Liverpool target Sandro Tonali is a ‘much more complete’ central midfielder than Italy legend Andrea Pirlo, the man himself has told an Instagram Live session while hailing the potential of a much-coveted Brescia star.
Maybe it’s the hair. It’s definitely the hair.
Ever since exploding onto the scene during Brescia’s Serie B promotion party last season, a 20-year-old play-maker with three Italy caps under his belt already has been likened relentlessly to a generation-defining midfielder.
Tonali, like Pirlo in his pomp, possesses that all-too rare ability to orchestrate a game from the centre of the park, running the show with his long locks flowing in the breeze. But that, it has to be said, is where the similarities end.
The £45 million-rated youngster is more of a box-to-box dynamo than a deep-lying play-maker. Those comparisons with Pirlo have left him somewhat baffled too, with Tonali instead modelling his game on a Gennaro Gattuso or a Luka Modric.
Although the 2006 World Cup winner is a huge fan of a player shining for bottom-of-the-table Brescia, he too believes those comparisons are a little wide of the mark.
“It is said that he may be my heir, but I don’t see many things in common,” Pirlo told Nicolo De Devitiis on Instagram.
“He is another type of player. He is much more complete both in the defensive phase and when he sets up. He is a mix between my characteristics and those of other players.
“He is the most promising of midfielders. He will surely become a great player.”
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is a huge fan of Tonali and would jump at the chance to bring one of Europe’s blithest young stars to Anfield over the summer, according to Alfredo Pedulla, with the rising star’s all-round skillset and boundless energy making him the perfect fit for a midfield containing the likes of Jordan Henderson, Gini Wijnaldum and James Milner.
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