Andrea Pirlo is coming to the NYCFC and the clear hope is that the legendary midfielder will inject the struggling team with some life for the remainder of the MLS season.

The maiden season of the expansion franchise has not gotten off to an ideal start with the team only winning five of its first 18 games. For weeks the team languished at the bottom of the MLS until a recent run of success brought the side within three points of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Now Pirlo has the potential to improve the side. How much better can he actually make the NYCFC?

When Jason Kreis plugs Pirlo into the midfield it will undoubtedly be for him to be playmaker alongside Frank Lampard. His 2.2 key passes per game in Italy would rank among the top 12 in the MLS. His 89.2 passing success rate would rank second best in the entire MLS, his average of two crosses per game would rank seventh in the league and his average number of long balls per game (7.9) would rank sixth in the MLS. What makes this statistic most remarkable is that of the players in the top 10 for long balls per game, nine of them are goalkeepers and the 10th one, Liam Ridgewell, is a defender. Pirlo would be the most frequent passer of long balls among midfielder in all of the U.S. What is more, Pirlo is extremely accurate with his long ball play, something few players in the world can boast.

Throw in his four goals and five assists in Italy over 20 appearances (only three players in the MLS have more assists in 16-18 games), and you have a superstar whose offensive statistics in the Serie A would place him among the top players in all of Major League Soccer.

So how does this help the NYCFC?

The team's season has seen numerous ups and downs with the offense sputtering quite a bit throughout the year. David Villa was expected to be an offensive dynamo, but he has struggled throughout. He has scored eight goals from 15 matches, but three of those came from one game and the Spanish star has often cut a frustrated form up top. It simply has become too easy for other side to isolate the forward, cut down his space and the routes of his supply line. It also does not hurt that Villa is actually the team's leader in assists and key passes per game the entire season. Despite his prowess, he can't set himself up and score the goals at the same time. He needs players to help him out.

Part of that has come down to an unstable midfield with Kreis fielding a new lineup almost every single game. The fact that all of those players average under 1.5 key passes per game, and no player on the entire team averages over 0.8 crosses per game, and you have a situation in which the team essentially has no offensive dynamism.

The shocking statistic for the NYCFC? The team is fifth in the league in possession. Pirlo and Lampard will improve that, but the beauty of having the Italian is that he will be able to provide Villa with the service he needs to score.

Of course the MLS is a different style of play from the Italian league. However, Pirlo is arguably one of the best of all time and the learning curve should not be all that steep for him. He will succeed and make the NYCFC a major threat.