andy18cruz
Sth, sth ... dark side
Re: England Thread - Youth it is!
I like Pirlo very much, but he's no demi-god, specially now, on his late 30's. Pirlo defensively does not run. On England goal he's jogging, when Sterling was scanning the field and ultimately made a huge pass. His defence is only positional. He does not even go for the easy interceptions.
Offensively, he rarely misses a pass, controls the tempo of a game and barely losses the ball. But he does not run either. You don't need two men to control him. Benfica prove that on the EL semis. We put our second striker (Rodrigo) on him, when he was closer to his CB's and our CMF (Enzo Pérez) when he was going forward. You cannot block him totally, but you can disrupt the rhythm of the team. Juve played very slow paced game, and Benfica could control the majority of the match, even without the ball.
You constantly need to have two "workhorses" on the midfield to compensate his deficiencies. Gattuso/Sedoorf, De Rossi/Marchisio, Vidal/Pogba. It's still worth it, because he sees the game like no other and execute it like a “maestro”, but I'm sick of people praising him, when they completely forget that he has a lot of deficiencies on his game (Contrary to a player like Xavi, which can to a similar role, but be efficient in both aspects of the game).
As for England, I think Hodgson made a crucial mistake on the game plan. Playing Rooney on the sides is not a good idea. He give it all, but his not effective, especially since he’s not been the same for a number of years (he seems to lack the explosion and speed that he had before). Sterling played well in a more central role (but was a beast when he was moved to the right), but still, Rooney behind Sturridge would’ve been better IMO.
I like Pirlo very much, but he's no demi-god, specially now, on his late 30's. Pirlo defensively does not run. On England goal he's jogging, when Sterling was scanning the field and ultimately made a huge pass. His defence is only positional. He does not even go for the easy interceptions.
Offensively, he rarely misses a pass, controls the tempo of a game and barely losses the ball. But he does not run either. You don't need two men to control him. Benfica prove that on the EL semis. We put our second striker (Rodrigo) on him, when he was closer to his CB's and our CMF (Enzo Pérez) when he was going forward. You cannot block him totally, but you can disrupt the rhythm of the team. Juve played very slow paced game, and Benfica could control the majority of the match, even without the ball.
You constantly need to have two "workhorses" on the midfield to compensate his deficiencies. Gattuso/Sedoorf, De Rossi/Marchisio, Vidal/Pogba. It's still worth it, because he sees the game like no other and execute it like a “maestro”, but I'm sick of people praising him, when they completely forget that he has a lot of deficiencies on his game (Contrary to a player like Xavi, which can to a similar role, but be efficient in both aspects of the game).
As for England, I think Hodgson made a crucial mistake on the game plan. Playing Rooney on the sides is not a good idea. He give it all, but his not effective, especially since he’s not been the same for a number of years (he seems to lack the explosion and speed that he had before). Sterling played well in a more central role (but was a beast when he was moved to the right), but still, Rooney behind Sturridge would’ve been better IMO.