“Football always changes and it changes quickly,” Andrea Pirlo tells Sky Sports. “It has become much more physical, much faster. In fact, if you want to win now, you need players who are fast and technically good one-on-one. Otherwise, you go nowhere.”
Speaking to the great Italian midfielder his verdict on modern football can feel like a lament. “The teams that win now have fast players. It was not so bad once. You could afford technically skilled players without speed, whereas now you need players at this level.”
Even in his prime, Pirlo appeared something of an anachronism. Now 47, his career spent shuttling around at the base of midfield feels like another world. Having started out in a more attacking role at Inter, he was famously deployed there to find more space.
Fabio Grosso with Andrea Pirlo in pursuit after scoring in the 2006 World Cup semi-final
It worked spectacularly, triumphing twice in the Champions League with AC Milan either side of a World Cup win with Italy in 2006. He controlled games well into his mid-thirties but maybe the future was signposted in his final appearance in European club football.
Pirlo bowed out with Juventus when they were beaten in the 2015 Champion League final by Barcelona. Their coach that night in Berlin? One Luis Enrique, winning the trophy for the first time. “Luis Enrique is the best coach in the world at the moment,” he says.
Significantly, that match also marked Xavi’s final game for Barcelona. Pirlo’s great admiration for that Barca midfield of Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets was such that he once admitted to spending hours playing as the Catalan club on the PlayStation.
But Luis Enrique has built a side to rival them in Paris. “He has created a strong team, a strong mentality with young players. It is a real pleasure to see them do well and even better to watch them because it is fast, dynamic, technical football that everyone likes.”
As many others have pointed out, Paris Saint-Germain’s great success in Europe came only after Neymar, Lionel Messi and finally Kylian Mbappe had departed. Pirlo is among those who sees this as significant and a testament to the work of Luis Enrique in Paris.
“It is all thanks to the coach. He wanted to get rid of all the stars that were there before him and he preferred to start again with people who did what the coach asked them to do. It is a team that runs, runs again, defends and in the end the results are on his side.”
One would assume that Pirlo’s own experiences in his career would encourage him to believe in the power of the individual, the benefits of indulging genius. In his youth, he was at Brescia alongside Roberto Baggio, a team built around one very special player.
Pirlo would go on to spent eight seasons playing under Carlo Ancelotti in Milan, someone who always tried to accommodate talent. As a coach, he had Cristiano Ronaldo at Juventus. And yet, he is firm in his assessment that Luis Enrique is right.
“There is no longer a player who can do what he wants,” says Pirlo. “The individual has to be part of the team. You have to attack and defend like everyone else, doing the same tasks. At this level, you cannot afford to lose just one player in the defensive phase.”
While the reinvented Ousmane Dembele and the tireless Khvicha Kvaratskhelia epitomise this attitude in the forward line, Pirlo is drawn to the presence of their diminutive playmaker. Vitinha’s passing is clean and sharp but he is perpetually on the move too.
“I like him a lot. He is a player with great vision for the game. He is always calm, even when under pressure.” Pirlo 2.0? Vitinha is busier and does not quite have the range of the Italian but it does not take a genius to spot certain similarities between the two men.
Paris Saint-Germain midfielder Vitinha is a favourite of the legendary Andrea Pirlo
That uncanny ability to retain possession in tight spaces was a feature of Pirlo’s own game. His distribution was remarkable but it was that he did it all while looking utterly unflustered. “If you never lose the ball under pressure, it is easier,” he says, succinctly.
Seeing things before they happen
But how was he able to make it look so effortless? “Technique is important,” he says. “It is important to know how you are going to receive the ball with your body position. But it is also important to understand beforehand where your team-mates are on the pitch.”
He explains: “You need to have already seen what is going to happen before it happens. Then, of course, having the control and the personality when you have the ball, that is another thing. But to already have the picture, to be able to look ahead, it is important.”
Pirlo certainly had that. He played in four Champions League finals, winning two and losing two. “It is easier to remember the ones you have won,” he says, smiling. That happened with Milan in 2003 and 2007, Pirlo provided the assist for the opener in the latter final.
Pippo Inzaghi scores from Andrea Pirlo’s free-kick in the 2007 Champions League final
It was his free-kick that was diverted in by Pippo Inzaghi against Liverpool. “A well-prepared routine.” It avenged the famous defeat to the same opposition in Istanbul two years earlier. “Even the less happy moments can help you to improve,” he points out.
Champions League final verdict
Set-pieces, a major feature of the Premier League season, could yet define Europe’s showpiece occasion too. Arsenal have the edge there. “They have two central defenders and a striker who are very good in the air. They will look to take advantage,” argues Pirlo.
“Arsenal have the ability in these situations because they study it. I have been following them a lot in the Premier League and Champions League. They have had a great run in the last few years, not just this year, and they deserved to win the Premier League title.
“PSG do not have these big jumpers so they will have to look for different solutions. It is set up well because PSG are the holders, while for Arsenal it is the first time [in the final] in 20 years but they come in having just won a Premier League. I make it 60-40 for Paris.”
Football has changed.
But Andrea Pirlo still reads the game better than most.
