I think it's too easy to say that certain players were poor against Milan yesterday. We were under so much pressure from them. It's hard to stand out playing well when you're pinned back almost the entire game. I think that Pienaar was involved in most of the attacks that we attempted. I think that every single player contributed to us getting the result last night.
Looking beyond last night, I think that Pienaar has performed well enough since joining. It can't have been easy to come in and play where Bale has been playing considering we've used Bale as one of our main attacking outlets for so many games. I don't think he's done particularly well when he's been told to switch flanks, but that's not really his fault. I do wish he'd get those snails off his head though.
I'm not sure if I consider him to be better than Niko, but it's good to at least have the option.