Thing is, if he's lazy during the game, we take him off. We have the players now to replace him rather than when he was at Ac Milan where if he didn't play well they had no one to replace him. ---------Gerrard/Can ----Henderson---Sterling -----------Coutinho ------Balotelli---Sturridge If he's playing poorly we can substitute him for Lambert and stick with the diamond. Bring Markovic on and go to a 4-3-3 and bring Lallana on and push him out wide and have him interchanging with Coutinho. We now have options, which is great.
Mad Mario! Not my first choice, but he does tick all the boxes in terms of our transfer statergy (young, decent fee, pl experience, marketable). I think that last ones important now for the top clubs, and while Suarez was seen as bad for liverpools rep, he actually raised our profile massively. Balotelli could do the same, known round the world and generally liked despite his bad boy image.
Sterling is a bit deep there, but the fact you're trying to squeeze him in shows we have many great players (shame none of them are "world class" like but oh well )
I have doubts about playing two (theoretically) out and out strikers together. We played Sturridge and Suarez together because Suarez is a ****ing genius and creates as many as he scores. Although Sturridge does play across the line to vary things surely we want such a prolific goalscorer to get in where it hurts? We don't desperately need to replace all of Gnasher's goals, but we do need to maintain the creativity somehow. I'm not sure that Sturridge and Balotelli together would provide enough, and playing them both keeps a creative midfielder out.
Completely for Balotelli... Has a great range of abilities - strong, fast, set pieces, great distance shot. Genuinely exciting to watch. If - and yes it's an if - Rodgers can get him going consistently he'll absolutely erupt at Liverpool. Incredible amount of natural ability to tap in to. Arguably a lot more mature now at 24 than when he was at City? Scored very consistently for Milan.
This is how I've analysed it. I think Rodgers is capable of doing it and if he does, Balotelli will be like a totally new player.
Falcao going to Madrid then? Would love Khederia and think we need him for our crap midfield, but won't happen sadly.
I hope so. BR seems to have a way with the players, despite the cringe-making appearance on that TV show. But like everything he's done so far, he needs to keep doing it for us to be certain it's definitely not just more luck than judgement. Balotelli would be a big test, imo. And the media certainly won't help because they're going to be looking to take the piss at every opportunity.
Agreed. What formation are Madrid planning on playing? --------Kroos-------- Bale----------Ronaldo ------Rodriguez------ ---Falcao--Benzema--
They wont all play. Benzema will be benched. -----Modric---Kroos------ --------Rodriguez-------- --Bale------------Ronaldo ---------Falcoa-----------
