i thought in reading this article heading that balotelli had stamped on sterlings face in training........... hard fr a player when his rep is that dodgy.
Very much the same. Happy with his performances in the last two games but not holding my breath that it remains at the same level. I predict that once he gets selected to start a game his effort will deteriorate again, almost as if in his mind he's made it so he can stop putting so much effort in. He will then be dropped and slowly introduced before the cycle restarts.
Different school of thoughts about Mario Balotelli taking the penalty last night. According to Steve Gerrard, he showed a little disrespect to the acting captain Henderson. Luckily it was a great penalty:if he had missed, we are all going to go against him this morning. Brendan Rodgers should discipline Mario Balotelli ?. Yes or No. Vote.
If Rodgers said absolutely must be Hendo If Hendo did not give Balo permission Then yes. If Hendo gave permission he should be disciplined. Gerrard should also be disciplined, if anyone else gets disciplined as his comments have flamed the situation instead of pouring water on it. Rodgers gave the right answer imho Ftr, rather than blow a fuse it probably best to just let it go no biggie really. Simple internal matter.
Despite me not being happy about him taking the penalty against the managers wishes, he shouldn't be punished either. Brod will probably have a word about respect his decisions but can't see there being anything more than that.
I think Gerrard was just sticking up for Hendo rather than intentionally slating Mario. Gerrard's stood up for Hendo for a couple of years now after Jordan got heavily criticised after first arriving. Obviously, he did criticise Balotelli though and despite what he said being right, he probably shouldn't have said it. I won't ever moan about players being honest and speaking their minds though. Again, Brod may have a word and nothing more, will it do it with it being Gerrard though?
No chance. I wouldn't trust Hendo to take the penalty and Mario taking it was in the best interests of the club. Gerrard once said earlier on this season that Mario would take penalties if he himself wasn't on the pitch, so not sure why he's crying about it now. Gerrard's interview was embarrassing - slates Mario for taking the penalty, has a slight dig at Hendo by saying this wouldn't have happened if he was on the pitch (dig at Hendo's captaincy) even though Gerrard once let Sturridge take a penalty against Everton and MISSED! Didn't Gerrard also let slip that Ibe had signed the contract? Again, it's rather unprofessional and not his place to talk about it in public. Not to mention why the hell he is doing punditry when he should be in the dressing room with the lads. If anyone should be punished, it should be Gerrard. And punish is a strong word - just a quiet word behind closed doors is all that's needed.
You're still missing the point. It doesn't matter who the best penalty taker on the field was. It doesn't matter whether the penalty was scored or not. What matters is the managers instructions. We'd already won the game when Gerrard let Sturridge take the penalty hadn't we? Slightly different. although I will add that I moaned about that one too. Despite me liking players speaking out, I agree Gerrard was unprofessional Got to say, your dislike of Gerrard is shining brightly in this comment Edit: Of course, there is a scenario that people haven't considered here. Gerrard could have been in the dressing room along with all the other players prior to kickoff and seen Hendo's name on the board for penalties. However, as Mario was getting ready to come off the bench, Brod could have told Mario that he had the responsibility. Hendo, Studge and Gerrard wouldn't have known this. Hendo did look over to the bench before admitting defeat too.
You're right - Gerrard is winding me up more and more these days, and quite frankly, the sooner he leaves, the better. And the underlying point (IMO) is that the best pen taker is the one who takes the penalty.
This had crossed my mind too, but i think Rodgers interview sort of clarifies all was not right. Rodgers handled q's right as did Hendo imho Gerrard did not, and in my head he is wise enough to have known what he was saying and what he was doing. As we saw with roy, being a pundit whilst active is virtually a no win scenario. Defo dont want to see something as stupid as this derail season. We won for chuffs sake, against a good outfit.
He took that penalty as it was in the best interests of himself. If he'd have scuffed it you'd have wanted him hoisted from the main stand roof. What he did was actually worse than what Mirallas did, as he took the ball out of the Captains hands (who was the designated penalty taker)= to boot) Henderson should have shown more balls like. It's easy to be flippant about it as he hit the back of the net.
You're right - I rather have let Henderson (scored 0 from 1), or Sturridge (1 from 3) take a high pressure penalty... And no - it's not worse than Miralles because Balotelli is world class when it comes to penalties. And I didn't see Henderson fight to keep it.
