witness to that.
It was actually Spalletti's decision to deploy him in a more withdrawn role, giving Dane Martin Jorgensen a freer attacking position on the left.
Pizarro hovers on the middle to left-side of the pitch, and his central role for Udinese is clear when one looks at statistics: he's in the top ten for midfielders for passes completed and successful dribbles (so much for slow feet, then), where oddly enough he's joined on the list by Jorgensen. This more than anything else explains why Udinese are among the best footballing sides of the Serie A.
Pizarro played a leading role in Chile's bronze medal at the 2000 Olympics (CliveBrunskill/GettyImages)
Pizarro covers what can be termed as a relatively small area but is very quick to make himself available to receive passes from the defenders and prompt Udinese into action.
Although prone to giving away possession when his imagination gets the better of him and when he tries to be too clever, Spalletti's trust in him is now complete and this sparkling form, along with good penalty-taking (despite missing one against Parma), has inevitably fuelled speculation that he'll join a big club long before his Udinese contract expires in 2005.
Among the usual suspects for the 8m euro rated Pizarro are player-collectors like Inter (whose owner Massimo Moratti is said to be a great admirer of him), Roma, Juventus, possibly Parma, Deportivo La Coruna and Real Betis.
Pizarro himself has hinted heavily this week at his desire to play for a big club and considering that his full name is David Marcelo Pizarro Cortez - he thus carries the surname of two of Spain's most notorious conquerors and destroyers of native Central and South America's heritage - it is perhaps only fitting that David acts out a sort of reverse conquest and goes on to leave his mark in La Liga.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If Pizarro is as good as this, I will be pleased if we get him.
There is no doubt in my mind Pizzaro is excellent player. Good passing, vision, and I like the his direct mentality in the midfield.
I wouldnt mind if we sign him but there is another outstanding player IMO we have offers similar stuff to Pizarro - Enzo Maresca
Btw. I am not convinced of Pizarro's defending.
Nonetheless, he would be a huge upgrade over Tachinardi Conte Appiah.
Anyway signing Rosicky or Aimar should be primary objective. They are type of players who you can build around.
I wouldnt mind if we sign him but there is another outstanding player IMO we have offers similar stuff to Pizarro - Enzo Maresca
Btw. I am not convinced of Pizarro's defending.
Nonetheless, he would be a huge upgrade over Tachinardi Conte Appiah.
Anyway signing Rosicky or Aimar should be primary objective. They are type of players who you can build around.