Why Always Mario?
(Action Images)
Everybody needs to get off of Mario Balotelli’s back. He’s the go-to whipping boy for anyone paid to talk about football these days. Any time Liverpool drop any points, sure as Shearer you can expect four things to happen:
- Commentators and pundits still get all giddy over Raheem Sterling’s potential
- Brendan Rodgers does his best to deflect any criticism by reaching for positives
- The fans make excuses as all fans do
- All of the above will rag on Mario.
No Premier League goals in seven games now for Balotelli since he joined Liverpool. This following the 0-0 draw with Hull City in which he missed a decent late chance, albeit with the keeper’s foot halfway up him.
It’s pretty obvious that he’s becoming a scapegoat. Liverpool’s team is riddled with flaws and while Mario’s been disappointing the guy‘s not at fault for their having conceded twice against a QPR team with 4 goals in 7 before that. Steven Gerrard struggles to dictate play from so deep and they’re almost entirely reliant on Raheem Sterling (and occasionally Coutinho) to spontaneously create things, while the last guy to have as much trouble with crosses as Simon Mignolet was probably Count Dracula (otherwise a pretty top keeper though). Balotelli’s been pretty rank too, but it’s not all his fault.
If Brendan Rodgers thought he was getting another Luis Suarez on the cheap then he should probably invest in some better scouts. Balotelli played for three years as a Manchester City lad, he’s a known commodity. Suarez dropped deep and ran with the ball. He worked hard and got involved, sucking in defenders and creating room for others too.
Balotelli doesn’t do that. He’s an old fashioned prima donna forward. A finisher. Put it on a platter and he’ll do the rest. The kind of striker that deals in goals and goals alone, hunting around the box for wounded prey to feast upon.
Unfortunately he plays in a team that averages more shots from outside the box than any team not containing Alexis Sanchez. 7.7 shots a game for just one long range goal, Stevie G cops a bit of blame there. They also don’t tend to be all that generous. They cross the ball often enough, but are yet to score from one, and have only 6 assists from their 13 league goals. Cesc Fabregas has 8 alone. This isn’t to say that they aren’t creative, it’s just that guys like Sterling tend to create for themselves. Note how often cuts inside and shots. Nothing wrong with that, a goal is a goal, but it ain’t playing to Balo’s strengths, so you can’t be shocked if he’s underperforming.
Even still, look at that late winner against QPR. Counter attack, Sterling gets in behind the defence with his pace and cuts it back across. Mario is right there waiting to bury it when Steven Caulker wanders past unawares, like an extra on a movie set, and bunts it into the goal. If that ball gets by him, Balotelli scores an injury time winner and the narrative changes. He gets to be the defiant champion once more instead of the lightning rod for blame that he is right now.
Which is exactly what he is. A scapegoat. The guy that people blame to help them cope with defeat. If Liverpool tailor their team around Balotelli then he’ll be great, but they’re expecting him to integrate himself into their established identity and that takes time. Worse than that, people are expecting him to do Suarez-esque things and that’s never gonna happen. It’s not who he is.
The fact is, Liverpool are never going to build their team around Super Mario. They just bought him coz he was cheap and available and they needed another striker. Makes you wonder if this is a player maybe better suited to a team below the top few clubs in each league, who all have their established playmakers. Imagine the returns if he had a role like Romelu Lukaku’s at Everton.
I think we’ll see a much better Balotelli when Dan Sturridge returns, supposing that he hasn’t been panic sold by then. Sturridge is a guy you can play around, he’ll bring the focal point of the attack further forward and Mario’ll find himself included more. Plus it’ll split the attention of defenders.
He’s often played in a one man attack by Italy, but their style of play is much different. Set pieces and slow build ups. Penalties aside, Liverpool haven’t scored from a set piece all season. You put Mario in a typical finisher/creator partnership up front, things’ll look different. Unfortunately they only got one chance before DS’s injury, a 3-0 win over Spurs in which Balo had 5 shots in just over an hour. Granted, frequency of shorts hasn’t been his problem. Among players with at least 150 minutes on the pitch in the EPL this season, only Sergio Aguero shoots more. However 9 blocked shots (tied for fourth) and 13 off target efforts (third) drag him down.
He’s clearly playing without confidence. As the cliché goes, maybe all he needs is one goal before they start flowing. Being under the spotlight doesn’t help him.
Almost any other player and that shirt swapping fiasco blows over almost entirely. Balotelli is one of the newsworthy guys in the game and you know what the English media are like when it comes to sensationalising. A goalless draw with Hull becomes a goalless draw against Hull in which Mario Balotelli AGAIN failed to find the net! Literally nobody else scored either.
Hence Brendan Rodgers could do to offer a little support for the fella with his words, if not in his line-ups. Gentle encouragement isn’t enough, you’ve gotta get angry on his behalf, show him you’ve got his back! Fergie would slaughter anyone who tried to lead with that angle for Wayne Rooney. Mourinho would act all bemused and call them out on it. Wenger would… ok Arsene doesn’t deal too well with the media games. But Harry Redknapp would sloppily change the subject and say something controversial for a different headline. Hell, he did it the other day with Adel Taarabt to deflect attention from his own management. It’s all in the game, yo.
But not much of this is likely to happen. Balotelli will keep toiling away and getting blamed for everything. He’ll probably score sooner or later, but apparently he’s only got 2 months to prove himself. Which means he’s already in a fight against time, as well as against the media, (some of) the fans, his team, his coach, himself...
Good luck and God Speed, Mario.