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      Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool

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      shabbadoo
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      Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool
      Oct 23, 2014 01:51:23 pm

      Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool


      Alyson Rudd

      Published 1 minute ago
      the game blog


      It has been a week of scapegoating. Nice word, “scapegoating”. It sort of conjures up images of goats using Skype or skyscrapers being scaled by goats. What it means though, is to be mean spirited while refusing to accept responsibility. It is about using the blame game and moral indignation to deflect from your own weaknesses. It is not so very nice at all.

      Mario Balotelli has been more or less a scapegoat all season - he’s no Luis Suarez, if only he was a bit more like the Uruguayan, if only he ran around more and pouted less. Balotelli is what he is - a curious choice to fill the void left by one the most effective strikers the Premier League has ever seen. He is also a prime example of hubris. When Balotelli was signed, Brendan Rodgers said that he would not only make sure the Italian played well, but that he would make the striker a better person.


      Neither prediction looks close to being fulfilled, although the second one was patently ridiculous. It is not a football manager’s job to meddle with the soul of his players. The hypocrisy is staggering. Rodgers was not at all happy that Roy Hodgson said, publicly, that Raheem Sterling had told the England manager he was tired. However, it is fine to state publicly that a player needs to improve as a human being?

      The scapegoating of Balotelli reached its nadir as Liverpool were dismantled by Real Madrid. In the Sky studio Graeme Souness was so outraged by the former Manchester City forward’s marking that he spluttered so much he could barely say Balotelli’s name. And then came the shirt swap. There are two ways of interpreting the shirt swap.


      Version One: Pepe, a player prone to asking for someone’s shirt at half time, asks to swap with Balotelli. The Italian, being a well brought up young man, accedes to a fellow professional’s request. His timing is slightly awry as he can be seen taking his shirt off before he has properly reached the tunnel and privacy, but he has his back to the cameras and the stadium and probably felt the moment was pretty private all the same.


      Version Two: Balotelli hates being asked to play as a lone striker, hates being asked to play alongside Sterling, hates Liverpool’s high energy pressing, hates being asked to work harder and holds his club in such low esteem that he will give away his shirt, not at the final whistle, but before the game, a crucial Champions League tie, is even finished.
      “It is not something I stand for,” Rodgers said. “That is something you do at the end of the game and I will deal with it.”

      It is to be hoped he does not expend too much energy while doing so. There is a defence that needs dealing with in the short term and, looking a bit further ahead, there is a philosophy that needs adapting, too, in the wake of the loss of Suarez. Rodgers is clearly not building his team around Balotelli. At times, it feels as if he is still building it around Barcelona’s new striker.


      There was a strong whiff of scapegoating around Liverpool’s previous match, at Loftus Road. Harry Redknapp is under pressure, his team sit at the foot of the Premier League table and they suffered horribly as a leaden-footed Liverpool were outplayed but still grabbed a late, dramatic winner. There was rather a lot Redknapp could say about the game but he chose to find a scapegoat in the form of Adel Taarabt. The former Spurs player did not feature in the actual match, he was not even on the bench, but his lack of fitness so annoyed his manager that he used Taarabt’s weight issues as evidence that the QPR job is a particularly tough one.


      “He played in a reserve game the other day and I could have run about more than he did,” Redknapp said. Unsurprisingly, Taarabt hit back and their row became almost comical until Tony Fernandes, the chairman, was forced to step in and tell them to stop being so embarrassing.
      Still, it meant attention was deflected from the QPR own goals and the fact they threw away a match they had controlled.


      Excuses are part of the game. Referees are often blamed, as is the weather, the scheduling, the pitch, the traffic, injuries and illness. When individuals are singled out, it is an excuse too far. Both Balotelli and Taarabt are gifted players with chequered histories. It is the management of such players that partly defines coaching ability. If they are used as scapegoats, it says more about their bosses than about them.

      http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/football/the-game/article4245329.ece?shareToken=e816a01d083f6b2b5dc3641776958afd
      3rdJune1892
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      Re: Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool
      Reply #1: Oct 23, 2014 01:56:47 pm
      + 100%
      asharma.lfc
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      Re: Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool
      Reply #2: Oct 23, 2014 02:07:08 pm
      This is what i love about this forum. We should be free to discus our views. Things like this would immediately get deleted in RAWK.

      @ topic

      I don't think BR handled Balotelli well so far. He started with that set piece marking, no way it shouldn't be made public. It just looked like he is boasting himself up. Mainly he shouldn't even be mentioning how he is going to make Balotelli a better person. Its not Balotelli joined here for personality development. Not to mention his management of Agger,Sakho,Sahin etc.


      And mainly, BR should stay here regardless. These things will improve, or will go unnoticed once we start playing well again.
      redindian
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      Re: Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool
      Reply #3: Oct 23, 2014 02:25:20 pm
      Anyone who thinks Brendan is making Mario a scapegoat and not addressing the original problem, please read the tweets from today's presser (Pearce's tweets)

      Rodgers: "Mario is working hard on the training field. As long as he;s doing his best that;s all I can ask for....
      ....whether his best will be good enough remains to be seen. But that goes for all the players."

      Rodgers: "Is this the Mario Balotelli press conference?"

      Rodgers: "We need to be better as a team, not just the defence. We all pride ourselves on clean sheets. Large number of goals conceded soft.

      Rodgers: "Mario is treated like any other player. We're very much about the team. My only concentration is on winning games."

      Rodgers: "Was Mario playing centre-half?"

      Rodgers on set-pieces: "Simple balls into the box we're not defending. We need to reinforce those key principles."


      The full presser would make for an interesting read.
      redkop63
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      Re: Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool
      Reply #4: Oct 23, 2014 02:34:10 pm
      What Balo did; shirt swapping, lazy on the pitch and all that I don't condone to but to be fair to Balo did BR played to his strengths? Did BR mistaken that Balo is similar to and as good as Suarez? The answer is a big NO!!!! They both have very different styles. Did BR even watch carefully and analyse where and when Balo is the most dangerous during his City's days? Certainly not leading the front line, but attacking deep with Aguero and Dzeko, that's when he becomes most dangerous. take him more than 6 yards away from the box, Balo becomes ineffective.

      He simply needs someone good to play beside him and harass the opposition defence. And that someone is either Lallana or Sterling until Sturridge resumes duty. He's left so isolated that it becomes another Carroll saga II.

      And why is it that Lallana keeps romancing the left wing when he is most dangerous trying to penetrate just behind the striker, I just don't understand.

      BR, please start to rehearse some serious combos between Balo, Sterling and Lallana and not Team A being Sterling and Lallana and Team B Mr. Balo alone.

       
      TonioLerouge
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      Re: Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool
      Reply #5: Oct 23, 2014 03:02:52 pm
      I don't think BR is (intentionnally) scapegoating Mario but I think the press / some fans are.

      When we were totally dominated in midfield yesterday, and made awful defensive errors, there were nearly as many complaints about Mario as for all the other players combined (both in pundits comments and in the game thread) it's just nonsense when he hardly got a ball.

      A striker can only be as good as the service he gets (ok out of Suarez / other extreme world class grinta player who can beat teams alone, perhaps).

      ps : and imo, that scapegoating follows an agenda which isn't exactly in Brendan's advantage (step 1 : make Mario look as bad possible, step 2 : use him as example to say Brendan choices last summer were a disaster / he failed to have a plan to replace Suarez -when his plans A, B and C did chose other clubs-,  ... profit).

      pps : replace Brendan with "FSG" in some variants
      « Last Edit: Oct 23, 2014 03:15:42 pm by TonioLerouge »
      waltonl4
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      Re: Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool
      Reply #6: Oct 23, 2014 03:16:46 pm
      If he is being used as a scapegoat he only has himself to blame as he by any standard has been awful.
      Everything about the singing of Balotelli is wrong.
      Brendan thinking  he could do what far more experienced managers didn't do makes his judgement questionable.
      I said after the QPR game I didn't want him in a RED shirt ever again and nothing has changed my mind.
      TonioLerouge
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      Re: Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool
      Reply #7: Oct 23, 2014 03:26:36 pm
      He may be very bad (not in my eyes, rate him as a decent PL striker, that would at least make the bench in any team, if he wouldn't be a top 3 regular starter), but I remember many far worse players who weren't blamed as much, every game and no matter how the whole team played.

      Why always him ? :)
      asharma.lfc
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      Re: Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool
      Reply #8: Oct 23, 2014 03:35:56 pm
      I was thinking another perspective. We rarely got angry when Borini played bad, or Carrol, it was disappointment rather than anger knowing that they just aren't good enough for this. However we were really angry on Downing because we knew he was better than that, i think the same is the case for Balotelli. We know he is better than this, and i hope he will not end up like Downing
      5timesacharm
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      Re: Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool
      Reply #9: Oct 23, 2014 03:45:58 pm
      The entire article sums up what I've been saying for some time now. He's one of many under performing players in the LFC team this year. As Brendan said in his interview today, "Was Mario playing centre-half?". To blame him for all our ills is simply ridiculous. The shirt swap is the perfect example. If we'd gone in to half time at 3-0 up how many people would be raging about him swapping a shirt? We had far bigger issues to worry about at half time than Mairo going in shirtless. It's just a smokescreen, an excuse to let less controversial players off the hook when the issues we have as a club right now are down to a piss poor Summer window which in itself is indicative of a deep seated problem with the club's transfer policy.
      AmericanPlant
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      Re: Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool
      Reply #10: Oct 23, 2014 04:38:36 pm
      What do people expect with Balotelli?

      He cost Ross MacCormack plus 4m.
      Or Joe Allen plus 1m.

      He was an alternative to Loic Remy.

      He hardly scores in open play.
      He clearly has mental health problems.
      So he was signed as a long shot or a squad option.
      Undoubted talent but hasn't really developed in the past few yrs.

      He's (cough) filling the shoes of our greatest ever player. He's to Liverpool what Maradona was to Napoli.

      A bit of a dud. But who was responsible for buying him?
      Rodgers went along with it. But somehow I doubt he was ecstatic when it turned out Balotelli not Reus/Falcao/Cavani etc were gonna be replacing the Kop's favourite son.

      Lets not have those who are guilty of our club's desecration try and deflect attention from the REAL cause of our demise!
      HScRed1
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      Re: Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool
      Reply #11: Oct 23, 2014 05:49:10 pm
      Can't figure out Brendan's thinking here and same can be applied to Lambert if we have no other options as it seems, why are we not playing to their strengths, we are still trying to play like Suarez is still here!
      Swab
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      Re: Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool
      Reply #12: Oct 23, 2014 07:11:02 pm
      Anyone with half a brain knew this was going to happen.
      You could practically see the press rubbing their hands with glee when they reported the signing.

      Now, because he's not started performing and scoring yet, they have footballing issues to point out, many of them just untrue.

      When he starts scoring, and they can no longer hide behind football issues, they'll start the character assassination on him, making sh*t up, following him around, in other words, the usual sh*t they always pull when they set their sights on someone.

      The really sad part of it all is that people actually buy into it, despite knowing the press will find any excuse to give him sh*t.

      They've been doing it for years, and it's amazing how many people don't see it.
      Or maybe, some just don't want to see it because moaning and slagging off one of our own players is so much more internet "fun" than actually being positive.

      For the record, I didn't want him here, but now that he IS here, he gets my full support.
      MarkMitt
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      Re: Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool
      Reply #13: Oct 23, 2014 08:32:26 pm
      Would be easy to blame Mario if everyone else was in great form. But they're not. Way I see it, once the team is up to full speed and can supply Mario with decent, consistent goal-scoring opportunities, then if he fails it's down to him. Until then, he deserves more time. If I recall, a certain Jordan Henderson used to be the centre of the jibes. I backed him back then and I will back Mario the same until a time comes when he no longer deserves it.
      bmck
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      Re: Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool
      Reply #14: Oct 23, 2014 09:48:37 pm
      The guy is missing a part of his brain, but if he starts scoring, that'd do for now. We knew he was a twit when we signed him.
      If any other striker was playing better, Mario wouldn't be in the side - not Mario's fault the others are either injured or in sh*te-er form.
      Gongfarmer
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      Re: Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool
      Reply #15: Oct 23, 2014 09:57:08 pm
      This is what i love about this forum. We should be free to discus our views. Things like this would immediately get deleted in RAWK.

      Bang on mate. Don't go on there any more as the RAWK police come after you.

      Yet to comment on the game, but here my view point. We don't appear to have spent well in the summer, our tallisman has gone and it is affecting the good players we do have. Personally I would spend in the Window on anywhere but midfield, we have plenty of options there.

      Need a defender or two and a striker that scares defences(other than Sturrige). Till then it might be tough viewing YNWA
      dunlop liddell shankly
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      Re: Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool
      Reply #16: Oct 23, 2014 10:01:35 pm
      Balotelli is sh*te. I'll stand by that until the day he leaves. I don't get all this "great talent" comments that constantly get put towards him because he isn't. He might score the occasional scorcher from some 30 odd yards and all of a sudden he's quality, he isn't. Quality players do great things on a regular basis not just every now and then.

      I heard people saying if he scored a few last night, then he'd of proved his doubters wrong. No he F***ing wouldn't of. Score two against Madrid, great. Not score for another 10 games and it's hardly proving any doubter wrong is it?  He was sh*t at City, he's been sh*t for us.  My conclusion he's sh*t in England. Oh but he might come good with Sturridge beside him. Then again he probably won't. The pair of them are greedy bas**rds. Sturridge will on the right, trying to take everyone on to cut in and have a dig on his left. Balotelli will be doing the same on the left.

      And the Spurs game, the one where Balotelli played well - he still missed sitter after sitter. And some F***ing 30 yard effort that was closer to Anfield's goal than those at White Hart Lane.

      However, he isn't the only problem right now. He's one of them. Now for me he's the biggest problem because I think every Liverpool player should at least be trying. Running your bollocks off for the cause is the least Liverpool fans can expect. In my life I've seen players like Rush, Fowler, Owen, Torres and Suarez lead the line. All of those gave defenders trouble when the defenders had the ball. All of those had to be marked by two defenders to try and stop them. Balotelli doesn't come anywhere near that category.

      Our defence is a shambles and defending set pieces is panic stations. But I still think with a forward running his bollocks off along the line and setting the tone for the rest of the team, troubling the opposition into passes they don't wanna make from the back, we'd be slightly better.
      waltonl4
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      Re: Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool
      Reply #17: Oct 23, 2014 10:11:13 pm
      ~I do not get the scapegoat crap I do get he is crap.
      I didn't want to see him again after QPR and what was Brendan thinking of playing him again last night.
      when managers like Mourhino and Mancini just give up on him then something is drastically wrong in the lads make .I think most of us wanted him to succeed rather than expected him to do so.
      Now we have a situation where he may find himself in a very difficult position as his team mates have already started having a go at him.

      Gongfarmer
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      Re: Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool
      Reply #18: Oct 23, 2014 10:14:37 pm
      Running your bollocks off for the cause is the least Liverpool fans can expect.

      How many times have we come up against lower opposition and they make it tough for us simply, by as you say, "running your bollock off". We all knew were the underdogs yesterday, if ever their was a teamtalk for just run your bollocks off it was yesterday.

      Fact, we didn't. Why? I don't know, but we didn't. That was more worrying to me that a here now, gone tomorrow striker that doesn't fit in the team. If we don't fight, you don't get anywhere. Same on a crappy Sunday pitch or Premiership ground, no heart, no victory.

      Sort that out first, the rest will follow
      Scottbot
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      Re: Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool
      Reply #19: Oct 23, 2014 10:28:00 pm
      I think most of us wanted him to succeed rather than expected him to do so.

      I think there is a strong element of truth in this mate. For myself I hadn't really watched all that much of Balotelli but I did have some money on him to win the golden boot at the Euros a couple of years ago (plus Italy to win the tournament) and both nearly happened (would have been just short of a grand!) with Balo having a fantastic tournament. I also looked at his goal record at Milan which wasn't shabby (even with the pens).

      However, the truth of it is the principles of the gaffer's philosophy have relied on constant perpetual movement, players who release the ball quickly and players who press and chase when we lose it. This lad simply does not tick any of those boxes.

      The most bizarre thing for me is that the manager has bought two players who do not tick any of these boxes (Lambert). Seems pretty crazy when the only forward on the books who does tick the boxes is injury prone and injured. I'm not counting Borini because he wasn't wanted and he's shi...te.

      The 2nd half last night we actually looked a bit more like the side of last season in terms of the pace, movement and tempo of our passing. Ok we didn't really look like scoring but it is the way forward for me. Stick Raheem in that false 9 position and ask Lallana and Henderson to get beyond him.
      MIRO
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      Re: Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool
      Reply #20: Oct 23, 2014 10:35:06 pm
      Balotelli is sh*te. I'll stand by that until the day he leaves. I don't get all this "great talent" comments that constantly get put towards him because he isn't. He might score the occasional scorcher from some 30 odd yards and all of a sudden he's quality, he isn't. Quality players do great things on a regular basis not just every now and then.

      I heard people saying if he scored a few last night, then he'd of proved his doubters wrong. No he f**king wouldn't of. Score two against Madrid, great. Not score for another 10 games and it's hardly proving any doubter wrong is it?  He was sh*t at City, he's been sh*t for us.  My conclusion he's sh*t in England. Oh but he might come good with Sturridge beside him. Then again he probably won't. The pair of them are greedy bas**rds. Sturridge will on the right, trying to take everyone on to cut in and have a dig on his left. Balotelli will be doing the same on the left.

      And the Spurs game, the one where Balotelli played well - he still missed sitter after sitter. And some f**king 30 yard effort that was closer to Anfield's goal than those at White Hart Lane.

      However, he isn't the only problem right now. He's one of them. Now for me he's the biggest problem because I think every Liverpool player should at least be trying. Running your bollocks off for the cause is the least Liverpool fans can expect. In my life I've seen players like Rush, Fowler, Owen, Torres and Suarez lead the line. All of those gave defenders trouble when the defenders had the ball. All of those had to be marked by two defenders to try and stop them. Balotelli doesn't come anywhere near that category.

      Our defence is a shambles and defending set pieces is panic stations. But I still think with a forward running his bollocks off along the line and setting the tone for the rest of the team, troubling the opposition into passes they don't wanna make from the back, we'd be slightly better.

      Agree Billy.  Totally +1
      MIRO
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      Re: Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool
      Reply #21: Oct 23, 2014 10:54:05 pm
      Check out his latest escapade    .................

      Player Thread

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29748830
      lfc across the water
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      Re: Mario Balotelli’s scapegoating hides the real issues at Liverpool
      Reply #22: Oct 23, 2014 11:46:12 pm
      Quote from dunlop liddell shankly
      Balotelli is sh*te. I'll stand by that until the day he leaves. I don't get all this "great talent" comments that constantly get put towards him because he isn't. He might score the occasional scorcher from some 30 odd yards and all of a sudden he's quality, he isn't. Quality players do great things on a regular basis not just every now and then.

      I heard people saying if he scored a few last night, then he'd of proved his doubters wrong. No he F***ing wouldn't of. Score two against Madrid, great. Not score for another 10 games and it's hardly proving any doubter wrong is it?  He was sh*t at City, he's been sh*t for us.  My conclusion he's sh*t in England. 

      However, he isn't the only problem right now. He's one of them. Now for me he's the biggest problem because I think every Liverpool player should at least be trying. Running your bollocks off for the cause is the least Liverpool fans can expect. Balotelli doesn't come anywhere near that category.

      He must be the laziest player ever to set foot in this place. QPR saw him sink to new depths. Watching him in the build up to the first goal was as if he was off for a Sunday afternoon stroll round Regents Park. Most players that miss in front of an open goal like he did would feel devastated. He just walked away like he didn't give a F**k. When we do score, he doesn't even bother celebrating, and the only time he broke sweat against Real was at the tunnel at half time. Bizarrely, when he does get taken off in home games, he gets a standing ovation.

      Brendan says he's getting into the positions to miss. Now he could say the same about Andy Carroll but he didn't, as he got rid of him asap. Both players run contrary to the way we're trying to play, and are like trying to fit square pegs in round holes. Now he's in the dock for indiscipline. Eventually he will be sold, the only question is how much damage to the team will be done in the meantime. 

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