KopTalk.com Forums Football Liverpool FC Forum A very,very interesting read in defence of Mario Balloteli

Exactly, he has hardly looked lazy for us and as the auhor points out, that is just a lazy argument. He has been working and moving into spaces but again as the author points out, often into the wrong spaces at the wrong time which has more to do with him developing game intelligence than anything else.

But BR's comments have been very negative lately despite the fact the lad has won us some crucial points.

Ah marko 1 winner, hes not been a relevation.
I still have hope for him that we will get the best of him. ...ppace power finisher
the brain aint there but that doesn't stop many footballers

just a toxic signing , we him and BR will all be better off when he is gone and we can just erase the memories. destroyed our season

Spurs winner, Besiktas winner

Balotelli is a quality player, have said so since the beginning. Rodgers hasn't given him the time of day, plays him out of position, doesn't utilise his playing style properly, talks about him like [oops] to the press and always puts him down, doesn't praise him when he does well, instead credits other players. Balotelli is the kind of player who needs someone to praise and comfort him and tell him he's doing well. Since joining us his confidence is rock bottom and he's not getting enough playing time. He will play well in one match and then get dropped the next despite working hard. He's certainly saved our bacon a few times in his limited game te, imagine what he could have done had he got all the games that sturidge missed.

It was a strange decision to take Mario off at Besiktes when he has hardly played and PK were imminent so that picture in that article pretty much sums up every fan out there not just Mario himself, I was certainly surprised. I'm not saying he would of won the shootout for us but in that situation, he should of stayed on. He actually looks very dangerous when he gets the ball, he's passing to team mates in good positions most often than not. I didn't like his antics at Istanbul but that is what you get with his character. Good performances will come I feel, and he will contribute to the season.

I like Mario, he has some fantastic qualities and whilst he's a character and high mantenance he seems like a good guy; however, he doesn't have the discipline, team ethic or understanding of the game to play for a top team. He's still youngish but unless this changes drastically (which i can't see happening) he'll leave LFC in the summer and be journey man player for the rest of his career.

why does mario get such sympathy ? carroll never got it when he scored the odd goal, downing had a good spell of games for us once and he was still vilified. this mario fella has been nothing but bad news his whole career but people still get him the benefit of the doubt.. i just don't get it. he is crap anyway, wouldn't be too bad if he was class but he is another carroll

Inter - 28 goals in 86 games when aged 17-19
Man City - 30 goals in 80 games, aged 20-22
Milan - 30 goals in 54 games, aged 23-24

Italy - 13 goals in 33 games.

He hasn't played for a team that wasn't a top club, so not sure what you mean, his stats showed he was getting better with age and turning in to a 1 goal in 2 games player. Brendan has stunted his development by dropping him and not playing him despite having a striker crisis.

I'm with Lumba on this. It all points towards Rodgers not wanting him along with him categorically saying we wouldn't sign him. Then there's the Remy medical failure too.

For me, he's a good player in the wrong team. We play a way that he doesn't fit and we shouldn't really change that to accommodate just him. That's not his fault though.

I personally think he'll be gone in the summer along with lambert and Borini. Just hope Rodgers is allowed to bring in the players he wants this time.