Mario Balotelli can make it at Liverpool and his performances will improve, but only when he increases his work-rate.
The Italian has not started as well as Liverpool fans would’ve hoped and after eight appearances for the Reds he has scored just once – against Ludogorets in the Champions League. Mario’s shot accuracy is 44%, which when compared to the Premier League’s top scorer Diego Costa (84%) is very poor. He is yet to get a direct assist for Liverpool – generally he hasn’t contributed much at all and that led to him being dropped for Rickie Lambert for Liverpool’s home game against West Brom.
His attitude is notoriously poor and English football fans know all about that from his time spent with Manchester City. AC Milan’s president Silvio Berlusconi hit out at Balotelli after he left the Italian giants and declared himself pleased that the “rotten apple” that is Mario is no longer in the Milan dressing room. Quite incredible comments, especially considering the 24-year-old had a decent record for AC – 30 goals in 54 games.
His troubles in his past were mainly to do with his mischievous ways off the pitch, rather than what he did on it, and that should be very much in his past. Liverpool made it known that in order to agree a contract with Mario they wanted him to agree to their demand that he won’t misbehave, and if he does then Liverpool are in control of his future. This has not however improved his work-rate on the pitch.
His much anticipated return to the Premier League against Tottenham was promising for Liverpool fans. He looked bright and should have scored early on when he struck the woodwork from close range. However it was his new found work-rate which really impressed, and he was tracking back and coming deep to win the ball – like a young Wayne Rooney was renowned for. However that hard working Balotelli appears to have disappeared again and unless he can increase his work-rate he won’t repay Brendan Rodgers’ trust.
It seems now Mario is sitting too deep in the Liverpool system and when The Reds’ creative players get themselves into decent wide positions the Italian striker is nowhere to be seen in the box and is therefore a very little threat to the opposing defenders. He hasn’t ever been a particularly strong ‘poacher’ and a large selection of his goals have come from set-pieces. He’s a very good penalty taker but that doesn’t mean he’ll get a chance all the while Steven Gerrard is at Liverpool. Mario certainly has the ability to score wonderful goals and he has the ability to score tons of goals at Liverpool as long as he’s willing to work hard.
That is all that he is missing. When/if the work-rate comes the Italian can still become a Liverpool cult hero, as nowhere quite like England do the supporters appreciate hard work from their players. The goals will come and the Liverpool fans will love him if he gives them all that he has. If you get the Reds supporters on your side, they’ll support you for as long as you wear the shirt.
[ad_pod ]
[ad_pod id=’ricco’ align=’center’]