As we know Balotelli is rightly or wrongly a sensitive soul and doing this sort of thing in the media is going to do more harm than good http://www1.skysports.com/football/...ts-buying-mario-balotelli-was-calculated-risk Hopefully it works the other way and he gets a few on Saturday
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers has admitted that buying Mario Balotelli was a 'calculated risk' based on a lack of other options. The Reds spent £16million on the Italy international striker - who has failed to score a Premier League goal since his return to England - purely because he was available at the end of the transfer window. "Mario was the one right at the very end who was available for that. I said when he came in that it was a calculated risk and itâs something I have to work on to try to make it work for the team." "I always said it was about availability and affordability of players," said Rodgers. "Mario was the one right at the very end who was available for that. I said when he came in that it was a calculated risk and itâs something I have to work on to try to make it work for the team. "You assess what the group had. We brought in Rickie Lambert as someone who can play some games for us and come off the bench and be an impact player for us in certain games. "Daniel (Sturridge) is a top Premier League player but has shown during his time here that he does get injuries so we needed to prepare for that. Obviously Fabio Borini looked like he was on his way out [to Sunderland]. "We had attempts for other strikers that didnât materialise for one reason or another so it left us right at the end of the window with a decision on whether just to go with what we had, when experience told us we were too light, or take a calculated risk on a player who has quality and then could we get it out of him consistently?" Balotelli has yet to look comfortable while playing for Liverpool, failing to touch the ball in Basel's penalty area during Wednesday's disappointing 1-0 UEFA Champions League defeat in Switzerland. "In terms of his behaviour, he is consciously trying to work hard at what we demand here, the intensity and work rate,â said Rodgers. "I think in terms of goals, he needs to improve. It is as simple as that. At this moment, he has not hit the numbers he will have wanted. I encourage the strikers to get into the framework of the goal, wide players to come in and get into the framework of the goal and to break the lines. "The quality of our service [against Basel] wasnât up to the standard it should be. You also have to make and create goals yourself and he didnât do that. But we win and lose as a team, and against Basel we were not good enough."
anyone think it will take him as long as crouchy to get his first Liverpool goal? (league goal obviously) ie when he first got his(remember it as well biggest ****ing fluke i have ever seen lol) it sparked him to life.
I read this last night and I was thinking it was extremely harsh to say these things publicly. Rodgers and the club have been rather uncharacteristic over the past month - playing sh*t formations, shoehorning players into wrong positions and now these comments. Maybe it's designed to get the player up and running. But I find it harsh how he's quick to criticise/punish certain players but ignore others - Lovren has made mistakes left right centre but evades criticism. We have a £25m star attack yet to score or create an assist ... no criticism. We have an underperforming captain who has been average for 2 years - but Rodgers thinks he's been world class. Rodgers has outed Agger and now appears Sakho, and I just feel that he clearly has his favourites.
Maybe it's designed to give him a kick up the ass and prove Rodgers wrong ? These thugs can always go one of two ways I suppose. Sounds like it was a panic buy though. Couldn't get other targets, knew we needed someone and ended up getting the last guy in because he was only one available. Don't understand why we didn't go for Costa. We were in for him season before, declined is due to no CL, and this year we get it and finish above Chelsea who were only other competition. We could afford the 32m but out and then it comes down to who he choses us or them.
It reads like his justifying his own regret to himself. He also makes Balotelli sound like a panic buy. This is certainly dangerous considering Balotelli's sensitivity, but I hope Balotelli reacts in the correct way. If Balotelli doesnt pick up his Liverpool career will just pass him by. I think we are only 1 or 2 players away from clicking again atm. Unfortunately ATM I feel Balotelli is one of the players not working. But we saw again Spurs what he can offer (though he missed his chances) and hopefully once Sturridge returns he can show us again (and take his chances).
Maybe, MB certainly has to change his game but dont know if he can manage to do that I'd rather see Borini starting atm as he fits our style better
Rodgers obviously expected Borini to go to. But as balotelli is starting ahead of Borini that does not make much difference.
did he though, i felt like he gave him false hope more than anything. if i was borini i would have assumed i had a future as well, other wise why get game time? which is what annoys me about suso not getting game time as it only leads to one thing.
Balotelli will never change. If a player is willing to walk about a pitch and not offer much in terms of help for his teammates then he is concerned about very little other than himself. There is no way anyone will convinced him to work harder if this is how he thinks, he simply doesn't care.
no edit, you just cant read only messing lol, yes i realized when i said it that he had scored in europe, but they are too dif things, esp confidence wise. took crouchy a while to get going in the league, just wondering if ballo will go same way, or not at all.
Fair enough, can't say I'm surprised I didn't read that bit either I agree PL and CL are different. I argued similar earlier this week about Markovic; been struggling in the PL but was much better in midweek (CL). That's not a coincidence. I will add though, Crouch always put the effort in. He was getting in the right places and getting chances to score. Mario isn't bar pot shots from twenty yards (or thirty-five yard freekicks that are never going in)
I think our recruitment policy may have let us down here. Rodgers says it was about availability. But other strikers must have been available, though they will have been a bit older. We all know Lavezzi was available. He is 29 and would have cost around £19m. I believe Huntelaar is in the final year of his contract so I'm sure a deal could have been struck. But our owners say 27 and up is to old for big fee players. £4m for Lambert probably tested them.
