It's safe to say that the Mario Balotelli experiment hasn't gone well in Liverpool. The big forward has made just 12 league appearances for Liverpool this season, as injuries and poor form have plagued him lately. His purchase over the summer is looking more and more like an expensive flop, but with Liverpool's poor output from the striker position this season, it seemed likely that the big Italian forward would get more chances.
Brendan Rodgers doesn’t understand how Mario Balotelli plays
Mario Balotelli has been conspicuously absent from Liverpool’s lineup lately, and Brendan Rodgers has finally divulged why. And no, it doesn’t really make sense.
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After a spell on the sidelines with a bad illness, Liverpool fans had thought they might see Balotelli on the pitch again on Saturday against Bolton, but he was left out of the matchday squad entirely. When asked why that was, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers was surprisingly straightforward:
Rodgers on Balotelli: "If you can't press, you can't be a part of the team. It doesn't matter who the player is."
— Tony Barrett (@TonyBarretTimes) January 24, 2015 Oh. Well then.
Of course, that explanation dredges up a whole new set of questions. Mario Balotelli has never, at any level, been a striker who presses very much. He’s a guy who spends most of his time out of possession floating around looking for spaces to exploit, not a high-energy workhorse who buzzes around trying to disrupt play. That style of play isn’t even something that’s in Balotelli’s skillset in any meaningful way, so trying to convert him into that player at this point in his career seems foolish.
And if that’s how Rodgers feels, why even buy Balotelli in the first place? Sure, there was a bit of desperation to the purchase, as Liverpool were having a hard time recruiting strikers of quality late in the summer transfer window after the departure of Luis Suarez. Surely, though, they could have found someone who fit what Rodgers wanted in a striker better than Balotelli does.
Then there’s Steven Gerrard. Rodgers has done a lot of weird things with his lineup the last couple of years to get his club’s captain into the side as often as possible, despite the fact that he hasn’t had the legs to press effectively for about four years now. Apparently “if you can’t press you can’t play” doesn’t apply to club legends.
Of course, there’s a catch to this entire discussion: Balotelli may not be pressing effectively, but the stats sure make it look like he’s making an effort at it:
Succ Tackles p90: Lambert 0.6, Borini 0.5, Balotelli 0.1 Att Tackles p90: Balo 1.5, Lambert 1.2, Borini 1 INT per90: Borini 1.3, Balo 0.2
— oh you beauty (@natefc) January 24, 2015 Lambert not listed under interceptions because he hasn't made a single one in the PL this season
— oh you beauty (@natefc) January 24, 2015 Obviously these stats aren’t the be-all, end-all when it comes to judging pressing, but we also don’t really have a better way to track it statistically. And they bear out something that some Liverpool fans have noticed over the course of the season -- Balotelli does try to press at times, he’s just not always very good at it.
It also brings up the "why are you buying these guys" question again, because Rickie Lambert isn't any better at pressing than Balotelli is. He's gotten more successful tackles in, but in watching Liverpool play those have mostly come defending set pieces. When he's up top, he's actually far more static than Balotelli is, yet somehow he escapes Rodgers' criticism.
Of course, with Daniel Sturridge serving as Liverpool's golden boy returning hero as he nears his injury comeback, maybe he'll bring the high press that Rodgers wants from his strikers.
And here's Sturridge last season for comparison: 0.4 Succ Tackles p90, 0.6 Att Tackles p90, 0.2 INT p90.
— oh you beauty (@natefc) January 24, 2015 ...Maybe not.
In the end, Rodgers’ words ring hollow. It all sounds like excuse-making from someone who might not have wanted Balotelli in the first place, had the player foisted on him by Liverpool’s transfer committee, and now is trying to come up with reasons to get rid of him or just simply not play him.
It’s a shame, because Balotelli could be good in this Liverpool side, but Rodgers has been far too rigid in his tactics and thinking to really give him a proper chance to succeed. Instead, Balotelli is almost certainly going to go down as a very expensive mistake for Liverpool. What a waste.
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