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Riccardo Montolivo: An Analysis Before The World Cup

 

Riccardo Montolivo
Riccardo Montolivo

Riccardo Montolivo began his career at Atalanta in 2003, playing in the second division of Italian Football. In a short space of time, he turned out to be one of the most promising prospects that Italian football has ever produced. Enjoying two successful seasons at Atalanta, Montolivo was transferred to Fiorentina for a reported €5.5 million (co-ownership) in 2005.

Montolivo is a central midfielder by profession, but also does possess the ability of playing as an attacking midfielder or a defensive midfielder. He is loaded with a bunch of amazing skills which include the ability shoot from long range, the a key eye for a pass both long or short, and passing, strong tackling.

FIFA.com defines Montolivo as ‘A central midfielder who is equally adept at dropping deep to fulfil more defensive duties and pushing forward to try his luck from outside the area, Riccardo Montolivo always appears to be well positioned, no matter his location on the park’.

Montolivo’s chance in the first team was limited in his first season at Florence due to his inexperience. As the time marched on however, he became one of the key players in the Viola’s midfield, earning the faith of boss Cesare Prandelli. Montolivo played a total of 160 Serie A games in his first five seasons at Florence and this number states the amount of trust Prandelli had in the youngster.

Prandelli took the full responsibility of transforming mid-table Fiorentina to Serie A title contenders, with Montolivo playing a vital role in the project.  As the result of hard work, Fiorentina played in back-to-back Champion League tournaments in between 2008 and 2010.

Refusing to sign a contract extension with Fiorentina, Montlivo joined Milan in 2012 describing his intention of playing the top quality football. Montolivo’s first spell in Milan was highly successful. Despite starting the season in a negative way, Milan finished the season at the 3rd place in the table. The departure of Ambrosini has fabricated Montolivo as the new captain of Milan, just in the mifielder’s  second spell with Rosseneri. The current season has been a sort of highly unsuccessful journey for Milan and Montolivo. Despite earning more playing time, Montolivo has constantly failed to prove himself at the highest level.

Montolivo represented his nation in Confederations cup 2009 and 2013, World Cup 2010 and Euros 2012. As the understanding between them is considerably high, Prandelli will surely consider Montolivo in his 23-man squad for the world cup; but the former Viola’s midfielder place in the starting 11 is questionable.

With respect to the previous big tournaments, we can predict that Prandelli would play a formation of 4-4-2 or a much similar 4-2-3-1 in the world cup. In any of those formations, Pirlo’s starting place is unavoidable and hence, the analysis will be concentrated over the partner of Pirlo in the deeper midfield. From Euro 2012, it was far clear that Prandelli wouldn’t be committing the same mistake of playing De Rossi in the left midfield. Considering De Rossi’s current form and with much changed tactical approach in the attack, the Romanian will more likely be preferred for the deeper midfield role.

In addition, Montolivo’s long-term counterpart, Alberto Aquilani has been enjoying a fine season in Florence and arguably, a better season than Motolivo. Thiago Motta and Marco Verratti have been catching the headlines very often for their impressive jobs in Paris. So, considering the challenges, Montolivo should work really hard in the rest of the season to earn reasonable match time in the grand tournament.

 

 

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