Atalanta Club Focus: Cigarini – Certainly not the ‘poor man’s Pirlo’

After a disappointing but rather expected defeat away to Fiorentina at the weekend, I turn my attention away from the regular weekly roundup to look at one of the main reasons behind La Dea’s relative success this season. The person in question is midfield maestro Luca Cigarini.

The Italian central midfielder seems to be the flavour of the month when it comes to the so called “under the radar” players who are being linked with big moves. Cigarini is more than deserving of these rumours, as he is a sensational talent.

Rumours have began to circulate linking the 27-year-old back to Napoli, the club he is co-owned by with Atalanta. His name is being touted as a possible World Cup selection for Cesare Prandelli and his Azzurri side.

It is not only in Italy, however, that Cigarini is being noticed. During the January mercato, an article on theguardian.com listed him in a five-man shortlist of potential replacements that Liverpool should consider for Steven Gerrard. I have to say Liverpool could do a lot worse than to sign this individual. A brilliant player who I think would be a sensational replacement for Gerrard. Having spoken to a few people about this topic, I am not alone in thinking that the Italian is currently a better player than the Reds’ captain.

Anytime Cigarini’s name is mentioned, it’s not long before Andrea Pirlo comparisons are made. These comparisons are more than fair. Which, if you’re not familiar with Luca, tells you what kind of talent we’re taking about here.

I’ve gathered a few simple statistics to assist me in the illustration of the brilliance of Cigarini and also his significance to this Orobici side.

Luca Cigarini makes, on average, 66.4 passes per game in Serie A. This puts him in eight place in the average passes per game table. Trailing him in this list, are players of the magnitude of Kevin Strootman, David Pizarro, Radja Nianggolan, Jorginho and even Arturo Vidal. Not only is he in eighdth place of passes made, he also boasts of a pass completion rate of 82.2%. This is not just a once off good season either, as last season his pass completion was 81.5%, and 85.7% the season before.

Now it’s all well and good to brag about having a great pass completion rate, but this is a statistic that is often misleading as in many cases the majority of the passes go nowhere. This is not relevant to CIgarini. He has six assists this season, which leaves him just two short of Serie A’s assist leader – Romulo – who has eight.

As well as these assists, he plays the sixth most key passes per game (2.3) – showing that he is creating chances for his teammates. Some of the players trailing the Nerazzurri playmaker in this list really will make you sit up and take note (if you haven’t already!) Luca Cigarini plays more key passes per game than; Kaka’, Alessio Cerci, Arturo Vidal and even Andrea Pirlo (Wayne Rooney, Santi Cazorla and Willian for my Premier League fan readers.)

He is not only a good passer of the ball, he is also a very difficult man to get the ball off when he has it. On average, he is only dispossessed 1.2 times per game. Again a record superior to Pirlo, Vidal and Cerci, but this time the list also includes a certain Francesco Totti – no mean feat.

To compare his stats to a similar player in another league I will throw them up against those of Steven Gerrard. Both players average 2.3 key passes per game. The Englishman’s pass completion is slightly better as he completed 85.4% of his passes, but he also completes less passes per game than Cigarini (61.6.) Gerrard can also boast three more assists to his name with nine, but it needs to be remembered that Atalanta have only scored 24 times this season, whereas Liverpool have scored 66.

So if beforehand you weren’t quite sure about how good Luca Cigarini is, hopefully these statistics have helped you to understand. What you also need to keep in mind is that these statistics were reached while playing with a team in 13th place in the league table. Most other players mentioned are playing with big sides competing for titles. That, for me, shows the measure of the talent of Cigarini.

Follow Conor Clancy on Twitter: @concalcio