By: COLIN REESE
Three playmakers: Andrea Pirlo, Marco Verratti, Antonio Cassano.
Will Cesare Prandelli start all three at once?
Pirlo, The Regista. Verratti, The Falso Trequartista. Cassano, The Trequartista and The Fantasista.
FantAntonio Cassano was supposed to be Francesco Totti’s successor as Italy’s trequartista after the 2006 World Cup, but Euro 2012 gave Cassano some redemption in a career that hasn’t been as glorious and decorated as it was supposed to be.
Cassano isn’t a player that you should ever count out. Cassano had a congenital heart defect surgically-repaired, and he then excelled in Euro 2012. He was supposed to be past his prime for the 2014 World Cup, and his fitness test scores conducted by Italy’s doctors were excellent.
FantAntonio has proven to be an extremely resilient person and player, and his ability to recover and thrive after serious obstacles contradict his reputation for being a lazy jokester.
This summer in Brazil, Cassano will be wearing the Number 10 jersey for Italy, an enormous honor, and Totti is probably glad that a fellow fantasista renowned for his creativity, skill, and guile is wearing his jersey.
There was a possibility of Totti playing in the World Cup even at 37 years old because his club form has been so good, but at 31 years old, Cassano is either in the best shape of his life or at the level he was at in his early twenties. Time hasn’t caught Cassano yet, and an excellent showing in the World Cup would be a feel good storyline for soccer fans everywhere.
With Cassano partnering with Mario Balotelli in the attack and with the possibility of Verratti playing somewhere in between the attack and Pirlo in the back of the midfield, it is very possible that Italy will field three playmakers at the same time.
Each playmaker is different.
Pirlo will be playing as a regista in front of the defense, but he will be going wherever he wants.
Cassano will be playing as a second striker as opposed to being deployed as a true trequartista slightly deeper, but this distinction is all semantics.
Cassano’s ability to partner with Balotelli and his rare skill-set made him a vital inclusion for la Nazionale, but Verratti was more of a roster doubt because many thought that he might be seen as surplus to requirements on a squad with Pirlo and Riccardo Montolivo – before he broke his leg – which isn’t really the reason that Verratti made the squad. He made it on pure merit.
The questions surrounding Verratti weren’t about his ability or club form, but rather they were just doubts about whether Prandelli would use a roster spot for a player who was thought to be just a deep-lying playmaker that was vying for a roster spot against even defensive midfielders with excellent passing skills like Daniele De Rossi and Thiago Motta who both also played right in front of the defense.
Verratti has proven to everyone that he isn’t just a regista, but rather he is a playmaking virtuoso that can play in more advanced positions like the so-called falso trequartista, which is the name of the position that Gazzetta dello Sport used to describe his role.
Verratti has proven to be something of a trequartista extradordinaire whose game is characterized by combining inventive and magical passing with aggressive defending and tackling.
Verratti covers a lot of ground, and he’s hard to box into a specific positional category. All that matters is that Verratti is a playmaker that covers a lot of territory recovering the ball and orchestrating the passing and attacking play of his team.
Pirlo is a legend and grandmaster. Cassano is a world famous enigmatic fantasista. But, Verratti, unlike the other two starters, is the player vying for a starting spot, which will not be in place of either Pirlo or Cassano.
Will Italy use three playmakers at the same time in the World Cup?
If Prandelli starts all three Italian masters, then soccer fans everywhere will be in for the treat of seeing three world-class passers and footballers putting on quite the display of creativity and excellence.
Prandelli might decide that three playmakers like Pirlo, Verratti, and Cassano playing together at once will get in each other’s way, so a box-to-box midfielder like Claudio Marchisio might be a better option to field with Pirlo and Cassano.
But, on the other hand, Verratti has shown that he covers a lot of ground and that he goes where he’s needed.
Maybe, just maybe, Pirlo, Verratti, and Cassano at the same time can work to deliver to Italy’s opponents a lethal dosage of passing excellence, and if all three start together, then this might be the first time Italy or anyone else has used something like this, unless you consider the combination of Xavi, Iniesta, and Fàbregas of Spain and Barcelona to be a similar set-up.
One thing is for sure, and that is that Italy once again is dispelling the stereotype that Italians and the Italian national team only play defensive soccer. This is a stereotype that has never really been very accurate.
Prandelli has a reputation for being a tactical master, and if he can field an effective Starting XI with Pirlo, Verratti, and Cassano, then he will once again receive rave reviews from the global soccer media and fans alike.
To field all three playmakers at once, Italy would have to line up in a formation similar to the diagram below:
