Pirlo given the opportunity to choose his replacement, but how do you replace a great?

It appears Andrea Pirlo’s has given his two pence about who will be the man to replace him as a deep lying playmaker for the Italian national squad when he inevitably hangs up his boots,  but who is it?

Of course, it is Marco Verratti currently playing for PSG, and if you don’t know much about it, I’ll give you a quick run through of what he’s like. Now, he has everything that Pirlo has, the wonderful ability to screen in front of the defence and intercept the ball and can even slide tackle relatively well, when he gains experience and the savviness needed to play the position not only well, but look good when he does it, he will no doubt be one of the best players in the world in a few years’ time. To be compared even slightly with Andrea, he needs a phenomenal passing range, and yes, he does have one that looks like it could be a carbon copy of the Pirlo, I have no doubt that either of these two can spray a pass from 70+ and put it through the eye of a needle, or some other cliché like that. With the long passing, you need short passing in contrast and I’ve just watched a montage of both players and it is scarily similar, you can definitely tell that Verratti has moulded his game upon Pirlo and even recently said that Andrea is his favourite player, but with Marco, he adds more mobility and can change direction scarily quick.  

But how long until Pirlo hangs up his boots, admittedly I haven’t seen much of him this season but I have heard inklings from football writers saying he has slightly gone off the boil in the latter half of Juve’s 2^nd title winning season in the same amount of years, but I think the romantic in me doesn’t want it to be true but it will happen to every player eventually, I can’t see it be Pirlo is losing his legs, he’s never based his game around pace, much like Xavi of Bareclona. I think it could inevitably be players are learning how to play against him and deems him not as influential as he has shown he can be which of course is a shame, but with Verratti in mind, it won’t be long till he controls the England midfield single handed like his predecessor did in the Euro’s. I can imagine England will still be playing a 4-4-2 and Marco will have a whale of a time with all his ball retention he’d be doing.  

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