Xavi vs Pirlo

[War]

He was better than Alonso in his peak, clearly.

Yea, more dynamic as an attacking threat.

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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.

Ye that's a fair point indeed. The role of a deep-lying playmaker up until Pirlo did it was fairly non-existent for a few decades. A plethora of great triquartista (no.10) had emerged.

Alain Griesse of the famous magic square France 1980s mid-field, of Luis Ferndadez, Platini and Jean Tigana, Gerson of the 1970s Brazil team and Giani Rivera were probably the only similar players to Pirlo of the last 30-40 years.

 

[Auwais]

Not sure about that, in the early 00's there were very few around until around the mid to late 00's but prior to that we had the likes of Guardiola, Ver?n, Redondo, Valderrama, Xavi (before he was moved further forward), Matth?us, Liverani, Corini etc.

In general, they're very few of them anyway, given their specialised skill sets but certainly after Guardiola left Barca in the early 00's there were very few of them around and there was a general preference for a destroyer, which culminated in the media coming up with the term "Makelele role".

 

[StinkyBoHoon]

I'm not really sure they were the same role. maybe I'm confusing xavi's role at barcelona, I've not watched them play loads, but most of those midfielders were just the more offensive member of the central midfield in a flat 4-4-2.

Perhaps redondo was one. matthaus is harder to peg down because he played everywhere from attacking midfield to sweeper. Valderama and Veron were far more offensively position from what I recall. liverani was just rubbish.

Perhaps xavi is like these guys but I've watched milan and what I'd say marks the pirlo position is the sitting deep, pulling the opposition out and then moving the ball in behind them not necessarily beating them.

most of the guys you mentioned there are dozens of instances of them making surging runs and beating players. I guess though it is difficult to nail this sort of thing when it's really great players as they can do so much.

 

[War]

Not sure about that, in the early 00's there were very few around until around the mid to late 00's but prior to that we had the likes of Guardiola, Ver?n, Redondo, Valderrama, Xavi (before he was moved further forward), Matth?us, Liverani, Corini etc.

In general, they're very few of them anyway, given their specialised skill sets but certainly after Guardiola left Barca in the early 00's there were very few of them around and there was a general preference for a destroyer, which culminated in the media coming up with the term "Makelele role".

As SBH said, Veron and Valderrama although they had great passing ability had strong attacking threat to be fair.

Matthaus did everything, Guardiola was like a more advanced version of Busquets. But ye Redondo was one, similar to Alonso as i recall.

Didn't see much of Liverani and Corini to make a comment on them.

 

[uberdoo]

Xavi all day long

 

[spooony]

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.

^This. Cmon guys do you compare Apples and oranges.
Andrea Pirlo Statistics
Xavi Statistics

Barcelona press high defend from the front while Juve sit deeper and hit on the break.

You want a bit of both look at Paul Scholes. You know your special when a guy like Xavi admires you.

Not sure about that, in the early 00's there were very few around until around the mid to late 00's but prior to that we had the likes of Guardiola, Ver?n, Redondo, Valderrama, Xavi (before he was moved further forward), Matth?us, Liverani, Corini etc.

In general, they're very few of them anyway, given their specialised skill sets but certainly after Guardiola left Barca in the early 00's there were very few of them around and there was a general preference for a destroyer, which culminated in the media coming up with the term "Makelele role".

In the start of 00s, every one was obsessed with 2 types of players in the centre tough-tackling defensive midfielders and classic Number 10 creators. Most big sides used the destroyer-creator eg Davids-Zidane at Juventus. A deep-lying playmaker like Guardiola there was no place left in football

The destroyer and passer are now 1 eg. Busquets and Carrick. Pizzaro and Pirlo are guys same as Pep. Xavi wasn't moved forward. Barca just play a pressing game that is defend from the front. So he will be already be up high pressing his opponent

 

[Bilalshuja]

Xavi! for the win <3