MOM is Bojan IMO. As he came in, Milan took a more serious approach. Constant did good, SES tried hard as mostly, MDS wasn't bad at all as a CB. Abbiati made a magnificent save and once for all proved he's better then Amelia.

Flop would be Acerbi who was partly amateurish in terms of positioning, marking, ball-handling. Montolivo also produced a bad display, just like Pazzini showed nothing special. If it wasn't for that soft penalty and his goal, he'd be my pick for flop. Nocerino and Ambro also not with the best performances.

Top Bojan without a doubt. Flop for me would be Nocerino. He was simply disastrous. Acerbi wasn't THAT bad, honestly.

I think Boateng also deserves an honourable mention here. I thought he was top notch in the second half once he was moved back a little.

Bojan is just an awesomely talented kid, and personally I would love it if we made it stick come the end of the season

Thus, MOM: Bojan, Flop: Pazzini, Allegri: It's obvious at this point. He's our biggest problem not the weak squad or the underperforming players

Pazzini earned and scored a penalty. By no means he can be considered a flop. There were other players who played worse than him today.

Not that bad you say? He was up against the worst attack in the league and yet managed to give the likes of Paolacci, Valiani and whoever a fair amount of chances. He acted nervously and unprepared and made DS look like a experienced veteran like han said in another thread.

Dived and earned a non-existent penalty... Yeah yeah.

You know what I want at least from the prima punta on the pitch? Some basic hold up play, to be in the right positions when good crosses come in. And I'm sorry, but Pazzini fails me each time.

As for the others, Nocerino, Ambro, Monto. I think they weren't good but they weren't bad either. Ambro made some decent interceptions. But once again, he's mostly held back by his physical limitations. He struggled in the 2nd half and should have been taken off, but that's not his fault, it's the fault of the man that makes the decisions

I think most of these players are struggling with the system (or lack of one mostly) Pazzini should be thriving here as he's at the spearhead of the attack, supposedly his favourite position, he received some decent service today, yet what I look for in that man that should be leading the line is never on show from him

It wasn't a dive, it was a fair penalty. Mediaset's moviola said so too, and they're very strict in these cases.

IMO it was a soft touch, not a dive but also not a crystal clear penalty.

Felipe had no right putting his hands on Pazzini. Was it soft? sure... yes

Some refs may have look past, it but the was the right decision to give it.

Was a penalty? - Yes!

Case Closed.

I'd like to see any man of his stature get that kind of touch and go spraling to the ground like he did.

It was a "smart" dive, but a dive nonetheless. Pazzini felt the contact and went down. The ref saw the contact and decided to give a soft penalty. Probably the softest one we've earned in a while

Are you sure you'd be saying the same if that foul had happened to, say, Pato?

Haha, I'll give it to you, this really is verbal acrobatics.

So which is it? Either it was a dive or there was contact.

Well, he felt the contact and dived - that's the main point.

Then he went down easily. If a player makes contact with you, it's not a dive. Unfortunately players have to go down to get penalties. I saw Messi recently kicked about 3 times and it put him off balance and he eventually fell over after he lost the ball - referees need to realise a foul can occur without hitting the ground, otherwise players will have to throw themselves to the floor.

I disagree here. For me diving means "unnatural" falling, when a player goes down by diving to the ground. Remember not every contact is a foul and not every touch makes a player fall down. Everyone can see that Felipe didn't use the necessary force to push Pazzini down. That's when Pazzo decided to dive in.

Which is why it's known as going down easy. To me a dive is when there's no contact, you're doing it all on your own. It's irrelevant though, I think all of us - except han, shocker - are in agreement that it probably was a penalty, but about as soft as one as you can get.

Agreed.

Felipe pushed Pazzini, who fell to the ground rather easily, yes. But how many times has Inzaghi earned penalties in such manner? It's natural for these kind of strikers.

Yeah, that's for sure.

When he got that penalty that he missed I said it was soft, but it wasn't a dive because they were jumping when the player leaned on him so it's easier to lose your balance.

When a player dives I have no problem saying so, even when it's a player of ours. A dive is a dive no matter how you try to spin it.


Why thank you kind sir


Notice that I said it was a smart dive. Had Pazzini not thrown himself that would have never been given, but there is a difference while running full speed with the ball and 3 players trying to hack you down to two players standing around in a box and as soon as you feel the slightest of arm contact you go down. How many times do we see this? If they give a penalty every time there is any slight contact between 2 players then you'll get a dozen in each game. And let's not even go into all the pushin/shoving and shirt grabbing going on during set plays