[Fillipo Simone]

My vote goes to Abbiati. Zapata did well, so did Flamini. He had a curious look like he was a player from a different era (which isn't untrue) but he put in a great effort, run and tried all along and I'm sure that had Bojan passed the ball and not found the last row of the Marassi stadium - he'd also score.

Boateng was absolutely terrible. He made a dozen of wrong passes and almost everything he tried either backfired or ended up as a laughable try. Niang-Bojan-Shaarawy didn't exactly work either; there's too little teamwork with them. It's like they're all focusing on their individual role. But, this was their first time, and we'll see. Montolivo is yet another let-down. When will the guy eve score? He had good shooting chances, but his shots were poorly taken. Also, his work rate didn't exactly stun me either.

Allegri did mostly good. He subbed Nocerino in so that Boateng could be pushed up front: not because he's good at it, but because he lost so many balls it became dangerous. Still, one match can't change the fact that he's a complete amateur.

[han2503]

Top: Zapata, Flop: Niang, Should go

I know Niang is still young and learning, and it wasn't his fault that he was pushed out wide. But his clumsiness on the ball, terrible dribbling and even worse crossing was just too much to take for me.

Zapata and Abbiati were our best performers, but I think Zapata had that little something extra. Really hope we buy him at the end of the season

[Fillipo Simone]

Niang deserves some slack IMO. This was his first match as a starter! Boateng on the other hand was terrible on all accounts, just like Niang, but also lacked effort.

[X-Offender]

Top - Zapata. He was great overall, confident in his interventions and made zero mistakes. Hopefully it will convince Allegri to play him more often.
Flop - El Shaarawy. The guy barely touched the ball yesterday, and when he did, he usually lost it. Terrible performance.
Allegri - get the hell outta here! Even though his small brain told him to play mediocre De Sciglio over Abate, I'm willing to close an eye because his line-up overall was good. But seriously, playing Niang wide and Bojan CF has got to be one of his Top 3 brain-fart moments.

[Danny]

Top:

Bojan. Despite a quieter second half he was the one bright spark for us going forward in the first. Monto grew into it as the game went on but Bojan for me was the best thing we had in attack till he faded.

Flop.

SES. Put simply his worst display this season, maybe for 2 seasons. Horrendous from him.

Allegri.

Very few complained about the team's shape and formation yesterday and most were pleased with the personnel selected. It just didn't click on the pitch very well overall and I'm not going to blame Max for that. Too many players just played horribly.

[han2503]

Top:

Bojan. Despite a quieter second half he was the one bright spark for us going forward in the first. Monto grew into it as the game went on but Bojan for me was the best thing we had in attack till he faded.

Flop.

SES. Put simply his worst display this season, maybe for 2 seasons. Horrendous from him.

Allegri.

Very few complained about the team's shape and formation yesterday and most were pleased with the personnel selected. It just didn't click on the pitch very well overall and I'm not going to blame Max for that. Too many players just played horribly.

I think the shape was the entire problem on the pitch. The positioning of players was appaling and unacceptable from a supposedly top level coach

[Danny]

I think the shape was the entire problem on the pitch. The positioning of players was appaling and unacceptable from a supposedly top level coach

More or less the same yesterday and we're 3 matches unbeaten.

Not saying it's right or wrong but 7 wins in 10 matches isn't appalling or unacceptable.

[han2503]

More or less the same yesterday and we're 3 matches unbeaten.

Not saying it's right or wrong but 7 wins in 10 matches isn't appalling or unacceptable.

I thought yesterday was a HUGE improvement in all aspects of our game. I said this is the match thread as well.

And no it's not either of those things, but neither is our record for this season (in general terms that is). Sometimes you have to look beyond just the results, as they may look good on paper, but in reality, the performances have just not been good. I can't recall one single game during this season where we simply brushed aside our opponent.

The fact that your formation when looking at the players on the pitch looks something like this

RB--CB--CB--LB
CM--CM
------------CM
-------------ST
-------------ST
-------------ST

when you're supposed to be playing 4-3-3 for me is not acceptable. And that disorganisation imo is one of the leading factors as to why we've looked so poor throughout the season. We're at the end of January and for me, if the simply concept of cohesion within the team still isn't established then you have serious trouble.

And like I said, yes the stat looks good, but you also have to look at who we faced. We have a relatively easy run in to the end of the season which also factored into that stat (forget the fact that we lost the only really hard game we had in that number. The real test of whether we improve or not will come in the next few weeks where we have a tougher schedule. Which leads me to my real worries about the current stats you pointed out sugar coating our problems which will then be exposed in these harder fixtures.