Mario Balotelli (Liverpool -> Nice)

craig sainsbury.a jounalist  a Scum Fan started the Balotelli abuse after Mario simply wrote ''Man u ''
 Not going to write what he wrote, cause its abusive even to the Unfortunate  ebola sick people
 Bet he was not praising Luis when the evra case came out

craig sainsbury.a jounalist  a Scum Fan started the Balotelli abuse after Mario simply wrote ''Man u ''
 Not going to write what he wrote, cause its abusive even to the Unfortunate  ebola sick people
 Bet he was not praising Luis when the evra case came out

Can't believe that, google his name and it's top of google... a journalist? Saying stuff like that?
That's really low what he said.
Deleted his account and tweets or tried to, people have them saved.


Troll account it looks like.

craig sainsbury.a jounalist  a Scum Fan started the Balotelli abuse after Mario simply wrote ''Man u ''
 Not going to write what he wrote, cause its abusive even to the Unfortunate  ebola sick people
 Bet he was not praising Luis when the evra case came out

They really are a pathetic lot so many of em. Even in games not vs Lpool, they're OBSESSED with us. They sing that moronic Michael Shields song for half a match. And then some filth about Hillsborough. And these fuckers are lawyers, teachers, healthcare workers, journalists and the like. Did it ever occur to them that fball is primarily about your own team, not constant abuse of rivals.

PS was he actually a "journalist" or just "knob-end on the dole who writes free, crap articles for some sh*t Manc bloggers?

Balotelli to take no further action regarding abuse - offcial announcement.

Why can't he start thinking about himself? Another media storm for that useless tweet.

Oh FFS, nothing's wrong with that.

So, Mario Balotelli. Cards on the table I was all over us signing him, advocated it for weeks beforehand and consider myself a bit of an advocate. So what of him so far?Well, he hasn't done too badly all in all in my opinion, by and large reasonably good. The feeling remains though that there is a massive amount that we aren't seeing from him as a footballer, and whether that's because he looks better than he actually is/his attitude is holding him back/we aren't using him properly is up for debate I reckon.

Firstly the "attitude" thing. He's kind of put a shift in although it obviously doesn't come naturally to him, he's kind of looked up for it, and he's kind of managed to avoid the urge to kick someone in the bollocks when they're winding him up. For that we are all eternally grateful Mario, but there ought to be much more to come than that. His warm up before he came on last night for instance was an utter disgrace, and if I'd been Brendan and if Rickie Lambert hadn't have badly needed rescuing, I'd have sat him back down on his @rse sharpish. Whether or not he feels that from a cardo-vascular point of view he needs to warm up, he ought to be big enough and daft enough to realise that him sprinting up and down the line and looking bang up for it would have warmed THE CROWD up, would have warmed his teammates up, and who knows the reaction he got from the stands might have even warmed HIM up a tad as well.

Equally, the Carling Cup maybe a small thing in his life, but there will have been hundreds of kids in the crowd who were seeing their first ever Liverpool game, kids who will remember that day for the rest of their lives. Kids who probably have a Balotelli shirt, who were so much looking forward to seeing him play. Kids who got home well late and had to be plonked into bed so knackered were they, bleary eyed for school this morning. Not only those kids, we had two on the pitch who were having the biggest day of their lives too. The Carling Cup doesn't mean nothing to them, it was massive. Mario should recognise that, get off his @rse when he's on the bench and asked to warm up and do it like he means it. Take Lucas Leiva as an example. On his way out as a player but gave his absolute all, he was a credit to himself and an embarrassment to people like me who've given him a hard time. That's what good pro's do, and that applies to postmen(to use Mario's phrase about not celebrating), bricklayers, publicans, whatever. You get off your @rse and you put a shift in.

Now does he look better than he actually is? No he doesn't, I'm convinced that Mario could be a monster. As it is though, if I was playing against him and I was allowed to dictate the way he plays, where he moves to, how he works, then I'm pretty sure I'd have him play exactly as he is doing. I'd want him dropping deep and playing with his back to goal. I'd want him not to be overly mobile, not to run any channels, definitely not to arrive in the box like a wardrobe falling down a flight of stairs. I'd want him to get in the box nice and early when he deems to go there, that way I can fight him, grapple him and hold him. I'd never want him to take the ball on the half turn because that would open up the possibility that he might use his pace and power to go by me. I'd never want him to show for it, half turn then run backwards three or four paces to open the door for a pass. I'd never want him to show short then spin and go in behind, I'd never want him to show for the long diagonal from the full back because I'd worry that he'd beat me in the air and nod it down to an onrushing Sterling or Sturridge. No, I'd want Mario to stay in my line of sight as much as possible. That way I can look over his shoulder, watch him and the ball at the same time. If he does drop, I'd quite like it if possible if he f*ck off right out to the left wing and then have him try a shot from 40 yards through a wall of players.

That's how I'd like Mario to play if I was marking him, and thankfully for centre halves everywhere he obliges. I'd also like him not to ever close me down, and hopefully to kick me in the bollocks if I wind him up, OK so far he's letting me down on that score but he's coming through everywhere else.

Sort it out Mario FFS.   

.       

Was not impressed with him yesterday, but overall he's looked ok so far but not great. really hope its just some ring rust and he'll get back to his best soon.

For me, it just looks like a group of players, which include Mario, aren't quite playing on the same wavelength.  Only time can rectify that, but the length is indeterminate.

Equally, the Carling Cup maybe a small thing in his life, but there will have been hundreds of kids in the crowd who were seeing their first ever Liverpool game, kids who will remember that day for the rest of their lives. Kids who probably have a Balotelli shirt, who were so much looking forward to seeing him play. Kids who got home well late and had to be plonked into bed so knackered were they, bleary eyed for school this morning. Not only those kids, we had two on the pitch who were having the biggest day of their lives too. The Carling Cup doesn't mean nothing to them, it was massive. Mario should recognise that, get off his @rse when he's on the bench and asked to warm up and do it like he means it. Take Lucas Leiva as an example. On his way out as a player but gave his absolute all, he was a credit to himself and an embarrassment to people like me who've given him a hard time. That's what good pro's do, and that applies to postmen(to use Mario's phrase about not celebrating), bricklayers, publicans, whatever. You get off your @rse and you put a shift in.
[...]
Sort it out Mario FFS.   

Always said something similar to this, and always thought he will never be this kind of person you ask him to be.
He really never realize the IMMENSE luck he has: he has never done too much for football, had a bad life out of the pitch, but he is payed 110,000 £ per week to do something thousand of guys would do free. He plays for Liverpool, he wears the famous red, for some reasons still don't understand people already love him unconditionally, but he seems to do not understand all this, and to be careless in what he's doing on the pitch.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

I love Mario as a person, but as a player he - to me - is just a better Andy Carroll.

If he gets us 15 goals this season, regardless of how we set up to accommodate him, I'll be happy.

Don't have a problem with Mario or his attitude. We knew what we were getting when we signed him. If the crowd need him to be running hard in warmup to get fired up then the crowd need to sort themselves out. 

Football (soccer) one of the only sports I've watched where an athlete can't come in off the bench without jogging up and down the sidelines for 10 minutes.

For Judas' sake basketball players sit on the bench for 20 or 30 minutes at a time and then come on "cold" and have to get right up to speed and to top it off, they then go back and sit down again for another 10 or 15 minutes and do it all again.

Seems like grasping at straws to be picking on his warmup style. I mean for crying out loud the lad has a hard enough time putting on a bib, I'm not going to worry too much if his warmup isn't enough eye  candy. He knows what he needs to do to get ready.

Thought he played fine yesterday and was definitely the focal point of their defense when he came on. He was the least of our problems.

Don't have a problem with Mario or his attitude. We knew what we were getting when we signed him. If the crowd need him to be running hard in warmup to get fired up then the crowd need to sort themselves out. 

Football (soccer) one of the only sports I've watched where an athlete can't come in off the bench without jogging up and down the sidelines for 10 minutes.

For Judas' sake basketball players sit on the bench for 20 or 30 minutes at a time and then come on "cold" and have to get right up to speed and to top it off, they then go back and sit down again for another 10 or 15 minutes and do it all again.

Seems like grasping at straws to be picking on his warmup style. I mean for crying out loud the lad has a hard enough time putting on a bib, I'm not going to worry too much if his warmup isn't enough eye  candy. He knows what he needs to do to get ready.

Thought he played fine yesterday and was definitely the focal point of their defense when he came on. He was the least of our problems.

I must confess I don't know too much about basketball. Isn't it indoors though? Perhaps that's why they don't bother warming up, I don't know. Anfield on a midweek night even in September is a bit on the nippy side though, maybe that's why they do it and they don't at basketball. Maybe it's that they don't run around so much in the  shoot it through the hoop game, the strains on the muscles are different or something, who can say? It would be a bit of a turn up though after all these millions of pounds spent on sports science in "soccer" to discover that actually you don't really need to warm up at all, it's been a myth after all these years and everyone's bought into it by mistake. I suppose there is a possibility, like I say I'm certainly not an expert on such things but you never know. It seems fairly clear that Brendan and his team believe in the validity of such things (as indeed does every manager in world football it would appear) because everybody, everywhere, gets their players to do it. Course there is the possibility that Brendan said to Mario and Borini "go do a warm up if you want, but if you don't really fancy it don't worry about it", you never know.
 
What I do know though (and this was the point of my point if you get my drift) is that sometimes players really look up for it before they come on, and sometimes they don't. It doesn't always follow that the performance of said player mirrors the desire to do well, (as even when players look like they are going to try their best sometimes they are still rubbish) but it's rare that a player looks totally disinterested then actually plays brilliantly. Mario as you rightly point out was "the focal point of their defence (I'd have said "our attack" but I'm guessing you mean the same thing) when he came on, so you've judged that he did "fine" and was the "least of our problems" which is of course fair enough.

As for the fact that "we knew what we were getting when we signed him", I couldn't agree more. So did everyone else know what we were getting, that's why he was 16 million quid and not at least double that. Because of course what we "knew we were getting" was a player who is chock a block full of potential, but who hadn't really fulfilled it. Now it's possible that his attitude, his body language, where he runs, when he runs there, how much work he does, his warm up, the types of goals he looks to score, how he fits into the team etc cannot be improved upon, at all. Equally it's possible that all those things make absolutely no difference to how well Mario plays, it depends on some other factors I'm not aware of. When you say you "don't have a problem with Mario or his attitude" though, you kind of give the impression that's the case for you, which once again is entirely your privilege.

For me though, I DO have a problem with Mario because I think he can be at least twice the player we are now looking at. I am absolutely certain that Brendan thinks so too and is working with him every day trying to improve him, trying to get inside his head, trying to make him a better professional. Now as you'll no doubt point out readily, Brendan has forgotten more about football than I'll ever know, and I'll join you in thanking God that it is he who is doing the coaching of the player and not me. For my part, I'm just saying it as I see it and making a point on a forum. Not "clutching at straws" just saying it as I see it.

I will give your point about the basketball warm up some thought though, it's an interesting idea that.     

Fair points Mick.....but I still think it's a bit early to sound alarm bells. I don't have any issues with Balo's effort or skill on the pitch and I'm not inclined to believe just yet that he would be 100 percent better if he simply changed his attitude.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

I love Mario as a person, but as a player he - to me - is just a better Andy Carroll.

If he gets us 15 goals this season, regardless of how we set up to accommodate him, I'll be happy.

Ouwcchhhhhhhhhhhh! 

 I think that would be everyone's worse fear.
But the reality is that we have to prepare for any new signing not fitting in.

Balotelli is a bit of a puzzle. Some would say he lacks mental toughness. But I actually disagree. He's one of the best penalty takers in the World, for instance.

His problem is that he's just not that arsed about being a great, or even a top player. Luis on the other hand, if he won a throw in, instead of a corner, you can picture him punching himself in the head. Gerrard would do 50 or 60 volleys in training one after the other, and would be fuming if ONE went over. Top footballs are utterly obsessive. But Mario isn't.

The best I could hope for with Mario is that he becomes our Cantona. Because I'm struggling to thing of how many players reached the very top after a patchy earlier career. Players like Rush, Dalglish, Fowler, Owen, Gerrard, everyone KNEW how special they were, VERY early on.

If we had a real leader ie a 9.5 or 10, and a consistent striker, then I think Mario could flourish as the 3rd one. He hasn't got what it takes in terms of desire to be the leader ie focal pt ie best forward or even the 2nd star. All we can expect is that others take the burden and he weighs in with goals. I'd say "assists" too, but his assist rate at Man City was JAWDROPPINGLY bad ie ONE throughout his WHOLE CAREER there!

All I want to think about with Balotelli is how we get to January with him. I assumed (or atleast hoped) we'd buy a Falcao or someone too. And that Balotelli was the alternative to Remy.

So composed when it comes to penalties. He could probably have taken all 27 and scored them all.

Something I think with players, and possibly strikers most of all, is that they feel they must "belong".

Good example is Torres. He absolutely loved Liverpool as his 2nd home. Then he saw it poisoned by the 2 Yank clowns, and by having to play thro injuries(no doubt due to Purslow meddling with the med advice). Then he moved to Chelsea, at it was like he thought "f**k, artificial club created by a crook's money, and a load of plastic fans, I'd have been better off moving to Real Madrid who are complete cu*ts". I just got the feeling he DIDNT WANT to be the best any more. It became a job, not a passion.

Likewise with Luis, I'm sure he loved our fans, but he wasn't duped about the modern ethos of the "brand". I mean, we were told he signed to play with Torres.  MOST fans were terrific with Luis, but he had appalling, slanderous abuse from the press AND other fans (eg false racism claims). So eventually, he wound up in Spain where the club was an end in itself. And he could have teammates on his wavelength. AND the press or other fans wouldnt come the "biter" or "racist" bullshit. Tellingly after the Madrid links and the "bite" this Summer, King Kenny said "he needs someone at the club to put an arm round him again". Remember Liverpool were VERY conspicious with the absence of  any public relations trying to lessen the ridiculously  hysterical onslaught against Luis.

Looking at Balotelli, his childhood club is apparently AC Milan. But his 1st club was arch rivals Inter. He moved to Man City, somewhat of a "plastic" club in comparison to the traditions of AC and Inter. He then moved to his boyhood club and probably didnt seemt o love it that much. Maybe its the race abuse issue, in part. You could imagine AC fans cheering his goals, and him thinking "yeah but I was just a monkey to you, when I was at Inter".

What I'm ultimately saying is that I think maybe the issue is whether Balotelli loves what he's doing. Or whether he thinks "its my professional duty". The comments "I dont celebrate goals because its my job. A postman doesnt celebrate delivering letters" which he supposedly said, are quite telling, I think.

Sometimes one force acts together with the other. If we are doing well, the Kop is loud. And if the Kop is loud, the players do well. I wonder.. if Mario was made King of the Kop, just for a trial period of a couple of weeks... perhaps (and ok I think this is a long shot!) he might show himself to be a worthy heir to the throne of King Luis.  Perhaps not.

Maybe its worth a try tho?

So composed when it comes to penalties. He could probably have taken all 27 and scored them all.

Theres no doubt about it for me. When he signed for City he apparently took 20 penalties against Joe Hart and Balotelli told him that he'd send Hart the wrong way in all of them. He succeeded on 19 attempts . How much truth there is to that story I'm not entirely sure though.

Basketball players come on and off consistently during the game so there is less need to warm up after the initial team warm up they do at the beginning.

Mario is going to piss me off this season but also score some vital goals... Pretty much what we all expexted

Sorry guys, I disagree with many of you. I think he is happy here. If he did not care or give a F**k, why on earth would he jump his height to avoid blocking a shot.

He is totally different player and we need to understand him and not comparing him with others.

He will be brilliant. For me, when Sturridge returns both will benefit from each other since they are different type of strikers.

Keep working hard Super Mario.

Has to be one of the most over rated players I've ever seen, you can see he has the potential but is so selfish and up his own arse it's unbelievable.

Don't rate him at all, negative I know but his movement for a striker is so so poor. Never on the shoulder of the defenders but I hope he improves with Sturridge in the side

I don't want to get misconstrued here, I really like Mario and think he's done pretty well. The fact is though that I think he could be miles better than he is showing, if he really bought into the idea of what we're trying to do and really applied himself. He could be an absolute f*cking hero at Liverpool if he really wanted to be.

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

I love Mario as a person, but as a player he - to me - is just a better Andy Carroll.

If he gets us 15 goals this season, regardless of how we set up to accommodate him, I'll be happy.

To be fair to Balotelli he runs. Carroll used to gallop like a horse on ketamine.

Something I think with players, and possibly strikers most of all, is that they feel they must "belong".

Good example is Torres. He absolutely loved Liverpool as his 2nd home. Then he saw it poisoned by the 2 Yank clowns, and by having to play thro injuries(no doubt due to Purslow meddling with the med advice). Then he moved to Chelsea, at it was like he thought "f**k, artificial club created by a crook's money, and a load of plastic fans, I'd have been better off moving to Real Madrid who are complete cu*ts". I just got the feeling he DIDNT WANT to be the best any more. It became a job, not a passion.

Likewise with Luis, I'm sure he loved our fans, but he wasn't duped about the modern ethos of the "brand". I mean, we were told he signed to play with Torres.  MOST fans were terrific with Luis, but he had appalling, slanderous abuse from the press AND other fans (eg false racism claims). So eventually, he wound up in Spain where the club was an end in itself. And he could have teammates on his wavelength. AND the press or other fans wouldnt come the "biter" or "racist" bullshit. Tellingly after the Madrid links and the "bite" this Summer, King Kenny said "he needs someone at the club to put an arm round him again". Remember Liverpool were VERY conspicious with the absence of  any public relations trying to lessen the ridiculously  hysterical onslaught against Luis.

Looking at Balotelli, his childhood club is apparently AC Milan. But his 1st club was arch rivals Inter. He moved to Man City, somewhat of a "plastic" club in comparison to the traditions of AC and Inter. He then moved to his boyhood club and probably didnt seemt o love it that much. Maybe its the race abuse issue, in part. You could imagine AC fans cheering his goals, and him thinking "yeah but I was just a monkey to you, when I was at Inter".

What I'm ultimately saying is that I think maybe the issue is whether Balotelli loves what he's doing. Or whether he thinks "its my professional duty". The comments "I dont celebrate goals because its my job. A postman doesnt celebrate delivering letters" which he supposedly said, are quite telling, I think.

Sometimes one force acts together with the other. If we are doing well, the Kop is loud. And if the Kop is loud, the players do well. I wonder.. if Mario was made King of the Kop, just for a trial period of a couple of weeks... perhaps (and ok I think this is a long shot!) he might show himself to be a worthy heir to the throne of King Luis.  Perhaps not.

Maybe its worth a try tho?

Torres downed tools long before he left. Excellent business by us to get £50 million for him.

Our top scorer this season so far with his 2 pens last night!