Pirlo, Long Passes, & Control - Revised 8/20

OPTA And UEFA Stats For EURO 2012

Pirlo Highlights Modern Characteristics Of Football

Get stuck in son!  Er, can't tackle what I can't catch, Boss.

Coming out of EURO 2012, one brief mention in another blog post (by Martin Laurence at whoscored) about the number of long passes played by Andrea Pirlo (named by Michael Cox as "...the most important player of his generation.") in the tournament got me thinking about youth soccer, and how misinformed so many participants are.  Laurence used OPTA's stats and a careful reading of their definitions does not satisfy the obvious question; how long is a long pass? (8/20/12 NOTE: FourFourTwo, who partners with OPTA to offer their statszone app, state that the definition of a long pass is anything over 30 yards)  UEFA does the same, and their numbers were different for Pirlo: from the final backward through the group stage he played, by UEFA's count, 11 (of 81)-13 (of 86)-32 (of 146)-9 (of 91)-14 (of 79)-12 (of 57) long passes.  That's an average of 15.16 long passes per game, 50% more than OPTA credited him with- more on this below.

Every time I watch a youth level match and hear the fans, coaches and teammates get excited by a long, searching pass played forward, I cringe a little.  There is room in the game for that pass, no one would argue this.  It is the sheer insistence on it as the sole offensive weapon of choice that suffocates the finer points of the beautiful game.  And I hold goalkeepers and their coaches in particular contempt in this department - having coached three separate GKs to all-league status in the Patriot League in NCAA Division I (one woman and two men) and yet finding all three frustratingly deficient in their ability to distribute the ball accurately enough or via the shorter options.  

Pirlo, like Xavi and Modric, is a special player in the most global sense.  Whichever version of his long passing numbers we take into consideration, the bottom line is that he plays fewer long passes than one would most likely expect in a match.  Take away the England numbers (32 long passes in 146 total passing attempts) and his average by UEFA's count is: 11.8.  That's much closer to OPTA's number of 9.8 per game.   We might even conclude that his numbers V. England were so distorted because of the way in which the Italians felt the English would be best attacked; it seems fair to guess those long balls were by design to exploit a weakness.  Possibly to get over or around the compact, rather negative, English game plan.

Not another long ball, Andrea!

What's more telling, in case the argument that he's the possession man pops into mind, is that he is in the top two (including Buffon, the GK!) in every EURO match for Italy for long passes attempted.  And his average led the entire tournament.  He not only tries the most (or nearly so) long passes, but does so averaging a mere 10-15 attempts per game, again excusing the outlier of the England match, where the English again proved their inability to either adapt to the modern game, or recognize their "get stuck in lads!" approach doesn't work.  (Yet American clubs and colleges continue to hire English coaches by the fistful.  Tough commentary on the quality of American coaching, no?  And/or administrators hiring practices...)

The implications of these numbers is not to say what a genius Pirlo is (though boy, is he!) but rather to highlight that when the center mid is playing more long balls than the GK, the center backs, and so on, we can ascertain that the playmaker decides when to hit the aggressive ball; the rest of the team ensures possession so that the gifted passer(s) can make that choice.  

Youth players and coaches, let's take note.

As a post script, check out this article by Sid Lowe in the Guardian.  A succinct review of the natural conclusion (at least, the best example currently around) of this approach to football...Spain (and by extension, Barca) and how short passing is creating a new paradigm (see: Swansea 2011-12).  Fun read!