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

[Mostar]

Worse than Babel though, at least he on occasion put a shift in just not that bright. This guy seems to do as little as possible to get by.

[frank the tank]

Reminds me of Ryan Babel in so many ways.

God given talent wasted due to poor work ethic.

always agree with ya 'star....

Babel could have been one of the best players in the world. Probably a youth level where natural talent makes you stand out no matter what the level of application that the player puts in it doesnt really matter.....but the competition is much bigger at senior level.

Problem is that all these little ****ers get 20k a week contracts for a good sub appearance and their motivation drops if they dont have the right attitude.

[Corndog]

Unbelievable stuff in this thread. Balotelli is simply a **** player, his first touch lets him down too often, he's actually a wuss when it comes to being physical and his shooting is as erratic as his hairstyle/personality/attention span.

There's no 'if we play to his strengths, or if you build a team around him'.
He doesn't have any particular style of game because he has 0 game intelligence.

Sometimes last season he actually did run around a bit, but even then it wasn't his effort that made any difference. Even then he continually made the wrong decisions on the ball too often.

Literally all he is interested in is getting the ball and shooting from wherever.

Watch him go somewhere else and fail just as miserably. Maybe he's a ten-goal a year striker in Italy (excluding penalties), but thats at his absolute best.

It baffles me, that some still cut him little bits of slack compared to how some players at LFC are written off and ridiculed much more and much more quickly.

[kewellnthegang]

Unbelievable stuff in this thread. Balotelli is simply a **** player, his first touch lets him down too often, he's actually a wuss when it comes to being physical and his shooting is as erratic as his hairstyle/personality/attention span.

There's no 'if we play to his strengths, or if you build a team around him'.
He doesn't have any particular style of game because he has 0 game intelligence.

Sometimes last season he actually did run around a bit, but even then it wasn't his effort that made any difference. Even then he continually made the wrong decisions on the ball too often.

Literally all he is interested in is getting the ball and shooting from wherever.

Watch him go somewhere else and fail just as miserably. Maybe he's a ten-goal a year striker in Italy (excluding penalties), but thats at his absolute best.

It baffles me, that some still cut him little bits of slack compared to how some players at LFC are written off and ridiculed much more and much more quickly.

is right
Me and you will get on just fine

[Nicey]

Unbelievable stuff in this thread. Balotelli is simply a **** player, his first touch lets him down too often, he's actually a wuss when it comes to being physical and his shooting is as erratic as his hairstyle/personality/attention span.

There's no 'if we play to his strengths, or if you build a team around him'.
He doesn't have any particular style of game because he has 0 game intelligence.

Sometimes last season he actually did run around a bit, but even then it wasn't his effort that made any difference. Even then he continually made the wrong decisions on the ball too often.

Literally all he is interested in is getting the ball and shooting from wherever.

Watch him go somewhere else and fail just as miserably. Maybe he's a ten-goal a year striker in Italy (excluding penalties), but thats at his absolute best.

It baffles me, that some still cut him little bits of slack compared to how some players at LFC are written off and ridiculed much more and much more quickly.

So Mancini a man who as a manager has won League titles in 2 of the top European Leagues, countless domestic cups, a full Italian international , has scored over 160 competitive goals, knows less than you do ?
Balloteli was the best player in that Milan side, he scored 10 goals in his last 12 matches with them, hes a full Italian International … that simply does not happen by accident to suggest he is a **** player is just ludicrous, people cut him slack because hes interesting, what ever the X factor is .. he obviously has it in spades
“He was a major influence as City won their first trophy in 35 years: gloriously getting under Manchester United's skin during (and after) the 2011 FA Cup semi-final, then winning the man of the match award in the final against Stoke City. He single-handedly routed United at Old Trafford the following October, the driving force behind a famous 6-1 victory. And he was the pivotal figure in the improbable scramble that won the league for City in the last few seconds of that season. Why always him? That's why always him.”

He's also since found the net regularly for Milan, while with Italy provided the abiding memory of Euro 2012, that astonishing one-man demolition of hot-favourites Germany in the semi-final. So in the last few years, then, under an absurd amount of expectation and pressure from a precociously young age, he's revived one of the biggest sleeping giants in English football, and essayed the signature performance of a major international tournament. And yet the opprobrium keeps getting heaped on his head. Why always him? Why indeed.

He’s not a **** footballer he’s just a very naughty boy

[Nicey]

I might have borrowed some of the above

[Bender]

@TheAnfieldChat: Mario Balotelli will join Lazio on a season-long loan deal with the option of making it permanent. [Tuttomercatoweb]

[dom9]

Let the nashing, wailing and bashing commence. I mean continue.

[Kenneth]

[Fosterbloke]

One less disruptive influence. Yeah the transfer was a **** up but we need to remove distraction now.

[danperkins]

Unbelievable stuff in this thread. Balotelli is simply a **** player, his first touch lets him down too often, he's actually a wuss when it comes to being physical and his shooting is as erratic as his hairstyle/personality/attention span.

There's no 'if we play to his strengths, or if you build a team around him'.
He doesn't have any particular style of game because he has 0 game intelligence.

Sometimes last season he actually did run around a bit, but even then it wasn't his effort that made any difference. Even then he continually made the wrong decisions on the ball too often.

Literally all he is interested in is getting the ball and shooting from wherever.

Watch him go somewhere else and fail just as miserably. Maybe he's a ten-goal a year striker in Italy (excluding penalties), but thats at his absolute best.

It baffles me, that some still cut him little bits of slack compared to how some players at LFC are written off and ridiculed much more and much more quickly.

just get him the **** out. Done absolutely nothing here, best for al concerned if he goes away.

One of, if not the worst signing we've ver had.

[vlahka]

If we dont play Balotelli at the head of benteke and ings in a deadly goal triangle formation for the rest of the season, I will be distraught.

[Corndog]

So Mancini a man who as a manager has won League titles in 2 of the top European Leagues, countless domestic cups, a full Italian international , has scored over 160 competitive goals, knows less than you do ?
Balloteli was the best player in that Milan side, he scored 10 goals in his last 12 matches with them, hes a full Italian International … that simply does not happen by accident to suggest he is a **** player is just ludicrous, people cut him slack because hes interesting, what ever the X factor is .. he obviously has it in spades
“He was a major influence as City won their first trophy in 35 years: gloriously getting under Manchester United's skin during (and after) the 2011 FA Cup semi-final, then winning the man of the match award in the final against Stoke City. He single-handedly routed United at Old Trafford the following October, the driving force behind a famous 6-1 victory. And he was the pivotal figure in the improbable scramble that won the league for City in the last few seconds of that season. Why always him? That's why always him.”

He's also since found the net regularly for Milan, while with Italy provided the abiding memory of Euro 2012, that astonishing one-man demolition of hot-favourites Germany in the semi-final. So in the last few years, then, under an absurd amount of expectation and pressure from a precociously young age, he's revived one of the biggest sleeping giants in English football, and essayed the signature performance of a major international tournament. And yet the opprobrium keeps getting heaped on his head. Why always him? Why indeed.

He’s not a **** footballer he’s just a very naughty boy

Of course I don't claim to know more about football than Mancini, he's wrong about Balotelli though imo.

Isn't Borini also a full Italian international?....Neither are anymore and haven't been for a while. That doesn't guarantee quality.

I remember watching his goals scored during his last stint at AC Milan, correct me if i'm wrong, don't have the time to research it but weren't many from dead-ball situations, free kicks or penalties.

He had a good season at City in the 2011/12 season, scoring 13 league goals (his highest prem tally ever) but I can think of other players who have done that, never kicked on and never get as many chances as Balotelli.

That euros tournament was a while ago now, Baros top-scored in 2004. Doing well at an international tournament is not always a great measure of how successful a player will be over a 39 game league.

Average at best, Mario Balotelli will never be anything more, even if he had the interest, he doesn't have the game intelligence.

Also not sure that he 'single-handely' routed a team 6-1. He did assist Aguero for the league winning goal yes, imo because he slipped. Had he not slipped, I think its more likely he would have taken a dig himself.

[Bender]

@ViktorFagerLFC: AC Milan have opened talks about a return for Mario Balotelli. They are discussing taking him back on a subsidised loan.Balotelli took a flight from Manchester airrport on Sat morning to Verona & met up with Milan coach Mihajlovic & his assistant.

Sampdoria & Lazio have shown interest in a similar type deal. Bologna, Fiorentina and Sevilla have held tentative discussions. (Daily Mail)

[topscorer]

We ain't getting nothing back for this guy. We will need to pay someone to take him which means it's probably lot cheaper to let him rot.

Says everything about his quality that no one is interested in him except to try and take advantage of the media circus that follows him for marketing.

People have offered to buy Borini, for a fraction of what we get offered last year but people are willing to pay for him. He's just so pig headed that he thinks he is better than he is.

No one will pay a penny for Balotelli.

Anyone that thinks we should give him another chance in the first team should be officially certified as mad. I wouldn't even play him in the kinder team. Do we have one of them?

My understanding of our current transfer policy is that we've probably invested at least a couple of million in that team.