Juventus Special: Andrea Pirlo, the Maestro of Italian Football

Background

Andrea Pirlo was born in Flero, Italy on May 19, 1979. He started playing football as a Brescia youth team player in 1994 and it did not take too long for him to catch the eye of the Brescia coaches. In 1995 Brescia offered the then-16-year-old Pirlo a professional contract.

Brescia days

Pirlo started his professional playing career as an attacking midfielder. It was the time when Italian football was known for the extraordinary creative trequartista and any player that was gifted with ball control was automatically expected to play that position.

Pirlo played some great games during the first two years of his time at Brescia but it was in 1998 when he made a real impact. In the second half of the 1997-1998 season, Pirlo played as a central midfielder and that was when he started giving long accurate passes, which would later become a trademark of his.

Inter move

In the summer of 1998 it was announced that Inter had moved to sign the 19-year-old Pirlo. Many expected big things from Pirlo during the 1998-1999 season, but Pirlo failed to become a first-team member and was shipped out on loans to Reggina for the 1999-2000 season and then to Brescia in January of 2001. Pirlo impressed on both loan spells but was still somehow out of favour in Inter. That led to the transfer across the city to join the other Milan outfit.

AC Milan career

When he was signed by Carlo Ancelotti, many did not understand the concept behind the move. Questions like, “How will a second-fiddle Inter player improve our team?” were asked from the coach, and the answer would soon come.

Ancelotti understood why Pirlo was not so successful so far—because he was not suited for a central midfield role that was expected of him to play. At the time, central midfielders were the engines of a team and did the most work. Pirlo does not have the physical attributes to match that.

This meant that Ancelotti started using his new signing as a deep creative midfielder and this was the start of the legend of Pirlo for Milan and Italy. Pirlo dictated the tempo of play with his passing. He was constantly creating with his unbelievable vision from the center of the pitch, keeping his energy by just moving slightly forward during attacks and almost never entering the box and providing the team with important goals with his stunning and accurate shots.

Final year at Milan

Pirlo was the passing weapon of AC Milan for nine years and is considered a Milan legend by the fans. During the 10th year of his career with the Rossoneri, he faced many injuries and was ruled out of most of the season.

These injuries forced the Milan team’s coach to come up with a system that would work without the Italian playmaker. After the black and reds won the league, it was obvious that the coach would not risk another year with a player that was injured for so long and is 32 years old.

Juventus

Weeks before Pirlo’s contract finished with AC Milan, the club had announced that they would not offer him a new deal and that he was free to discuss his future with other clubs. Juventus, coming off another awful season, had already started talks with Pirlo's agents and moved to sign him as their first signing of the 2011 summer and as the first player in their rebuilding process. Pirlo signed a three-year contract with Juventus on May 24, 2011.

Strengths

Passing: One of the best passers of the ball and has unbelievable accuracy and control over both long-range and short-range passing. He can control the tempo of the game and has a great eye for the killer pass.

Shooting: Pirlo is known for accurate long-distance shots and is brilliant in curling shots.

Free kicks: He is deadly and has the ability to shoot and cross with great accuracy.

Touch: Pirlo has a great first touch and is also very skillful with the ball. He can go on runs, dribbling past three or four defenders at times.

Weaknesses

Pace: lacks the speed to go past players or offer help in counter-attacks.

Defending: is a bad tackler and cannot read the opposing players very well.

Physique: is not the strongest of players and can be bullied off the ball.

Injury: has become extremely injury prone in the past couple of seasons.

Heading: has good passing headers, but hardly challenges for a header.

Positions

Because of his attributes there are various positions that Antonio Conte could use the veteran in.

4-2-2-2: Sitting next to a combative defensive midfielder, Pirlo would play as the man who will be able to control the tempo of the game, getting help from two narrow wingers.

4-2-3-1: Here Pirlo will be able to play a deeper position but will have to be more defensive, which is not a strength of his.

4-2-4: A formation that the coach apparently prefers, Pirlo would be the player that delivers the deadly passes through the opposition defence and would also open up the game by cross-pitch passes.

1995–1998 >Brescia 47 (6)
1998–2001 >Internazionale 22 (0)
1999–2000 >> Reggina (loan) 29 (6)
2001 >> Brescia (loan) 10 (0)
2001–2011 >Milan 284 (32)