BALOTELLI; LIVERPOOL'S REAL PROBLEM OR CONVENIENT SCAPEGOAT?

Story written by Patrick Kamanga

BALOTELLI; LIVERPOOL’S REAL PROBLEM OR CONVENIENT SCAPEGOAT?

Enough has been said about the mercurial Italian Mario Balotelli in many a forum without the need to say much more but the latest Mario Balotelli bashing particularly from Liverpool fans and faithful, the English press and just about everybody else is simply unfair. The latest tirades have come about because he exchanged jerseys with Real Madrid’s Portuguese defender Pepe, during their midweek Champions League home game, where they were outplayed as well as outclassed by their more illustrious opponents. While I agree it might be perceived as wee bit disrespectful by some, why is it such a big deal? Arsenal fans reacted the same way a few seasons ago when Brazilian right back Andre Santos swapped shirts with his close friend and former Gunner Robin Van Persie at half time in a home game at the Emirates, that Arsenal lost to RVP’s new paymasters then, Manchester United! Just like the reaction to Santo’s then, the Liverpool fraternity is throwing vitriol Balotelli's way to cover up their insecurities, shortcomings and vulnerabilities that have seen their team generate one of their worst runs in recent memory. I have a very strong hunch that if say Sturridge or even Raheem Sterling had exchanged shirts with someone they idolized on the Real Madrid squad, it might have gone unnoticed or at least wouldn’t have cooked up a storm similar to what has been directed at the Italian. I believe that teams that tend to overreact to such trivialties, do so to divert attention to other bigger problems, call it denial! 

To be objective about the whole issue, Balotelli who is expected to fill the goal scoring void left by the injured Sturridge has largely been off colour; missing glaring chances on a few occasions, not making timely runs into opposition goal area thus failing to put himself in pole position to score and worse, taking wild shots from range ignoring other teammates in better positions. On the defensive side, he does not track back or generally assist his teammates. On the flip side, all players go through slumps in form or take time to settle at new clubs and Mario Balotelli is no exception.

Shirts galore! Real Madrid players revel after their convincing win

If you consider his record at Inter, then Manchester City, then back to Milan it isn't hard to see that Balotelli has so far managed to be in his best behaviour on and off the field and is really trying to make the best of his current situation but the footballing world and the EPL have long given up on the player expecting him to bottom out sooner rather than later. The pressure is being ratcheted up to make him crack and do something stupid because controversy sells, and the media particularly the British tabloid thrive best on such moments! While he is obviously in a rut game-wise, Balotelli's form is just but a microcosm of other bigger problems bedeviling the club. The root cause to their current troubles is of course the departure of the exceptionally talented but controversial Uruguayan Louis Suarez, sold at a fortune to Catalan giants, F.C Barcelona. While replacing a player of Suarez’s caliber is near impossible at best, the Liverpool Manager Brendan Rodgers’ choice of transfers was seriously skewed! He did a “Tottenham” where like his North London kith the previous season that sold off their star player Gareth Bale to Real Madrid for a world record fee and brought a host of mostly average players expecting the new comers to pick up the slack, a ploy that of course flopped miserably. A close observation of how last season panned out for the Reds reveals that Suarez’s rich vein of form and bounty of goals covered up Liverpools’ defensive frailties which Rodgers never bothered to remedy during the phenomenal season and in the off-season. Rodgers’ preferred open expansive style of play more often leaves his backline exposed and without a natural anchorman to offer protection, Liverpool is always vulnerable to the odd sucker punch even on their best day. Case in point is during their must win game against Chelsea at Anfield which from a practical point of view, Liverpool only required a draw of any sort to virtually guarantee themselves a first title in over two decades but instead of applying common sense Brendan Rodgers threw caution to the wind and set out to play his usual flamboyant manner and painfully lost 2-0 to a dogged Mourinho led Blues side! In their next game against Crystal Palace needing an outright win to redeem their title chances and leading 3-0 at half time, Rodgers' lack of pragmatism again cost them the title when a series of blunders allowed the Eagles, who were avoiding relegation, a lifeline when they turned the game around and pulled off a 3-3 draw! A tactical change and a few substitutions would have sufficed to guarantee Liverpool the three points but yet again Rodgers naively shot himself in the foot by stubbornly sticking to his "style over substance" approach. During the summer break Rodgers didn’t bother to address arguably their most urgent need; acquisition of a holding midfielder and a world class player at that. Instead, he has senselessly continued to play the ageing and now calamitous team Captain Steven Gerrard, a natural box to box midfielder who’s always thrived on pure attacking instincts, as his preferred anchorman! Another glaring problem has been poor marking on set plays where Rodgers has continuously preferred "zonal" marking to "man to man" marking, which has time and again been proven suicidal in the EPL ensuring his players get picked out by opponents like sitting ducks during set plays! 

The two main protagonists in the Reds disastrous season

Alas! Me thinks that perhaps too much was made off their phenomenal season last time round where without any continental commitments; the Reds had only a single game to play every week. If seen from such light I wonder whether playing the amount of games they have to play this season with their defensive fallibility and an imbalanced squad considered, I doubt whether even with Suarez around if Liverpool could scale the heights they reached last season, in the current campaign.