[squidward123]

Without a shadow of a doubt for me is Andrea Pirlo. The consistency for the last several years, and bringing it on in the biggest moments of World Cups and other competitions.

I stopped after an hour of the Italy v/s Portugal match to make this thread.

His intelligence...

Stands out like a sore thumb, in a game riddled with players blind to passes and movements they can make to enhance the quality of the attacking/defensive prospects of the team.

He doesn't dribble like C Ronaldo you say?

Why dribble every time when you can see things ahead of everyone else and make moves and passes around teams.

He is so comfortable (read : flexible) and effective in any area of the field.

And when he reckons it's time to dribble, he sure can in a couple of elegant sweeping steps.

If every team in the world emptied their squads and could draft a player american style, then every team in the world should draft this guy first.

[Khaloisha]

Originally Posted by squidward123

Without a shadow of a doubt for me is Andrea Pirlo. The consistency for the last several years, and bringing it on in the biggest moments of World Cups and other competitions.

I stopped after an hour of the Italy v/s Portugal match to make this thread.

His intelligence...

Stands out like a sore thumb, in a game riddled with players blind to passes and movements they can make to enhance the quality of the attacking/defensive prospects of the team.

He doesn't dribble like C Ronaldo you say?

Why dribble every time when you can see things ahead of everyone else and make moves and passes around teams.

He is so comfortable (read : flexible) and effective in any area of the field.

And when he reckons it's time to dribble, he sure can in a couple of elegant sweeping steps.

If every team in the world emptied their squads and could draft a player american style, then every team in the world should draft this guy first.

I do agree. Having a friend who's for Milan, I use to see him through the years, and his consistency and football intelligence are something you can miss when you see him.
He's the heart of a team, when he's out of shape the team is gonna definitely struggle.

[argaen]

C. Ronaldo's stats speak for itself.

[squidward123]

Originally Posted by argaen

C. Ronaldo's stats speak for itself.

So do Pirlo's and they're on a different level to C Ronaldo's altogether. To see this you have to look at football in an entirely holistic way.

For me Pirlo is the closest thing to Franz Beckenbauer these days in intelligence as well as sheer elegance. Beckenbauer is a little ahead in both though.

[Teso Dos Bichos]

I like Pirlo a lot. Not as much as jpick does but it is close. What mainly strikes me about Pirlo is that he is a maverick. We can discuss deep-lying playmakers in depth but you will not find a similar player in terms of approach to the game, overall skillset and importance to club and country (AC Milan and Italy respectively). I'm not going to debate his quality but I will discuss two of the major issues you have raised.

(1) Is Pirlo the best player in the world?

I do not believe that Pirlo is the best player in the world. He is up there but I would have several players ahead of him. My problem with Pirlo is two-fold and it centres around him being entirely dependent on two factors that are outside of his control. Firstly he needs a complementary player in order to perform to his best and without one his influence on a game can diminish. Secondly his game is dependent on the rest of his team making the correct attacking runs and actually doing something with his service. Granted he cannot be blamed for the second factor and it is one that applies to all deep-lying playmakers but it is still an issue. These factors mean that Pirlo's overall level of performance and influence can vary greatly and I simply cannot claim him to be best player in the world as a direct result.

Now obviously others will feel differently and it depends on the criteria you use to judge players. If you take the last 18 months or so (which I do because I think form is very important when comparing players) then I would have Cristiano Ronaldo and Francesco Totti above him, perhaps a couple more as well.

(2) Is he the #1 draft pick?

This is dependent on how people like to construct their teams. As Pirlo is pretty unique as a player then I could understand someone wanting to take him first but I would not. Obviously it depends on the nature of the draft but I could not bring myself to pick a player that forces me in a certain direction from pick one, particularly when his impact is heavily dependent on the rest of his potential team.

[d3d3]

The best player in the world is KAKA





http://prize.zzl.org/vote.php?id=21695 vote here

[squidward123]

Teso, you listed a couple of things which are minus points for Pirlo. But I reckon he can make things happen off the dribble too. But he doesn't need to as normally his teammates are pretty intelligent players.

Teso, what do you use to judge the level of a player then?

[squidward123]

jeez, not many people get it do they, judging by the number of replies on this thread.

[actusreus13]

Relax, weekends are always slow.
My 2 cents would be that it is simply impossible to determine who the BEST player in the world is or was because the determination will invariably contain a dose of subjectivity whether as to the criteria selection, or the meaning of being the best. I think it would be a little easier if selection was done by the position played, which many polls and threads have done in the past here.
I also think that there are several players who stand out from the rest and are in a league of their own, but different skills or talents got them there. Pirlo is one of them.

[squidward123]

Pirlo transcends "positions"