Mario Balotelli [On the Road to Ballon d'or)

[Kenneth]

Rodgers is a ****house the way he throws players under the bus to deflect criticism from himself. He's constantly sniping at Balotelli even when the lad is not playing.

Nah.

[Bloodraven]

Hardly throwing him under the bus is it. Balotelli is obviously not working hard in training hence why he's not in the squad.

The bloke gets criticised for playing his favourite's, and the one's that don't deserve to play!

Some people will use any stick to beat Rodgers with.

[kubrickscube]

Oh dear. This is just embarrassing. What a waste of wages. Surely, we could flog him back to Italy and get someone in who can actually do the job?

[Joey Jones]

The bloke gets criticised for playing his favourite's, and the one's that don't deserve to play!

Some people will use any stick to beat Rodgers with.

And he's labelled a '****house' for taking a stand against a lazy over paid footballer.

[danperkins]

It was arrogant of us to think we could change someone so self destructive as Mario Balotelli.

[dom9]

Most people (MrM excepted) thought Mario was worth a punt when he signed. Cheap and low risk. If it didn't work out, no biggie.

It's not working, and now it's a biggie.

What changed?

[Kenneth]

They were wrong at the time.

[Bender]

Most people (MrM excepted) thought Mario was worth a punt when he signed. Cheap and low risk. If it didn't work out, no biggie.

It's not working, and now it's a biggie.

What changed?

'
£16 Million and Mario Balotelli...that's not cheap and he's a risk
Has to be given a chance to forge a partnership with Sturridge

[Daffy Duck]

Most people (MrM excepted) thought Mario was worth a punt when he signed. Cheap and low risk. If it didn't work out, no biggie.

It's not working, and now it's a biggie.

What changed?

Everyone thought we'd be fighting for the title this season regardless of how well he does. But since we've been crap for most of the season - and even when we weren't we still had this obvious finishing problem - his ****ness has become a bigger issue. We really could have used a decent striker this year.

[captainfog]

Nah.

Yeah.

[dom9]

They were wrong at the time.

I'm happy to stand by what I said.

'
£16 Million and Mario Balotelli...that's not cheap and he's a risk
Has to be given a chance to forge a partnership with Sturridge

£16m is bugger all these days. It's a slither higher than Borini money.

Everyone thought we'd be fighting for the title this season regardless of how well he does. But since we've been crap for most of the season - and even when we weren't we still had this obvious finishing problem - his ****ness has become a bigger issue. We really could have used a decent striker this year.

I didn't.

[Gray]

Balotelli being a decent footballer is a myth. It never happened, file it under Santa, Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy.

[Bender]

I'm happy to stand by what I said.

£16m is bugger all these days. It's a slither higher than Borini money.

I didn't.

LFC isn't imo a club in a position where they can say £16million is bugger all!

[Daffy Duck]

I didn't.

Well neither did I, but if you remember August on here, whenever someone suggested that our transfer dealings weren't done in the best possible manner or that we had failed to properly replace Suarez, they'd get called a cunt the blind optimism after that Dortmund game was unreal, it even got to me then.

[Red_Polo]

Most people (MrM excepted) thought Mario was worth a punt when he signed. Cheap and low risk. If it didn't work out, no biggie.

It's not working, and now it's a biggie.

What changed?

Exactly what I find myself thinking every time I come into this thread.

Everyone knew there was a fair chance of him not working out. The biggest issues for me are that we shouldn't have been backed into a position in the window to have to consider taking that risk on, and more importantly to me the fact that our approach feels disjointed as far as I can see. We seem to have signed a few players without much sense as to whether their qualities will suit the system, and the system suit their qualities.

More broadly speaking as to what's changed, I suspect you can add in loss of perspective and the fact we're not coasting into a top 4 spot.