Why Always Us?

Mario joins at a time when his reputation somewhat overshadows his enormous talent and potential.  Somehow in-between setting his flat on fire, crashing his brand new Audi R8 with £5,000 in the passenger seat, throwing darts at youth team players, donating £1,000 to a homeless man and paying for everyone’s petrol, Balotelli has managed to find time to yield an impressive goal return of just under 1 goal every 2 games for Lumezzane, Inter, Man City and AC Milan at club level; an unquestionably impressive record for some of Europe’s top performers.  Furthermore, his 13 International goals for Italy have come in a mere 33 games, yet he is still most notorious for his off the pitch incidents.  The question we pose is can Brendan succeed where Mancini, Mourinho and others have failed and do the unthinkable; tame the beast within and get the best from the infamous Italian?

 

Let’s just be clear, humour and personality is a great trait.  Helping the community and bringing a smile to fans’ faces should be day to day responsibilities for the modern footballer, thrust so vividly into the media spotlight on a weekly basis; and clearly the stereotypically crazy Italian has this in abundance.  What’s not so great, and to be honest downright troublesome, is the negative drama of falling out with managers, fighting with players and refusing to play.  Sadly, these aren’t rare occurrences, as soon ago as January 2013, Balotelli and then Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini had to be separated following an ill-timed tackle during a routine training session.  Furthermore, back in his Internazionale days, Mourinho once infamously begged a booked Mario to toe the line at half time, with 4 further players already on a yellow, José could ill afford a bull in a china shop performance up front.  “Play with the ball.  If someones tackles you, no reaction.  If someone makes a mistake, no reaction” he is believed to have said. It took a mere 63 seconds into the second half to see Mario get shown a second yellow, an early bath and the ‘not angry, just disappointed’ side of an exacerbated Mourinho. 

 

So Rodgers has his hands full, but what exactly is the potential reward for all this risk of controversy that seems to follow the young striker around like an unwanted shadow?  Balotelli’s strength is in, well, his own strength.  He can do it all.  Hold up play, brings others into the fray, dribble, go past players, play wide, play central and he has one of the fiercest shots you will ever see.   Most Liverpool fans, just as myself, will have seen most of his football here in the Premier League.  Primarily he was utilised centrally by Mancini, his clinical finishing and sheer strength made him the ideal candidate for the managers fluid and attacking philosophy and a constant headache for opposition defenders.  Whilst at City, Mario benefitted from some of the world’s best creative players to operate and circulate around him, Aguero, Silva and Tevez to name just three.  Most recently, It was a similar story at AC Milan, however Allegri at times would shift Mario out wide to play in a front three alongside the likes of Niang and El Shaarawy.  Although Mario contributed well in this mobile attacking line, his best performances  were stifled there, he saved his best when he operated through the middle.  It wouldn’t be unfair to draw comparisons to our own Daniel Sturridge at both Man City and Chelsea.  Like Danny, this is a player that plays best when he is the the focal point of a system, so how does that fit in at Anfield?  The name of the game at the moment for Brendan and his team is options, a rarely afforded luxury in recent times on the red half of Merseyside.  We can operate with two up top, one up top with two in the hole behind, or one or even two up front with threats also coming in from wide areas.  The likes of Markovic, Sterling, Coutinho and Lallana mean that any of these formations can be played to suit the occasion, be it a home tie agains the likes of City and Chelsea or a cold, rainy and windy Tuesday winter’s night at Stoke.  But the underlying common denominator for all these players is creativity.  I truly believe Balotelli will be a huge hit for us because he have players queuing up to put chances on a plate for him, be it a Coutinho through ball, Sterling trickery or Markovic cross, Balotelli has a footballing brain enough to get on the end of these chances and rifle the ball into the back of the net.  And this truly excites me.

 

I see no reason why Rodgers can’t handle the lively Italian.  After all, the Northern Irishman has been working with the likes of Suarez, Sturridge and Sterling for the past few seasons, and has always taken a firm stance when it comes to discipline.  During ‘Being: Liverpool’, a documentary filmed whilst the Reds were during Rodger’s first pre season tour of America shortly after he took over the reigns from the King, we saw him ruthlessly whip a young Sterling into line, calling him out for a previous unnecessary and undermining comment from the maestro aimed at Rodgers.  In addition, Sturridge came to Liverpool with question marks over his attitude, assumptions which now seem an age ago, thanks to the work of Brendan and the faith he has shown in him where others in the past hadn’t, and of course last pre season, where Rodgers infamously had Suarez training alone following the ludicrous transfer saga with Arsenal, which saw them bid a measly £40m and £1 for the Uruguayan.  Since then, Brendan has admitted that the sagas have matured him as a manager, can he take his learns and mistakes from past scenarios to ensure the Balotelli is a hit at Anfield?  Please let us know your thoughts on the matter by leaving a comment below.  

 

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