Mario Balotelli arrived a Liverpool as the replacement for last season’s star Luis Suarez. Suarez was instrumental in helping the Reds to a second place finish, narrowly missing out on the title to Manchester City. A bite on Giorgio Chiellini in the World Cup was enough to send the striker to Barcelona for around £70m as Brendan Rodgers recruited Balotelli from AC Milan.
Rodgers has stressed that the Italian is not Suarez’s replacement as Anfield however the burden of goal-scoring now falls on his shoulders. With strike partner Daniel Sturridge plagued with injuries this season, Balotelli had to step up and make a name for himself in Merseyside.
A promising performance against Tottenham where he tracked back, intercepted, chased down, held the ball and probably should have scored, left fans wondering whether Balotelli had finally got his act together and could become the world class striker he was promised to be.
A goal in the Champions League was further signs that Balotelli could be the man to help Liverpool fans get over the loss of arguably the best player to ever wear the red shirt. However, things have not quite turned out to plan for the former Manchester City man.
The 24 year old is yet to score in the Premier League and another dismal display where Liverpool was lucky to come out with a win against Queens Park Rangers succumbed Balotelli to further criticism. Richard Dunne had the striker in his back pocket and left Balotelli shooting wildly from distance to the dismay of his team-mates. A poor performance was made worse by spurning the best chance for his first league goal by ballooning the ball over the bar instead of the open net. The game pretty much summed up why he is the player to have the most shots without scoring in the league this season. Sergio Aguero has taken 29 shots this season, 20 have been on target and the Argentine has netted nine goals. Balotelli has attempted 22 shots with only nine on target and zero goals.
Arguably Liverpool’s biggest game of the season came next with European champions Real Madrid travelling to Anfield for the Champions League. Madrid simply picked Liverpool apart with goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema putting them 3-0 up at the break. It was a poor half for the Reds and to make matters worse Balotelli was caught on camera swapping shirts for Madrid defender Pepe before going down the tunnel. This led to uproar amongst fans and pundits, slamming Balotelli for his actions. In my personal opinion, I do not see what the huge controversy is about swapping shirts with the Portuguese defender; who asked Balotelli for his shirt to begin with. It was the wrong attitude to have going into half-time three goals down but would it affect the second half performance? No. It is easy to criticise Balotelli after such a poor performance topped off with a show of ‘disrespect’ by swapping shirts, he is an easy scapegoat.
It is hard to defend Balotelli’s performances on the field and Rodgers is well aware that the troublesome Italian has contributed to managers such as Roberto Mancini and Cesare Prandelli losing their jobs and is not prepared to follow suit. If Balotelli has not improved the team in January and threatens to bring the rest of the team down, he is gone. Asked if Liverpool would look to sell Balotelli in January, Rodgers said: “I don’t want to go down that route. We brought him in to give him a chance and we will give him every chance. At the moment, he hasn’t scored the goals we would like. I will be working on improving not just him but all players. We will see in January what the team needs.”
Balotelli cannot be solely blamed for Liverpool’s start to the season as Liverpool’s extremely leaky defence should be the main concern. Dejan Lovren has failed to find the same excellent form of last season and question marks still remain over Simon Mignolet between the sticks. However, the Italian has not shown enough to help Liverpool’s situation.
Only time will tell whether Balotelli can prove his worth at Anfield as he has until January to prove he deserves to wear the number 45 for one of England’s most successful football clubs. Should he fail, Liverpool could be the last big club he features for before moving somewhere like Russia. Make no doubt about it, Balotelli will be shipped on in January if he does not prove a worthy replacement to Suarez.
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Source: DSG
