2007 Milan played football 6-7 years ago. And Pirlo was 6-7 years younger. They had Kaka who was possibly the best in the world.
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World Cup football is not the same level as CL. Teams are not as cohesive. Italy plugged the midfield, they didn't press. It worked once vs. Spain then the final game was more open, they were destroyed. Alba made a run from his back line and split the entire team with his pace FFS.
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You honestly make me laugh every time you talk about Pirlo like he's some defensive savant. Like he's the only player in the world who literally just jogs around the field but somehow can stop offenses. I can go look up any goal where Pirlo is in the picture and it'll look the same every time. He is jogging and players are whizzing past him. Off the top of my head I'll find Alba's goal:
Edit:
If he was a master of positioning, perhaps he would at least shift to the side of the ball. It's funny to see De Rossi look over his shoulder to Pirlo like, "Fuck, no help there."
That goal really isn't even his fault but it's just an example of his lack of defensive urgency. He is jogging the whole time. Not giving a fuck. You can go look at the 2 goals in Madrid. Not a fuck was given, especially when Di Maria cut right across him at the top of the box. He has no side to side range, no sprint speed, no recovery speed, nothing.
We only succeed because if a play like that ever arises, instead of De Rossi, we have an animal named Vidal who does the work of 2 players and closes lanes one after another. Literally does the work of 2 players at certain times in the match.
And to your last point, you are starting to make my point for me. Better players in attack means less reliance on Pirlo, which is good, but also makes me question what's the point of fielding such a defensive liability if he's just going to "switch the ball around" as you say. Surely, we'd be better off with a more dynamic DM who can actually defend as well as "switch the ball around". As you said, even Bonucci can pick out Llorente now.
1) How many teams play with a regista ? How many good regista's are there ? Juventus is using one, cause they have one and build a team to accomodate him.
- Madrid technically has one, but they have 0 good central midfielders. So they just place offensive talent around him, and a talentless overrated fool like khedira next to him.
- Dortmund has the "modern" regista in gundogan who is less talented as pirlo, but 4x faster yes. But dortmund allready had excellent wings before Gundo and gotze popped. So he got integrated
Then, there was 2007 Milan. You say "pirlo was younger and they had Kaka". That sir, is an excellent remark. Where madrid and dortmund have wingers, milan didnt have them. However, they had gattuso, seedorf, pirlo ambrosini and kaka. So they got a xmas shape to accomodate all those players.
They proved, you dont need wingers, but you need excellent central midfielders instead.
2) Italy flooded the midfield and controlled the close space with a 3-5-2 shape in the first game. Spain couldnt get into gear.
In the final game, italy team was deadtired cause of the significantly harder and longer games -1 recovery day, had injuries, and prandelli, decided to drop the 3-5-2 and went 4-4-2 instead and had it destroyed.
3) Pirlo is not a defensive pillar. He doesnt need to be in a 3-5-2 or 4-1-3-1-1. What he needs to do is position himself in such way that the central creative players of the opponent arent reachable via a simple ground pass, forcing the attacker to try something hard, or cut back, allowing the team to get into shape. Pirlo's off the ball movement is quite excellent tbh, both offensively and defensively. He doesnt have marchisio's physique offcourse and doesnt cover closeby when needed, but in mentionned formations its not needed.
as for the goal : Pirlo's positionning at mentionned video is actually good, he should stay there in case someone comes central.
De rossi, not beeing a natural defender, looks in his back to check if someone comes running in, what a midfielder should do, instead of focussing on the player.
4) The reason we succeed, is quite simple the players we have. Our most priced possessions, are Vidal and Pogba, the world's best CM and the clearly best player under 21. They are aggressive pressing cm's that make offensive runs. They synergise excellently with Pirlo, cause they'll do the pressing and he can just cover them.
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My last point, is about my own tactical preference.
ultimately, i adore 3 formations. 4-2-3-1; 4-3-1-2 ; 3-3-2-1-1 (352 variant)
Only one of those formations allows for a regista, wich is the last one (3D, regista+2WB, 2CM, 1SS/CAM, 1P). Juventus sort off has the players for it.
Sort off, not ideal.
You see i'm not the biggest fan of using a regista. I'm the forums biggest fan of the trequartista. EVERY formation i'll ever put up, or use in a game, will be with a trequartista.
I like Regista's, but they need to be covered adequately.
But the real deal is, if pirlo goes, who will bring the creativity ? This is why we need him. We dont have the money to go ahead and make big transfers of creative players. Sure i have some idea's if we got varying degrees of cash, but right now, its best to stay low, and watch how the market goes
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As a conclusion, i'll present you my formation, in case juventus magically had 100 million to spend
Buffon
Lichtsteiner - Barzagli - Chiellini - Asamoah
Gundogan
Vidal-----------Pogba
Aguero
Tevez ------Llorente