Is Pirlo overrated in recent years?

almost every current famous players are overrated nowadays, that's include pirlo

 

I'm almost certain it was the beard.

Since he grew that beard the "cool factor" made people overrate him quite a bit despite the fact he was hardly as good as I remember him from the early and mid 2000. The hype would have made more sense back then.

 

Pirlo was a great player for Milan, and Pirlo also had two very good seasons with Juventus. But after his 12/13 season, I think he declined enough that the hype around him was not deserved.

 

I suppose the thing is that in the middle of 2013/14 the most recent Pirlo action a lot of us had seen might have been during Euro 2012 (the time when the reaction would be "wow, Pirlo is still ace - maybe a bit under-rated in his pomp now I think about it - is he better than ever at the moment even....etc etc".

If Serie A was still as watched as La Liga (in the 90's it was the other way around) then maybe the realisation of decline comes earlier outside of Italy.

 

A key thing in recent years, is how he's boosted his profile among English football fans and our media. That sublime performance against us in Euro 2012 and the chipped penalty in the shootout, made some of our football numbskulls sit up and take note of a magnificent player in his 30s ripping apart the 'mighty' England.

Since that game, he's become a big hype wagon in England and in the age of social media and has developed a persona of being the worlds coolest man:

"Here's Pirlo in his vineyard, with sunglasses and a beard - coolest man ever"

"Here's Pirlo playing a 40 yard pass - coolest man ever and a top, top player"

Every small thing he does is blown into oblivion. The English ran Twitter and Facebook accounts know they can get easy likes, shares, retweets by overhyping anything Pirlo does. It's also worth noting some hype has come because it's taken most in England this long to recognise what a great player Pirlo has been - especially as he hasn't graced our self proclaimed 'best league in the world'.

Zlatan is another one. Long touted as all mouth and not turning up in big games by English media, he put in a superb performance against Arsenal when he was at Barca and then scored a hattrick against England - including a 40 yard acrobatic finish. It's only now, people sit up and take note of Zlatan in England.

The fact they're outspoken, or in Pirlos case relatable, has boosted their profiles further.

Do I have a problem with that? Not at all, even at this stage in their careers. England as a country has been blinded by our flop of a 'golden generation' and we've not recognised the ability of some truly remarkable foreign players over this last decade.

The decline of Serie A and its popularity has also seen players who've played most of their career in Italy slip under the radar. Italian football is no longer the showpiece it once was in England in the 90s, thus making most only see these players in gene CL or international tournament.

In fact most even missed one of our own in Scholes until he retired. The testimonials from Xavi and Zidane about him being one of the best they've played against, only made some realise. Of course, regular viewers of Man United will tell you it was so obvious all along - yet it passed a few by. The dynamism of Gerrard and Lampard outweighed the skill and finesse of Scholes.

Is he Pirlo now overhyped? Yes. Does he deserve the praise? From England, yes.

 

Totally agree with this and also the English press has gone bonkers for him, if he does a long ball in a match everyone uligises over it for ages and that will over shadow the fact that he may have had a poor game.

I felt he had a poor UCL final, he gave the ball away a lot for any player let along a player of his passing ability. He was a great player but a long way off his peak now, comentators and media seem seem to pay n attention to league from or anything other than the odd long pass or shot.

Agree with image too, if he looked like a potato no one would keep shwoing photos of him in his shades, at a vineyard, in his Ferrari etc....

 

Never seen such a fine-tuned ripping of England (at least since Pirlo's at Euro12).

 

100% agree about Pirlo. Zlatan over-hype is similar but I don't think it was instigated by that Arsenal match. It was more to do what was coming out of his mouth and "the goal of the year" against England in that friendly.

He was average in that game at the Emirates, IMO. Missed like 10 chances before finally scoring on a goalkeeping error (although he did add a well-taken goal as well, without it it would have been a downright poor performance). IIRC, the talk after that match was focussed on how Barca played as a team in the first-half and of course how Arsenal managed to fight back for a draw. Very little was said about Ibra.