Debate: Will Mario Balotelli ever be a success at Liverpool?

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Mail
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
  • Fall guy: Liverpool's Mario Balotelli takes a tumble under pressure from QPR's Richard Dunne.

    Mario Balotelli hasn’t had the start he would have been hoping for since joining Liverpool for £16 million from AC Milan. The question is, will he ever come good for the Scouse side? He was woeful against QPR, fuelling concerns his best days are in the past.

    James Piercy, Deputy Editor- YES he will come good:

    Mario Balotelli missed two golden chances yesterday for Liverpool which pretty much summed up how his career at Anfield has gone so far.

    The open goal showed a player low on confidence and belief and what was initially written off as a few teething problems is now a full blown headache for Brendan Rodgers who has to play the Italian with Daniel Sturridge again injured. 

    The primary issue with Balotelli is that he is simply not Luis Suarez. Signed, along with Rickie Lambert, to replace the Uruguayan in attack, he is neither as mobile nor the same kind of all-round player.

    Balotelli is not a player to drop deep, turn and run at the defence (although his performance against Germany at the Euro 2012 semi-final shows he is capable) and doesn’t press and harry defenders. He looks totally inadequate for how Liverpool are playing and that unfamiliarity is manifesting itself into insecurity in his own performance. 

    Many will have no sympathy, he is employed to do a job and if Rodgers assigns him to try and bully a def-ence, bully a back four he should. But the Liverpool manager should have been more than aware of the type of player he is signing and has been unable to find the right system to cater to his abilities.

    His inconsistency and idiosyncrasies will always be there but, at the same time, after turning 20, he averaged a goal every 140 minutes for Manchester City and AC Milan in league matches. For three quarters of his Milan career he was a game changer. The reason why an average Rossoneri won. At 24, he should be in a position to adapt his game and, although he will be accustomed to the Premier League as a whole, he’s still only played eight times for a team playing a totally different style he’s been used to in Serie A.

    Ironically, he needs Sturridge back as much as Rodgers does. Someone to make space and lighten the leg work. 

    Given time he will start to find the target more regularly. If you don’t believe me, look who was standing behind both Richard Dunne and Steven Caulker as they put the ball into their own net. Balotelli wouldn’t have missed three opportunities with an open goal… would he?

    Andy Lewis, News Editor- NO he will not come good:

    It’s not very often you’d admit to being on the same side of an argument as one Joseph Barton. 

    But as Mario Balotelli did his best to shine a positive light on Emile Heskey’s Liverpool career with a wretched display of centre-forward play at Loftus Road, the QPR midfielder’s Twitter description of the Italian as “a myth” seemed apt.

    That is because it has been so long since we have seen consistent evidence he is likely to blossom into the world class striker he once looked destined to be. 

    The word consistent is absolutely fundamental as it is something the 24 year old has never managed to achieve – on and off the pitch. The only thing he has done consistently in a Liverpool shirt so far is miss the target, with his shooting as wayward as his tabloid circus of a personal life.

    You could argue he is still coming to terms with his new surroundings, a new set of team-mates. But Balotelli has considerable experience of English football, and there is more than enough creativity in this Liverpool side for him to have offered better than his one goal in 611 minutes of action. He has no excuses. 

    The truth is that he is mired in a dismal run of form. He has gone 10 league games for Milan and the Reds without a goal. Interestingly, in his last 20 Premier League games, taking into account the dregs of his Manchester City career, he has taken 39 shots, scored once, provided no assists and has a chance conversion rate of 2.6 per cent.

    Will he turn it round? Not likely. You might see flashes, but it all comes back to that word consistency, and never in his career to date has he been truly reliable.

    At City he stayed in favour with performances in big games – the 2010/11 FA Cup semi-final and final, with goals against Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea. But his goals per game ratio of one every 2.7 matches was modest for a €26m signing. Liverpool would take that now. 

    Previously at Inter he scored a goal every 3.1 games. Yes, he scored 30 goals in 54 games across two campaigns with AC Milan, but 10 of them were penalties. He’s never scored 20 goals in a season and won’t in 2014/15.

    Recommended