Pirlo: 'Keep England guessing'

By Football Italia staff

Andrea Pirlo confirmed Italy plan to rotate midfield playmakers to “keep England guessing” on Saturday.

The Juventus midfielder spoke at a Press conference at Italy’s training camp ahead of Saturday’s World Cup opener.

Today the Azzurri tested out in training a 4-1-3-1-1 system with Daniele De Rossi protecting the defence and Marco Verratti alongside him for a double playmaker role.

It could be particularly important considering England have made it clear they’ll man-mark Pirlo in Manaus.

“We tried this new solution with a midfielder in front of the defence and two directors further forward with more freedom. We like this option, it can give great results and we are working to improve every day.

“In truth it’s a system that involves rotation, as we go forward and at other times I’d come back into the more classic position. We aim to rotate the midfield positions to keep our opponents guessing.

“Any system is good as long as we play well. We can try many different approaches, but it is also down to how you interpret the role. Anyone who can play football can play with any other player, so there’s absolutely no problem of compatibility with Verratti.

“We know England are a great team who have improved a lot with new, young players coming in.

“They have good runners, but we know how to face them and have been studying England over the last few days.

“Italy have always had great games against England, as we have a different approach to the sport, so we’ll give our all in our own style.”

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