IT’S been an odd sort of season. With over £100million of new players, a team coming off a genuine title challenge and the return of Champions League football, there was a decent amount of optimism about the place, even sans Suarez. However, we were all soon feeling as deflated as a hole-filled airbed being viciously attacked by Eric Pickles.
Fast-forward to the last month or so, and we’re back. Albeit coming from a long way behind after such a bad start, but the flowing football has returned, the smooth inter-play is on show with regularity, and — most importantly — winning is happening a lot.
A key part of this revival has been the summer recruits finally having a big influence on the team and getting up to speed with the new ‘Liverpool way’ (which as far as I can tell is basically being good at football).
However, it was notable when the starting line-up was announced for the Spurs game last week that the supposed future stars Markovic, Moreno and Can were present, while the ‘ready-made’ signings of Lovren, Balotelli, Lallana and Lambert were all on the bench. It seemed to be a damning indictment on not only some of those players, but the recruitment of them.
My theory was then extinguished by great swathes of urine (sorry) as Lovren, Lallana and Balotelli all came off the bench to swing the game in Liverpool’s favour, with the biggest siren of the night being raised to draw attention to the performance of the enigmatic Italian.
As was mentioned by the lads on this week’s pod, in the last seven days Balotelli has enjoyed the best hour and a bit of his Liverpool career, putting in very good cameo performances against both Spurs and Crystal Palace. His winning goal in midweek was not only vital to the Reds’ season, but you felt it was also a crucial moment in the story of Mario.
The fact that he had scored was somewhat overshadowed in the media by the fact that he didn’t celebrate. Of course he has never celebrated goals, but that was conveniently ignored by many. Some cruel folk suggested it was because he had simply forgotten how to.
However, his post-match grin on Instagram (I called it his ‘grinstagram’ because I’m dead clever like that) and accompanying post that he reserved his smile for those who truly believed in him was a clear indication that this is a lad who really really needs to feel loved. It actually made me feel a little uneasy. Was this a shot at the media, at the fans who had questioned him, or worst of all, at his manager?
Brendan Rodgers has spent practically every hour since the summer trying to make it clear that he had to settle for Balotelli, that he wasn’t his choice and that he’s been trying to make the best of a bad situation. This couldn’t have been more obvious considering Rodgers had gone on record mere weeks before signing him saying that the club would categorically not be buying Balotelli.
Then, to compound it all, he basically calls Balotelli out in public and openly says that he’s not being picked because he doesn’t work hard enough, and that he isn’t a fit for this Liverpool team. He was right, but you would have thought it was the last thing Mario wanted to hear, and more to the point, the last thing that was going to make him buck his ideas up.
Rodgers has played at reverse psychology before to try and motivate a player to turn things around, often with great success, but this felt different. The only way to get the best out of Mario is to pat him on the head and tell him he’s special, isn’t it?
After several games missing from the entire match-day squad, he appeared without warning on the bench last Tuesday, and something remarkable happened. He came on with the game finely poised, and worked his knackers off. Then on Saturday, he did exactly the same. He has gone from not fit to play out the final 15 in a routine win to Mario Balotelli: game changer.
It is remarkable that he went from a player not trusted to play a part at all, to someone the manager calls on at half time in a tricky away cup tie when a goal down. Even more remarkable that he has responded so well.
What was particularly notable about his Palace performance was that he didn’t score. His fizzing free-kick was followed up brilliantly by Lallana, and the immediate grin on his face spoke volumes. It was so wide he was showing his teeth, which Liverpool strikers usually get in trouble for.
He appeared to be happier about setting about a goal than he had been scoring one. The way the players jumped all over him on Tuesday, followed by the glee that he showed when he had been denied a goal only for a teammate to grab one, it appears that Balotelli is starting to feel like part of the team.
When he was at Milan, every quote that came out of the San Siro suggested that he was playing on his own. His teammates didn’t like him, they didn’t want to pass to him, and he was the disruptive one causing the team to suffer. Look at them now — while all that with Mario may have been a factor, it appears that the main problem was that they were shite at footy.
For years we have been told that the only way to deal with Balotelli is to discipline him the way you would a child. Rodgers has treated him like a man, and for the first time in a while, Mario is playing like one.
This is not just a back-slap for the manager, but for the player as well. His response has been magnificent, and the hope from here is that he sees where this new attitude can take him. Many have questioned his ability as well as his attitude, me included, but a Balotelli with a work ethic is at the very least a tremendously useful weapon to have in your artillery.
Don’t get me wrong, this is not me getting carried away by two substitute appearances. I am aware that this could very much be the exception to the rule, and I remain just as sceptical as you. In fact, maybe more so, because here’s the thing dear reader… I don’t particularly like Mario Balotelli.
I was in the camp of ‘he will clearly not fit our system’ when he was bought. There was rather a lot of excitement when he arrived, mainly as he was a marquee name that most had been clamouring for all summer, not the exact one but marquee nonetheless. He had still banged goals in with Milan even if they didn’t like him anymore, he had a point to prove in England etc., but it just felt like a panic buy.
We had sold Suarez, who was brilliant but came with baggage. I wanted a replacement who didn’t necessarily have to be quite as good, just as long as they didn’t come with baggage. We ended up signing a player who wasn’t anywhere near as good and came with loads of baggage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrwXANFladY
His debut at Tottenham was promising. He missed a lot of chances but the point was he was getting those chances. However, after the injury to Daniel Sturridge he was made to play up top on his own, and his performances soon resembled that of an errant motorway traffic cone. The phrase ‘neither use nor ornament’ came up a lot.
When we signed him, as I’ve mentioned, I wasn’t keen, but the one thing I did hope for was some laughs, and a few ‘Mario moments’, such as his performance for Man City at Old Trafford in the 6-1, or his stupidly fantastic goal against Bologna for Milan, but apart from strikes against Ludogorets and Swansea in cup games that ultimately did little for our season, those moments just didn’t arrive.
Given his performances against Spurs on his debut and then against Palace at the weekend, there seems to be something in the argument that he performs much better in a partnership, especially with Sturridge. With the England forward pulling defenders left and right, it has allowed Balotelli space to move into. He has never been a striker who played off the shoulder of the last defender or who would take it through three or four on a mazy run, but with space, he can be a whole different prospect and won’t necessarily have to smash efforts from 30+ yards every time. It will be very interesting to see how that develops over the next few weeks.
You may have noticed, but there’s something about Mario. When he fails, everyone wants to stick the boot in, me included. However, when he does well, everyone just seems a little happier than they would for another player. Many either love him or hate him, some seem to manage both at the same time, but it could be that people’s dislike of him stems from the frustration of seeing a talented player seem to be the only one stopping himself from being a top player. It could also be that we desperately want to see him do well because of the very harsh summations by many in the media that Brendan Rodgers was ‘arrogant’ to think that he could be the one to finally make the penny drop for Balotelli. Nonsense for several obvious reasons.
Of course one problem for Mario is that he has now eradicated a theory for his bad performances, that he just doesn’t have it in him to work hard. We now know he absolutely can, and that he’s very good at it when he tries. It now means that should he slip back into lethargy and mediocrity, he can be judged on it just as everyone else is, rather than hear the ‘that’s not his game’ excuse, which frankly never passed muster anyway.
If I’m honest I still believe that this will be somewhat of a short story. I don’t see Balotelli being a Liverpool player next season, but that doesn’t mean that he can’t go out with a bang (a good bang, not the firework sort he had in his bathroom).
He reportedly took a huge pay cut to come to Anfield, realising it was the only way he’d get an opportunity to prove himself at a top club. Perhaps now he is seeing that what is probably his last chance at the top is slipping away, and he needs to grab it with both hands before he ends up replacing Christian Benteke at Aston Villa.
Is this the resurrection of Mario Balotelli? It’s far too early to say, there have been too many previous false dawns. However, one thing is certain, if he keeps giving himself opportunities to show his teeth, then we’ll all be doing the same.
When Mario grins, we all grin.
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Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda
Nice article. I think it was obvious early on that we could only really judge Mario when he’d had a run in the side alongside Sturridge- due to his evident inability to play up top on his own in a side that was really struggling. Fingers crossed he gets that opportunity.
Although whenever I see him under perform I find it difficult watching him such is my hope he really does turn I round.
Lovely stuff. And this myth about him being a disruptive influence needs to be put to bed. Whatever other problems he has/brings, he’s been universally well-liked at every club he’s represented. Which is one of the reasons that most football people like to see him do well.
When Mario signed I was convinced Rodgers could get the best out of him. I thought he’d give him the ‘arm around shoulder’ treatment. I imagined it’d be a bit of a patronising and sickly relationship which is fine as you do what you gotta do. If it gets results…. Recently, I thought he’d, by and large, failed. His criticism of Mario in the press made me furious. I saw it as Rodgers covering his arse. A we didn’t do very well because we had lazy players type message. Maybe though, this is another Rodgers masterpiece. Maybe’s it’s not and maybe we’re going over the top after an hour of ok play. But, Mancini got on well with Mario. They were very close. He treated him a bit like a son and Mario warmed to him. The arm around the shoulder. It wasn’t enough though. Mancini lacked discipline with him and Mario exploited it. They became more like brothers. Equals, but with both trying to be the dominant one. It led to a lot of explosive moments between them. A love hate relationship. Maybe Rodgers realised this and thought as well as nurturing him he needs a good kick up the arse too. There are a lot of situations now where it appears Rodgers has turned it around. It’s not all coincidence.
Truth is, and I genuinely stand by this but I’ve never bought into this ‘he put no effort in’. It may be rose tinted glasses and I definitely understand where that view came from. I think it was more of a case of he didn’t really know how to press in the way we’ve become accustomed to seeing. The sulking when things didn’t work out didn’t help his image either. I clearly saw him trying back then. I’ve also seen a noticeable difference in his work rate this time round though. He knows how to press and he knows it’s about the team. Earlier in the season was bad for us having to watch him but it was also bad for him. He was lost. Didn’t know the fuck he was supposed to be doing.
I’d love it if this was the start of something. I’m cautiously optimistic. The thing is, I do want him to succeed because I like players with a story. I like players with baggage. Especially when they’ve grown into nice people off the field. Mario may be a bit mad but it’s all about having a laugh. Nothing malicious. In fact, he’s a very generous bloke. I want him to be brilliant for Liverpool and stick two fingers up to Italy. Suarez is another. I love that man. I’ve still got his signed shirt, framed on my dining room wall and I don’t usually go for all that. I love evening meal time when I can look at it and remember. I saw a little porcelain yellow canary at my kids school jumble sale and as the idea is to buy things whether you want them or not, I bought it so I could put it on the shelf 4 foot to the right of the shirt. From my chair it’s always in the corner of my eye and every meal time without planning to I re run the Norwich goals through my head. That’s why I bought it. I used to wonder how the fuck someone could invent having 2 pieces of plastic on either side of the Atlantic and talk to each other through them. It blew my mind. Now I ponder those 4 goals against Norwich. Anyone can transmit sound waves. Point was, the boy with no shoes made good does it for me and I’d really like it if Mario finds an inner peace at Anfield too and all that potential the pundits talk of bursts free.
Where’d you get your signed Suarez shirt?
And what the fuck is a “dining room”?
Haha, my mate does a lot of charity work. He has contacts at all the top North West clubs. He got it me for my birthday.
I used to get stuff myself because my mate ran the sports dept. of MBNA/Bank of America. They run the credit cards branded with LFC and Utd. I used to auction it off for my kids footy team but kept anything that was good, haha.
Dining Room? Is that an old fashioned word? We have a kitchen, a front room, a dining room and my back room which joins the dining room. Its supposed to be a family room but has Suarez on the wall, hundreds of LPs piled up, a record player, 2 guitars, a dartboard and my laptop. I love it in there.
Lovely comment – football should be about emotion and feelings as well as all the other stuff – made me miss Suarez again tho you…. I always wondered about the phone thing as a kid as well.
Sounds like an excellent use of a room to me, wished we had one!
Nice. I have a signed Michael Owen shirt I’ll swap you. It looks like it would fit a 12 year old.
Re the dining room, we balance our dinner plates on our knees in front of the telly in this house.
Sums up my feelings about both Mario and Suarez better than I could myself.
The pop over Fer’s head and buried in the back of the net. Ahhhhh…….
Make no mistake.Balotelli is a very clever and gifted footballer.But he’s very clever and gifted when he does what he thinks he should be doing.It’s obvious he doesn’t think he should be covering a full-back for 90% of the game.
Suarez didn’t want to and when Brendan allowed him to just get on with it we saw just what he was capable of.
Given half a chance Balottelli will be the same.
Bullshit. Suarez defended from the front.
Wanna read that again?
If Brendan turns Mario into a Liverpool player, no praise will be high enough. So much untapped potential if you can free his mind (his ass might follow, too).
That canary story is pure poetry Robin….
Down down you bring me down
I hear you knocking down my
Door and I can’t sleep at night
Your face it has no place
No room for you inside my
House I need to be alone
Don’t waste your words I don’t need
Anything from you
I don’t care where you’ve been or
What you plan to do
Turn turn I wish you’d learn
There’s a time and place for everything
I’ve got to get it through
Cut loose ’cause you’re no use
I couldn’t stand another
Second in your company
Don’t waste your words I don’t need
Anything from you
I don’t care where you’ve been or
What you plan to do
Stone me why can’t you see
You’re a no one nowhere washed up baby
Who’d look better dead
Your tongue is far too long
I don’t like the way it sucks and
Slurs upon my every word
Don’t waste your words I don’t need
Anything from you
I don’t care where you’ve been or
What you plan to do
I am the resurrection and I am the life
I couldn’t ever bring myself
To hate you as I’d
Like
I am the resurrection and I am the life
I couldn’t ever bring myself
To hate you as I’d
Like
The phone thing was confusing, but I’ll tell you what was 1000 times worse: Down under. The idea that if you dug and dug and dug you’d end up in Australia. Wow. That and The Planet of the Apes really messed with my little head!
When I was in my early teens, a lad in our street went to a brand newly built comprehensive (I went to a 16th century grammar school – 11 plus and all that. AND we played rugby). Anyway, this lad came home and said they had a radiogram (there’s a word most of you have never heard!) at school where the singers voice came out of one speaker and the music out of the other!! This was clearly nonsense!!! How could it possibly be?? My radiogram had only one speed and only one needle – and there was only one groove anyway.
He was an incorrigible and unrepentant bullshitter anyway…
I get the feeling that all of Balo’s managers are followers of the current ‘student-driven learning’ model/disaster, whereby no kid is ever failed, regardless of whether he can write his own name or not, because to expose them to a meaningful test or keep them down a grade will “harm their emotional development”.
This model somehow fails to recognise that whereas a pupil will quickly recover from a failed test/exam and will strive even harder to pass next time, there is no coming back from emerging from school and facing a lifetime of being qualified to do no more than ask “would you like fries with that?”
Even the most naturally gifted kid, if given a choice between having to study to pass a set test and “setting the pace of his own learning experience”, will go for the bean bag and the X-box every time – and why wouldn’t he, when he knows he will be given a pass anyway?
In this case, Rodgers is a bit like the old-school Year 12 teacher, who likes Balo, recognises his natural ability and doesn’t want him to spend the rest of his life asking people if they want fries.
He has simply told Mario that he won’t be getting a pass until he learns his ABCs, his times tables, and can write his own name up in lights.
Rodgers has, in effect, been left holding the baby and has had to teach Mario, not how to be a superstar, but how to be footballer. To Rodgers’ great credit, he hasn’t shirked the issue. Whether he stays at Liverpool beyond this season or not – and I sincerely hope he does – I’m convinced that Mario has crammed more football education into the last 9 months than all of career to date and he will emerge from it as a far better footballer than the one that walked in the door.
Sounds about right to me. I remember watching him at City and thinking this guy has ability but he either doesn’t understand football or isn’t very interested. He seemed to see football as a form of acting out, all about resolving inner conflict by engaging the opposition in personal battles with little end result for the team, hence the constant wrestling. I saw nothing to change that opinion in the first few months at Anfield, he showed flashes, after all, he’s instinctively good, but no understanding or consideration for his team mates. If Brendan makes him tactically aware he’ll deserve enormous credit.
Sounds like your goodself Paul!
Transference Brian, transference. And projection, of course.
Oh Paul! I didn’t say he should be transferred.I think you think he should be transferred and that’s why you’re trying to deny that and make it look as though I think he should be transferred because that is what you feel but it suits you to transfer that opinion onto me because you won’t admit it to yourself.
Don’t get me started on projection!!!! (HA ha ?)
You’ve got me bang to rights there Dr Brian!
Hi Paul,I think we could be friends?
Liverpool’s worst 3 managers of the modern era:
1. Souness for his dismantling of a great team and replacing with second rate
2. Benitez for his boring playing style and signing has-beens like Zenden
3. Houllier for his misuse of players including selling Fowler
You can’t say Mario is reborn after one goal. It’s hyperbole.
Good job no one’s made that unqualified statement then, Freddy.
Football has a long history of talented players who were ill-disciplined and faded away. And there is always a manager arrogant enough to think all that was needed was ‘the key’ and that he had it. Sometimes there IS no key.
The same thing happens in life – some kids have great potential but no interest in realising it. I suspect Balo is one of them. He’s worth persevering with alongside Studge for a few games though.
But he scored a good few goals for Milan. Still not clear why they let him go. Heard the stories of him being a disruptive/selfish figure. He hasn’t lived up to expectation, I think we all agree on that. I can’t see him being any more than a bit part player for the season and then hopefully he will be moved on.