If we are asked to name one player whose entry and exit in and out from the team cause by non-footballing reasons, it would probably be Italian forward Mario Balotelli who has never been a consistent player for any team in last couple of years. He kept changing his teams from Manchester City to Inter Milan and now Liverpool where he is not proving lethal to opponents in any way. However, if we look at his last team, he, indeed been notorious, but proved his worth by scoring at regular interval, but this English spell seems to be carrying a bad luck for him even in the field. Liverpool, who showed its strength in the last season and got the qualification for the Championship league, is not able to carry the similar form either in English or European circuits this season. Unlike last year, they are nowhere among the top five of league table and in CL they are finding it hard to qualify for the next stage. Nonetheless how Reds are doing in the field, manager Brendan Rodgers is not willing to criticize Balotelli for his bad form, in fact, he indirectly praised his ‘hard work’ for the Gunners. This is unusual in English soccer coz, here, if you are not providing results, you are fired overnight and Irish manager is commending his forward for his hard work for the team!
Recalling their last Championship league game with Real Madrid, he broadly showed his satisfaction with the form of his team and Italian striker despite losing the game by 3-0 and said, “I thought it was a great response for us from the game in midweek. We were maybe a bit slow in the first half, but in the second half we were outstanding with the energy and effort we put into the game. We created chances. It was a game we should have had three points from. We had enough chances. I’m frustrated that we didn’t win, but performance-wise I’m happy with our reaction to the midweek game.”
Adding about Balotelli show in the game and why he swapped his T-shirt with Pepe, he added, “There were a couple of chances that fell for him around the six-yard box. It was a great run by Philippe Coutinho, he opened up his foot to try to guide it in — it was a big chance and we had one or two of those in the game but we just couldn’t quite put the ball in the net.
“I thought Mario worked very well and very hard. He maybe thought he wasn’t going to play today. You saw that he is working hard and at the moment he’s doing his best.”