Blog: Pirlo problem?
Are the batteries wearing down at Milan? Dave Taylor thinks so and feels Andrea Pirlo needs to get out of the spotlight to recharge his.
Milan have struggled so far this season and that’s likely to continue unless someone starts switching the lights on and grabs games by the scruff of the neck. In the past that player has been Andrea Pirlo, but the midfielder – like the rest of the team – looks sluggish.
The former Inter flop certainly isn’t the player he used to be and seems to be overly weary, something he was complaining about even before this summer’s exertions in the European Championship, when he really should have had his feet up.
He always seems to play in whatever match it is and surely this cannot continue. He needs a rest, he is a shadow of his earlier days, but the big problem is who can replace him with the Rossoneri or the Azzurri for that matter?
On the international stage, perhaps Alberto Aquilani is the answer, but he is not even guaranteed a first team game with Roma. Marcello Lippi saw the same Pirlo as I did against Georgia and replaced him with Angelo Palombo, but he doesn’t have as much class as Riverino.
Sadly Pirlo has the look of a tired fox hunted into the ground at night, caught in the spotlight, frightened, frail and frequently hiding. He is struggling to come to terms with the new system that Coach Carlo Ancelotti has imposed on them this term and there is even more pressure on the midfield after their losing start.
Pirlo is or at least was the axis on which the Rossoneri use to swing and under normal circumstances he would be one of the deep lying midfielders, but should Carlo try Mathieu Flamini and Max Ambrosini for the time being in a 4-2-3-1?
Let me stress that I have nothing against Pirlo, who on his day, which are becoming less frequent, is surely one of the best midfielders in Europe. But he needs to start performing because his club and his country just can’t afford to carry him any longer.
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