Xavi vs Pirlo

[Epic]

Yeah, don't really feel comfortable comparing the 2, love them both.

 

[Ahmad94]

Pirlo- end of Discussion

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Instead of opening another thread and cluttering the place up with threads about individual players (like at EA), I thought I'd post this here.

We have Xavi vs Pirlo, what about Scholes (circa 1999) vs Pirlo?

 

[KBC]

Can't be compared really.

Pirlo is the king of long passing, Xavi is the king of short passing.

Both can't be compared with each other or anyone in the world.

It's unfair to use stats to compare them, Spain is much better than Italy and Barca is much better than AC Milan and Juve. Puddleduck is spot on.

Xavi Hernandez - Mr Throughball - YouTube

 

[MasterBlaster76]

Perhaps Scholes vs Pirlo is a fairer contest then, given they are both masters of the long pass.

 

[thedon5]

Xavi Hernandez - Mr Throughball - YouTube

Obviously he is a good long passer as well, one of the best. Any midfielder has to be able to play passes like that. Just can't match Pirlo. He doesn't attempt as many (due to the system probably), and usually his aren't as effective as Pirlo's.

Montages are a terrible way of proving something anyway. I could pull up a montage that made Carroll looka very good player. A real match, or a match compilation is the best you can do to prove something.

ANDY CARROLL | LIVERPOOL 2011-2012 HD - YouTube

Some Carroll for you.

 

[KBC]

I'm not trying to prove if it's right or wrong.

Ofc it's impossible to argue due to their playing styles, to each their own.

 

[Auwais]

As much as I have huge amounts of manlove for Paul Scholes, he'd be a clear third behind Xavi and Pirlo.

 

[Sulaiman7]

Xavi is way better then Pirlo .

 

[KBC]

I can't find the badass meme my net's too slow....

 

[MasterBlaster76]

As much as I have huge amounts of manlove for Paul Scholes, he'd be a clear third behind Xavi and Pirlo.

What about in his prime? It's hardly fair to compare someone whose career is just about over to two players still in their prime (OK Pirlo's beginning to leave that stage, but you get my meaning).

 

[Auwais]

Even in his prime.

 

[War]

Yea i have similar manlove for Scholes ha, but he is certainly a clear third behind Xavi/Pirlo at their peaks.

He is probably as good as Alonso though who is the only similar top deep-lying playmaker of the last 10-15 years.

 

[Auwais]

He was better than Alonso in his peak, clearly.

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

I think a couple of things need to be given to Pirlo even though I think possibly Xavi filled the role better.

Pirlo basically re-invented the role, he was a traditional, baggio esque no. 10 struggling to live up to the hype when he was bought by milan and moved to the back of the diamond. This transformed him and also brought back the deep lying playmaker role that I can't think many other teams utilised. Scholes was used far higher up the pitch than Pirlo, though he dropped back sometimes.

So while I think Xavi dominates games a bit more, Pirlo does need to be given some credit for re-invigorating the role he plays and providing it's modern blueprint. The other thing is that Pirlo went very stale at milan, the midfield went unchanged too long except for the loss of Kaka, which is the last thing you'd want to do to a midfield, so he had quite a few years where he wasn't at his best.