Club: Juventus
Growth type: Standard
INFO:
Michel Platini, former three time Ballon D'or winner. Absolute legend. Technically gifted, fantastic touch and ball control. Great finisher, finishing top scorer in Serie A for three consecutive seasons. Fantastic passer of the ball. However, arguably his greatest skill was his threat from set pieces - he could bend them in from nearly any position. There didn't seem to be any real weakness in his attacking game.
Stats Explanation:
- Spoiler: show
- Ahh Monsieur Platini, not the most popular person in world football at the moment but an absolute hero for French football and one of the best playmakers ever. Cheif orchastrator, set piece specialist, goal scorer, goal poacher, incredible passer and the vision to open up the tightest defences all into one.
To get an idea of how effective he was for club and country Juventus and France experienced a collapse in results once Platini retired. Juventus' league positions first four seasons after Platini left: 6, 4, 4, 7. France didn't even qualify for another tournament until Euro 92 - World Cup first in 1998....
Attack.
What set about Platini compared to his other midfield contemparies (except Zico) was his extraordinary reading of the game in an attacking sense. His positioning in the box was exceptional and better than most strikers, he could dictate the flow of attacking moves so well. I read an article somewhere that said his father taught him that he cannot out run the ball. He therefore learned to read the game and know where the ball is going, learning the fundamental importance of anticipating play and knowing whom to pass to before receiving possession of the ball. Linked to teamwork as well of course but given the new thoughts surrounding attack value combined with his positional sense i'd say he's worth this value.
He was also top scorer in three successive seasons a feat unequaled in the last 50 years of Italian football, a remarkable achievment, even more so for a midfielder.
Physical stats:
Platini was never much of an athlete, actually he was quite poor physically but it wasnt really a part of his game that he needed to rely on, as Giovanni Trapattoni put it:
"Michel was one of those great players who saw fitness work as being a bit superficial. He used to say, 'We're not going to compete in the 5,000 metres at the Olympics, we have to play with our feet."
Obviously alot of people think that speed is overrated which is true, he was never mid 80's speed wise, very much a classical play-maker dictating play with his outstanding passing and vision not requiring a huge deal movement. you can see some examples in these videos:
He hardly shows much burst in his matches, some short dribbles here and there but I think it could be easily replicating with 78 Acc maybe 80-78 dribble speed. I don't think he was actually a slow player once he got going though, he just didn't need to rely on his speed as much as others was so technically gifted. Especially for the French team in that era where he usually had quick players either side of him like Tigana and Giresse to do the running for him. Slightly different at Juventus where I think he showed some decent speed off the ball to get on the end of those one- two's and loose balls into the box as you can see here:
Of course its only a short compilation of his best bits but I don't think Konami were too wrong giving him acc: 76 top speed: 82, id personally rate him acc: 78 top speed: 80. The large drop in DS and ACC should replicate the classic no 10 elegant nature of his play with the occasional burst forward with TS, along with his response and reading of the game to get on the end of other players passes
I dont think he was quite 85 value worthy agility wise , he decent 'turning circle' but he didn't quite really rely on quick movements speedy twists or turns etc more an elegant mover of the ball. Similar style players are rated around that 82/83 region.
Technical stats:
DA was a bit overrated, obviously very gifted technically but his ball control was more Xavi/Pirlo esque. It was quite subtle and used it mainly to make space for himself, wasnt one to rely upon a menagerie of tricks to enable himself to beat his man. In fact he could be easily dispossessed on the ball at times compared to other players of a similar value . off course he didnt have the same physical values as some of those other players but I'd never rate his close control this close to Riquelme let alone above the likes of Rivera (93) , Totti (92) or Valderrama (91)
What was extraordinary though was his velvet like first touch. he could kill the ball effortsly to feet or the chest. Famous for his little dinks over the last defender and chesting it down, could arguably be a point higher, but it seems fine based on current ladders.
Passing
Now he was one of the most unnerving accurate passers ive ever seen. he could really pass a ball through the eye of a needle like Bobby Charlton put it, but id still drop SPS and SPA by one . Like I said in the Cruyff thread SPS dictates ball travels and his passes were pretty varied mostly quite slow delicate passes, not really constantly hitting powerful short passes in the mid-high 80's range although he was capable..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=FR&hl=fr&v=nJvJZyonxUM
(And for a more delicate touch)
I also think Platini was just a tiny bit behind the likes of Maradona, Zico and Xavi in those difficult through ball type passes. His short passses on general was still among probably the top 5 ever but he wasnt above those aforementioned players when it came to those splitting, skimming a ball between a number of defenders type passes.
Now in terms of Long passing he was among the best executer of long passes with precision that I've ever seen . He often sent Boniek through with those in the Juve-era. he had a superb ability to deliver ultra-precise long passes from a deep positions that covered a great deal of distance as well hence a deserved LPS rise . Now there are more 'flair' players that may be (marginally) better at close, pint-point passing such as Zico, Maradona and Ronaldinho But there were very few that could match him in terms of long range passing, apart from maybe Pirlo Beckham and Guardiola.
It should be noted as well that he's one of the best ever at delivering assists. He has 20 assists for France alone (in 72 caps) which is remarkable considering that France didnt really have a world class striker around that time with the likes of Stopyra, Bellone and Six, Rocheteau was an exceptional player but was more of a winger. Its a shame that Jean-Pierre Papin was just coming through by the time he retired.
Shooting
Pretty interesting to rate, no doubt that he relied more on the technique than power in his shots. At times he just stroked the ball into the back of the net with the least effort possible, but then he did score plenty of nice efforts outside the box and 90% of the time they where hit quite hard and always worked the keeper ( something I think the A.I wouldnt do if he was rated among the the greens like some people were proposing). 82 looks a decent number to replicate this but i'll still lower it by one point ( on par with the likes of Messi or Dalgish) his ST will alow him to still shoot with decent power outside the box when need be. Quite a few people in the thread rate his shot acc higher which I can agree with he really had the knack to place perfectly in the corner very precise shooter at times a one point raise at least is deserved imo.
Teamwork:
Superlative vision, could dictate and control midfield so well with his passing. I was thinking about rating him around Laudrup, Cesc, kinda region maybe even higher. But after reading some dicussion about teamwork and how it relates to off-the ball movement I think its fine on 90 for now. Mostly a classic playmaker so he wasnt always on the move getting involved looking to be the first one to receive the pass in the centre off the pitch ( although he did come deep occasionaly), he saved it more for attacking areas in the final third though where his linkup play 1-2's etc were fantastic, so its pretty hard to rate . I reckon that the that the attack raise and keeping TW the way it is finds the right balance. I might test this more later.
Aggression
Looks a bit too high like p1rha said , especially when you take free roaming and reaction into account. He did sometime often sit deep then come forward to score high 80 values an 83/84 like a current day Lampard/Gerrrard should suffice here.
Mentality:
Although he could look disintrested at times he was an amazing team leader. he could really raise his game for the big matches just like Zidane- even more so. His performance at the 84 Euros ( where Platini scored the winning goal in every game)and the 85 european cup final after a tragedy like Heysel are the kind of stuff people write movies about.
VIDEOS:
ADDITIONAL LINKS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Platini
http://www.planetworldcup.com/LEGENDS/platini.html
http://www.michelplatini.org/
http://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/pla ... index.html
