First off, if anyone decided to praise Ranieri for his tactical nouse or telepathic genius with the Poulsen substitution, please don't humiliate or embarass yourselves, because that would clearly show your ignorance towards anything related to football. Ranieri deserves no credit, because he is a coward, refuses to change his formation, and brought on a defensive midfielder to try and salvage a point, rather than throwing on Alex, Gio, or even Trez to try and go all out for the 3 points like any ambitious coach who harbors ambitions of winning titles would have done. No ideas, predictability, and refusal to gamble and take risks. That is all Ranieri typifies. Plain and simple, Ranieri is a douchebag who lacks guts, and has zero tactical knowledge of the game, and that is why all he can ever hope to win are some mickey mouse coppa italias, or the suck me till I am dry annual porn promo cup.
The defense, yet again, looked clueless and out of sorts. We can't keep relying on Buffon to bail us out, or on individual performances forever. Eventually, our luck will run out, and we will be found out. Make no mistake about it, we were extremely lucky today.
Our midfield seemed like a comatose patient, uninventive, lacking in creativity, and simply unable to do anything in the face of the Catania onslaught, especially @ the beginning of the 2nd half, when they were all over us.
As for the attack, or what was left of it after Iaquinta's stupidity, all that can be said is that Amauri set up the 2nd goal, providing the assist for Poulsen. Considering the mediocre level of service from our midfield, I would say that Amauri did quite well.
My ratings for the game:
Buffon: 7.5 partially responsible for the goal, as he was slightly off his line and the goal would've been avoided had he been a couple of steps back. Other than that, we would've lost this game by 2 clear goals, had it not been for him. MOM.
Grygera: 4 His only, solitary contribution was that which allowed the opposition to equalize. Enough said.
Legrottaglie: 4.5 Slow, constantly caught out of position, and outpaced on numerous occasions Lucky not to concede a penalty.
Mellberg: 4.5 Same as above, bar the threat of conceding a penalty.
Molinaro: 5 Plain average. Didn't really contribute much, but was the best performer in a very mediocre backline, which is not saying much.
Camoranesi: 6.5 lively, inspired, and provided the assist for our 1st goal. Had to come off early in the 2nd half, possibly due to fatigue.
Sissoko: 5 Risked being sent off for too many late challenges. Rash and aggressive at times.
Tiago: 5.5 Tried taking a couple of long range shots, and came more into the game late in the 2nd period. Was substituted by Ranieri, just as he was starting to become more involved.
Nedved: 5 Yet another forgettable performace, bar one or two occasions.
Iaquinta: 5 His score would have been much lower, had it not been for the goal. Put his team in a world of trouble after stupidly being sent off.
Amauri: 5 Tried to hold up the ball, and make the most of the chances he got, which were few and far betwee. Set up Poulsen for the winning goal.
Marchionni: 4.5 Crap, Crap, Crap. Lucky not to concede a penalty for attempting to play handball in our penalty area. Contributed little going forward, and could have cost us the game. Fartio Fuckionni must be benched, forever!!!
Poulsen: 6 Came on really late in the game, and scored the winning goal.
Ranieri: 4 Refuses to take risks, doesn't have the guts to alter his beloved 4-4-2 formation, and lacks the tactical knowledge and in game intelligence to ever be considered a winning coach. Very limited and lacking in flexibility.