Although not gifted with pace, stamina, physicality or notable defensive skills, work-rate, or tackling abilities, Pirlo was known for his composure in possession, and drew praise for his touch, technique, balance, elegance, close control, and dribbling ability, as well as his flair and creativity in beating players with feints during one-on-one situations, in order to retain the ball and create space for himself to play and receive passes.
His reactions and ability to anticipate plays also enabled him to cover ground in midfield and intercept passes despite his lack of pace, tackling ability, or stamina.
As a playmaker, he is highly regarded by pundits for his outstanding vision, awareness, and football intelligence, as well as his movement, positional sense, inventive play, anticipation, ability to read the game, and his wide range of distribution, which enabled him to play the ball first time and rarely relinquish possession, even when put under pressure; in addition to being capable of playing precise, short exchanges to teammates, he was also known for frequently attempting riskier and more difficult passes and is renowned in particular for his extremely accurate long-range passing, both on the ground or in the air, with either foot, despite being naturally right footed.
He is considered to be one of the best passers in the history of the sport, and is also known for his accurate striking ability from distance.
These characteristics allowed him to contribute to his team's offensive play with goals and assists.

Pirlo was a free-kick and penalty-kick specialist.
Throughout his career, he was regarded as one of the best free-kick takers in the world, and drew praise from pundits for his versatility, and ability to both score and create chances from dead-ball situations.
He was extremely effective at curling shots accurately on target from close range, a technique that he perfected by studying Baggio in training sessions during their time at Brescia together; as a youngster, Zico, Michel Platini, and Diego Maradona were also some of his major influences when taking free kicks.
Pirlo was also capable of scoring from long-range free kicks with swerve and power, due to his unique technique, which was inspired by Juninho's "knuckle ball" free kicks; this technique was later dubbed the maledetta ("accursed") in the Italian media.
Pirlo has scored the highest number of free kicks in Serie A, alongside Siniša Mihajlović.
Although not gifted with pace, stamina, physicality or notable defensive skills, work-rate, or tackling abilities, Pirlo was known for his composure in possession, and drew praise for his touch, technique, balance, elegance, close control, and dribbling ability, as well as his flair and creativity in beating players with feints during one-on-one situations, in order to retain the ball and create space for himself to play and receive passes. His reactions and ability to anticipate plays also enabled him to cover ground in midfield and intercept passes despite his lack of pace, tackling ability, or stamina. As a playmaker, he is highly regarded by pundits for his outstanding vision, awareness, and football intelligence, as well as his movement, positional sense, inventive play, anticipation, ability to read the game, and his wide range of distribution, which enabled him to play the ball first time and rarely relinquish possession, even when put under pressure; in addition to being capable of playing precise, short exchanges to teammates, he was also known for frequently attempting riskier and more difficult passes and is renowned in particular for his extremely accurate long-range passing, both on the ground or in the air, with either foot, despite being naturally right footed. He is considered to be one of the best passers in the history of the sport, and is also known for his accurate striking ability from distance. These characteristics allowed him to contribute to his team's offensive play with goals and assists.
Pirlo was a free-kick and penalty-kick specialist. Throughout his career, he was regarded as one of the best free-kick takers in the world, and drew praise from pundits for his versatility, and ability to both score and create chances from dead-ball situations. He was extremely effective at curling shots accurately on target from close range, a technique that he perfected by studying Baggio in training sessions during their time at Brescia together; as a youngster, Zico, Michel Platini, and Diego Maradona were also some of his major influences when taking free kicks. Pirlo was also capable of scoring from long-range free kicks with swerve and power, due to his unique technique, which was inspired by Juninho's "knuckle ball" free kicks; this technique was later dubbed the maledetta ("accursed") in the Italian media. Pirlo has scored the highest number of free kicks in Serie A, alongside Siniša Mihajlović.
Andrea Pirlo