At the beginning Del Piero was not that bad, against Udinese (3rd match) he was our best player, however I agree when you say he's having a hard time.
But I speak especially about the énd half of this period, when we faced Milan Del Piero had already returned to a great form. He'd been brought in against Palermo and scoreded 2 goles and made a great assist for Marchionni and next week Ranieri left him on the bench against Milan. It was inequitable!!
He started against Lazio only because of IQ's injury! After this game it was just impossible to play without him, he started doing again what he'd been doing for years with la Juve : Making the team win matches.
Ranieri just dont like Del Piero, there is no doubt about the choice he made on the last match of the season against Sampdoria, Why did he sub him ? That had no explanation, their was no stake at all for the team. There was only wone for Alex, scoring his personal record and Ranieri prevent him from doing it; for me that say something about the issue. Recently Ranieri had compared Alé to Boniperti (to attak him about his being old), but what a great answer with the brilliant game he made against Zenith !!