11 May 2015

Humiliation: Rodgers explains why he dumped 'maverick' €20m Liverpool misfit. Career-killer?

With only one Premier League goal all season, it's hardly surprising that 'maverick' Reds's striker Mario Balotelli barely plays for Liverpool these days, and after being dumped from the match-day squad for the Sunday's game with Chelsea, it's looking increasingly like the Italian is on the outs at Anfield. The question is, was Balotelli injured/ill, or did Rodgers drop him for the game?

Speaking to Sky Sports after the 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge, Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers made it explicitly clear that he dropped Balotelli. He explained:

"He [Balotelli] is just not selected in the squad. Jerome Sinclair [is] doing fanatic in our youth and reserve teams. He works tirelessly every day and Mario is just not in the squad."

The key phrase his is 'he [Sinclair] works tirelessly', which is something Rodgers demands of all his players. Balotelli does not 'work tirelessly' at anything related to football, so his exclusion from the squad is entirely understandable.

I have nothing against Balotelli, and I've defended him many times this season, but he is a passenger at Anfield, and his contribution to the cause is a notch below negligible.

Balotelli's position is consequently untenable, and it's best for all sides if he just leaves the club this summer.

I couldn't care less what Balotelli gets up to in his own time. The media obsession with his every move is an absolute joke, and unlike practically every other site, I don't take part in the endless sensationalisation of his off-field activities.

It's simply a football issue: Balotelli is not suited to Liverpool's style of play; he adds nothing to the team, and he's abjectly failed to fulfil his primary role, which is to score and create goals.

Granted, Balotelli - who cost Liverpool €20m - is handicapped Brendan Rodgers' pigheaded insistence on playing him as a lone-striker, but that's largely irrelevant now; he's just not a Liverpool player, and never will be.

As always, the key question to consider is this: will Balotelli's exit have any negative impact on Liverpool's forward progress? The answer is clearly, NO; he won't be missed in any way, shape, or form, so there's no point wasting any more time on the guy.

Sampdoria are desperate to sign Balotelli, and on Friday, the club's President, Massimo Ferraro, invited the striker to sign for the club this summer. He told Radio Kiss Kiss:

"If it were up to me, I would bring him to Sampdoria immediately. It would be fantastic to have him together with Eto'o."

Hopefully, this is an invitation Balotelli will think hard about accepting.

Rodgers basically humiliated the striker on Sunday by selecting an untested 18-year old ahead of him in the squad, so why would he want to stay anyway?

Author: Jaimie K


62 comments:

  1. He probably does not want to stay with BR in charge but there will be some interesting negotiations around his contract and who pays what to whom.


    Whatever the relative responsibilities are for the failure of Balotelli at Liverpool I doubt many clubs will be fighting over his services.

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  2. Wowww...
    And he is one of the player you bought mr rodger,
    bought even allen = not good enough
    bought even markovic = not good enough
    etc...

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  3. Balotteli is just not suited to the premier league or LFC unfortunately. Balo is a different player to what I thought he was before coming to LFC. He plays as if he wants to be a number 10 and has no real desire to get in the box. He doesn't seem to run in behind or get past a player without stopping the ball or making physical contact with the opponent. He doesn't glide past players like Henry or the Studge even. He in the mould of Berbatov for me but less effective currently and less interested which is saying something.

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  4. Stevie was taken off to get an ovation in a must win game ,,and no disrespect to Lambert but give me ballo any day ,We have a clown in charge who played youngsters against Madrid,cans been out of position all year ,Johnson is preferred to manquillo for god know what reason,Henderson isn't fit to be vice captain let alone captain ,£20 million spent on markovic and he doesn't make the bench,,, on top of all this he has spent £212 million since coming ,,, klopp klopp klopp aspa.

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  5. Very true. But it wouldn't surprise me if LFC kept him next season.

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  6. Good points.

    How much do you think he's worth and/or how much do you think we might reasonably expect to get for him?

    I doubt any of the big clubs would even answer the 'phone to his agent anymore, so I think a big loss on our financial outlay is inevitable.

    Maybe he'll try to sneak onto the Orient Express and head down to Southern Europe? Maybe one of these Turkish clubs, or maybe even Greece.

    They like buying "past it" players down in Turkey, maybe they could be persuaded to buy a "never had it"?

    Possibly, but probably not by Ian Ayre.

    Best case scenarion, swift exit for £8 million.

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  7. Much like you, my fear is he is on a good wage and in order to make room for others we might be forced to loan him with options and subsidy his wages or even have to buyout or part buyout his contract by accepting a low transfer fee.

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  8. my boiler keeps making that noise

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  9. Aye, he gets a lot of heat for his poor transfers, but for me, the biggest indictment of Rodgers' competence is his in-game management.

    Some of the substitions and/or tactical switches (or lack thereof) reek of a total novice.

    And that's saying nothing about changing the clubs playing system/philosophy every couple of months with no long-term plan.

    The other worrying thing is, we don't buy players to fit our system, we chop and change our system in an attempt to suit our players.

    With limited funds, our only hope is the Arsenal model - buy young, develop on the training picth over many years of being grooved and disciplined in a REGULAR way of playing and then reap the rewards with a team that exceeds the sum of it's parts.

    They were so successful doing it this way, they now have the financial clout to compete with the big-boys in tn the transfer market and have added 2 players of the very highest calibre and reputation.

    We are a million miles behind them now, on and off the the pitch. Arsenal, as much as I hate them (just jealousy), have overtaken us and lkeft us for dead...
    ...and due to their management/front office.

    Rodgers has done some good, but it's clear to see that we as a club cannot allow anyone to indulge himself with on the job learning, as Rodgesr seems to be doing here.

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  10. Agreed, Aquilani 2.0

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  11. Looking at the list with Sturridges endless injuries and Balotelli not up to the lone striker role we have the unenviable task of having to sell one or both.

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  12. Hendo is one of our better players now, he's consistent and puts 100% every week. He's exactly what we need as captain next year. As for Manquillo, although he's a better defender than Johnson he's not good going forward which is a requirement for a modern full back, that's why Johnson plays more than him.

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  13. Can't see us selling Sturridge, think we'll give him another season and see if his injuries clear up. Lambert, Borini, Balotelli and Aspas are all surely to be sold, if we can find buyers.

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  14. Hendo has disappeared during the run in. Apart from one excellent pass which was wasted by Lambert, and several poorish set pieces, what did he do yesterday. Or the few games previous to that?


    We need someone to either organise or inspire and though I like him overall as a player, I don't think Hendo really does either well enough

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  15. All this season proves is the importance of having a half decent striker in the team, the system a team plays in the attacking transition is usually based around the striker even if he is the best player in the 11 or not, if the outlet is a target man you don't want fast counter attacking football looking to thread through balls to him, or if we had a young Michael Owen again we don't want to see hoof it long and float crosses in the box, then you have mario who I'm not sure is a style of striker we can distinguish, but seemed to have invented his own you would have to called the 'balotelli role; if you look at Spain when they dominated international football, it seemed like they wanted to prove to the world a striker is not needed in 2010, but after that World Cup it just showed how important it is more than before in my opinion. Im sure everyone will disagree but I'm surprised we did as well as we have this season considering it could be the most important position in the team, unless your Man Utd with de gea, but im not sure a team can do that well without a decent striker even if it's the best manager in the world

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  16. Rickie Lambert – 0 take ons completed, 0 tackles won, 0 aerial battles successful and 0 shots on goal


    Blimey.

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  17. Balo will be missed........ He will be less of a distraction for the club !

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  18. I'm no fan of Johnson but when he gets the ball his first thought is to go forward, unlike Manquillo who first touch usually takes him backwards. The best modern full backs are good defensively and can add something going forward, Ivanovic at Chelsea probably being the best example. Henderson like the whole team form has slumped in the last month, maybe the fact that we haven't had a decent striker as an outlet is a factor. Henderson though has had a decent season, he's scored more goals than last season and has more assists than any other English player which includes our illustrious England captain.

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  19. Johnson is that good he's been offered a new contract ,hendo a joke

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  20. Yeah he had a mare, reckon we'll be lucky to get a million for him.

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  21. Isn't klopp 9th in the bundesliga, after losing his star striker and replacing him with a flop like BR? I do really rate klopp, I'm just saying, it was expected to be a two horse race in that league, but bvb performed well below expectations, and yet he's allowed to do that but not BR, who is 5th which is within expectations, and by expectations meaning in terms of finance, when the most expensive premier league team of all time scrape 4th and have to rely on an injury to sturridge and david de gea saving them 20 points or something, it's not the same as bvb's scenario surely

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  22. Great, good arguement.

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  23. Crikey!

    You know you've had a 'mare when the best thing anyone can say about your performance is, "at least he didn't put through his own net"...

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  24. Why blaming Rodgers? Merritelli OUT

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  25. Good going forward? I don't recognize Johnson you're talking about. Do watch his crossing when hendo had freed him on the wing?
    There's three to four red shirts in box and any half decent cross would've set up an easy tap-in...meanwhile, BR deserves to be banned for injustice doing

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  26. I think if we are going to change managers than we might just wanna keep Balo for one more year and see if a new manager can get anything out of him. I have no doubt that he is extremely talented and wouldn't mind giving his career a last chance.

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  27. even mourinho thinks he is the only player he has ever managed in his career who doesn't respond to man management

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  28. Just a second while I check my previous posts........... Yep, just as I thought, nowhere in what I wrote previously did I put that Johnson was good going forward, I did write though that his first thought is to go forward which is not the same. I also wrote that I'm no fan of Johnson, so suggest in future you actually read what I'd posted. For the record I'll be glad when Johnson leaves so BR can't pick him anymore, hope that clears it up for you...

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  29. There's no point. Balo was told this was his last real chance but he still refuses to put in the effort. I've NEVER seen a player who strolls around like he does from offside positions, even opposing corners whilst everyone else is busting a gut. And I've watched Berbatov....

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  30. Excellent points, although I believe Dortmund are 7th now and can go even higher, the point still stands

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  31. I'm pretty sure I could have done that. Staggering stats.

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  32. Thanks, my bad I haven't seen it lately but fair enough

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  33. I think Berbatov is a fine player. Balotelli's goal return in Inter Milan, Man City and AC Milan was 20 (59 matches), 20 (54) and 26 (43) which is not bad at all for a young striker. I think Balotelli has been bad at Liverpool but it is also partly (IMO) due to BR's inability to get the best out of some players.

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  34. Aston Villa offered 4mn in the winter but Lambert wanted to stay at Liverpool.

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  35. In addition to key players like Gotze and Lewandowski, other important players like Reus, Gundogan, Hummels and few more were also injured for the long time. So if you remove coutinho (gotze), sterling (reus), gerrard (gundogan) and skrtel (hummels) from Liverpool, we would probably be fighting for relegation under BR.

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  36. This is a fair opinion, but so many people seem to have a pre conceived notion or idea about Balotelli. It's an inflexible view that he refuses to do anything off the ball and is a negative influence on everything club related.


    I seemed to be the only person on here highlighting countless attackers who ghosted past Gerrard who blatantly ignored his defensive duties last season, to go on and score/create goals. At Anfield, Shelvey made Gerrard look like a boy amongst men.


    The last time Balotelli appeared for us didn't he put the ball in the back of the net, to be rubbed off by the linesman? Even Borini scored against Villa in the league and then got completely dumped, rarely appearing since.


    Balotelli has his own characteristics, and with that comes plenty of faults. Seems to be okay when Sturridge gets lazy or Gerrard blunders, but not Balotelli. People can pander around and attack Balotelli all they like, there is IMO no argument against Rodgers making a fool of himself, with the total mismanagement of Balotelli and half the others in the squad.

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  37. The word filter. Sigh. I'm on a hit list for sure.

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  38. Apologies then, but (unfor

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  39. Come back with those same stats without penalties and free-kicks. The majority of the goals he scored at AC Milan were set-pieces. They skew his stats a lot.

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  40. Hope they come back with the same offer then pal.

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  41. At AC Milan yes but not the same in other clubs. Still a very good record.

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  42. Fair enough then mate. When Johnson leaves I'd love for us to bring Montoya in from Barca, seen him play live, he's good defensively, good on the ball and can play both full back positions. He's being wasted at Barca so hopefully he'd be available.

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  43. Agreed. I always thinks it funny. LVG has spent so much money already and will spend a lot more, and his wage bill is ridiculous. He barely makes 4th and wouldn't have if it wasn't practically handed to them. Nobody is calling for his head. Everybody is begging for Klopp but he is having the same problems as BR. And he doesn't have near the competition in the transfer market that LFC has. Every target we have missed out on went to another BPL team with the exception of 2. I don't see how Klopp would make an immediate impact in the transfer market. BR is overachieving relative to the squad quality and everybody wants him gone. I don't get it.

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  44. No one is on any 'hit-list' - everyone is subject to the same word filter, including me.

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  45. which bvb player was sturridge? I thought he was injured too, and who for Lucas lieva When we were without Gerard and when Allen had to play holding role, who was Allen? we had a lot of injuries too especially at first, I just find it interesting that even though gotze left years ago (coutinho) they still haven't brought anyone else in to play there despite spending more money than any club in Germany over the last 2 years, it's as if klopp would have been here for this season balotelli would have miraculously felt like making runs into the box this season, scored 20+ goals and we would have competed with Chelsea or something

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  46. And once in filter, all names are treated equal?

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  47. Well we have missed Sakho (Hummels) for lots of the season as well as Lallana (Gotze). We have not had Sturridge (Rues) play much as all and Lucas (Gundagan) has also had his injury problems.

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  48. Six goals last season if you take out set peices.

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  49. You have to wonder why Balo is sold for less than he was boght for at what? Every club but his first.

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  50. That's actually a good point. Also gotta factor in Sahin, Pisczek, Schmelzer as long-term injury victims, and Weidenfeller was either dropped or got injured early on. The parallels are stark, though.

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  51. As much as I love Hendo's work-rate I agree with you.

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  52. Shhh your ruining my point.

    But yeah. Our squad was not as strong as theirs to begin with. Klopp did wonders making it so good but we are still trying to get to that stage.

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  53. I second the Montoya motion.

    But I'm still struggling with the Sturridge motion.

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  54. If your having such problems with your motions I suggest All Bran.

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  55. Haha sorry. You're spot on. Dortmund shows that you can build an excellent team with the 'buy low' model, but you've got to buttress that with big wages to keep the core of the team together, sadly. Klopp did well, yes, and I really hope they make it to Europe.

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  56. :P would probably cure the hot air I keep spouting.

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  57. Not to mention that on several occasions, I have seen him stroll on the field just as the team is about to kick-off for the 2nd half. All other 21 players ready for action and he is strolling on. In one game, didn't he even stroll on AFTER the second half had kicked off (only 2-3 secs, but still just sums the guy up).

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  58. Stan Dinaround2:22 pm, May 11, 2015

    Whatever he's worth, I'd happily let him leave for free just to clear his wage...

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  59. Stan Dinaround2:23 pm, May 11, 2015

    ZZZzzzzzz!

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  60. Surely after reading this over and over it is boring to say it too. Surely.

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  61. Stan Dinaround2:30 pm, May 11, 2015

    Certainly Rue(s) missing Sturridge.

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