FanPost

YTOWN's Final Season Player Ratings

Here are my ratings for the year. The scale is 1-10 and I am basing them on what they were asked to do and how well they did it on the pitch. Injuries or off the field stuff doesn’t factor in. I don’t care who your girlfriend is, whether you were hurt or not or whether or not you’ve been here 15 years or 15 minutes. I don’t care what you did last year or back in 2006. I also don’t care how young or how old you are.

Abbiati – 8... The guy simply won’t dive anymore and is almost rooted to the ground. He gets credit for some superb performances and lots of clean sheets but also loses points for just flat out not reacting to some things. There were times I thought maybe he needed glasses or laser eye surgery or something.

Amelia – 5... I guess…. I don’t know. Twice as many goals per game than Abbiatti. Actually let’s go with a 4.

Abate – 6… This was my toughest call. He still offers nothing going forward and has hardly improved in 3 years. Terrible crossing and for some unknown reason will take guys one-on-one for the NT but just sends in terrible cross after terrible cross for Milan. I have no idea why not. With all that pace he should at least be TRYING to go by people. There is sooo much potential there. Drives me more crazy than any other player on the team. He should not be allowed to cross midfield and really needs a MF in front of him to interchange with. Too bad our MF stinks. He might be the perfect RB for a 3-5-2 where defense is job 1. I dunno. Sometimes he just really pisses me off, but other times his pace makes me smile

Antonini – 3... Did he play? Does anyone remember?

De Sciglio – 7 I’m not giving him a higher grade just because he is young. Some people will do that. He still makes errors and I don’t think everyone trusts him quite yet. That will come with time though. He also suffered from the same issue Abate had, no MF in front of him to help him out. Often times SES had to go all the way back to help him, which didn’t help SES in the long run. (Also see Constant)

Mexes – 8… He had ZERO reds and had to cover up Zapata’s meanderings all the time. Great down the stretch. He will probably be even better with a better partner. I gotta admit I was more worried about him than Zapata early on. I was wrong.

Zapata – 6... He can NOT be a starter next year. He's good for depth, but not every day. He wasn’t horrible but tended to wander off like a lost puppy at times. He needs to get better at realizing when it’s appropriate to venture forward and when it isn’t.

Yepes 6… I love this guy. He’s just an old head that does his thing. Good depth guy. That guy will be coaching somewhere some day

Acerbi – ZERO…. F&%@ing ZERO… maybe -1?

Constant – 6… Another tough call.Did very well for a guy playing a new position. He deserves much credit for taking on the LB challenge and getting it right. Allegri’s master stroke. Probably should have been moved up to MF, where he played for Chievo, in front of DeSciglio once it was clear that DeSciglio was the better fit back there. Most certainly would have been the better move for the return leg against Barca. I have no idea why he wasn’t an option in midfield when we were sooooo depleted there. I’m not sure why this never happened, but the left would have looked nice with DeSciglio in the back, Constant in MF and SES up front. If he’s given that chance and excels there during the second half, he may have been our most valuable player. Maybe 6.5.

Bonera - ? Really? Come on man…. Ok, fine, he did serve a purpose in the first half while Allegri was figuring out this mess. I’ll say 5.

Montolivo – 7… I'm still not convinced on the Full Monty. He can be marked out as easily as Pirlo used to be. Siena proved that. He still disappears too often. He was invisible against Siena nearly the whole game. You can’t be disappearing during the most important game of the year. Also was invisible during the second half of the Fiorentina game. Unacceptable. Could have done much better.

Boateng - ? I have no idea where he’s supposed to be or what he should be doing… and neither does he. He reminds me of the kid on the team I coach that has a ton of talent, but won’t stay in position and feels like he can just go wherever. He’ll score a goal here and there but overall kills the team and it's organization in the long run.

Nocerino – 2… worthless…. Even with all the injuries in midfield was a last resort. Good riddance. Lost his puppy (Ibra) and was never the same.

DeJong… incomplete… but can’t wait til next year.

Ambrosini – 4… Thank you and enjoy the parting gifts Ambro. A career well done. Your recklessness during the last game nearly cost us the CL.

Muntari – 6… He was so unreliable from game to game, great one week and a disaster the next. He was good for depth, but bad every day. Pretty much like our entire midfield.

Flamini – 7… FINALLY showed what he could do. A must keep. I love the headless chicken. Now if he could go through an entire year like that AND avoid red cards, we really have something.

El Shaarawy – 8…. He gets a 10 for the first half and a 6 for the second. He had almost no production the 2nd half. I know he was injured toward the end but he also played a lot of games where he was just lost. Huge questions as to what to do with him going forward. It will be very interesting to see what kind of set-up we have with him and Balo both in there together. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of chemistry there. I’m not sure he can handle being number 2. I loved how much he tracked back, but there were times he was behind the entire defense. I fear that one day he is the next Pato and we wonder why we only get 12 million for him when we could have gotten 40. I know I’m gonna get slaughtered for that comment.

Traore… who?

Pazzini – 8… A job well done. He poured in goals against marginal teams when we really needed it and was there when SES was falling apart in January. I would like to see him kept around. Then again, he may still bring some nifty coin. It’s not like he’s 40. I’m not sure he wants backup duty behind Balo. There are lots of teams in Serie A he could start for week in and week out.

Niang – 5… He needs to leave the U-17 playground tricks at home and get his nose a little dirty. A little too much style without substance there. He also couldn’t finish to save his life and could have been the hero against Siena and totally botched it. He also could have been a hero against Barca. Woulda, coulda, shoulda is the story of a lot of player’s careers. Mostly guys you forget.

Krkic – 6… Not bad. Had almost no chances the second half and still scored a few goals. He probably could have had a few matches down the stretch with our MF being so depleted.

Robinho – 5… It’s the same story. He makes lots of chances and is usually in the right spot but almost never converts them. Same old song.

Balotelli -9… Without him, Shaaraway is run into the ground by now and ruined. He brought so much to the table. Showed the willing ness to track back at times and showed a good connection with Niang which sadly led to mostly heartache. At times becomes a bit of a black hole at times (The ball goes in but doesn’t come back out. Older NBA fans will really get that one. Otherwise google Moses Malone). I think that will improve over time as he gets to know and trust his teammates. Would to see him do some other things with free kicks from 40 yards other than launch them into the stratosphere. Then again, that also has to do with the fact that we haven’t had any imagination on set pieces in 5 years.

Which leads me to…

Allegri- 8… The guy turned an abortion into 3rd place. You have to give him mucho props for that. The Constant switch was genius and probably saved the season along with SES’s emergence in the first half. The problem there after was that there were some real opportunities to make adjustments after that and he kept rolling out the same tired folks in MF when Constant should have been a real option. He also never quite figured out what to do up front with complimentary pieces for Balo. All in all, he helped guide us to 3rd and I’m not sure too many other people in Europe could have pulled that off. Thanks max and enjoy your next job.



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