Balotelli to Liverpool (merged)

[AmericanEagle]

How he gets reported on and treated by the media depends on one person - Balotelli himself. The press will be waiting for him to do something stupid and when he does, (not if, when), they will be all over him like flies around shit. The opposite is true, too. If he does a replica of the goal v Norwich with his shoulder or something equally as 'clever', it will be all 'same old crazy mario' in a comical way.

As for the player himself, I'm not buying into the whole 'Milan are skint' bollocks and that's why he has cost relatively little. The only reason he has cost that low fee is because that is all he is worth. If Milan were as skint as to sell a so called world class talent for £16m, people would be after El-sharawwry for pennies. The truth is that balotelli is just a decent player, nothing more.

He will make his debut very late in august, it seems, and so I am going to predict:
4 goals between then and end of September, with Liverpool fans thinking they have a god on their hands like many fans of our club fell for believing.
Something stupid off the pitch by October.
First red of his scouse career by November.
No goals since September as we approach christmas.
Speculation he will be offloaded in the January window when the now typical balotelli pattern has come into fruition.

He won't be affecting our title chances, that's a guarantee.

Funny. It was even more of a guarantee last year that Liverpool would not contend with you... love it when folks mistake opinion for guarantee.

You mean like singing "we're gonna win the league" two months before its ended and wearing Champions T-shirts in April ?

Yea, his comment was exactly that stupid ;)

 

[AmericanEagle]

Nothing states how many years liverpool are behind us than this signing, the only difference is that they havent moved on from suarez where we clearly had a seed change post-tevez.

Balotelli will cost rodgers his job.

I doubt it. worst case, 16M flops dont cost managers their jobs.

 

[AmericanEagle]

It'll be interesting to see how they actually line up when they have all players fit and available. The diamond formation used last season can accommodate Balotelli and Sturridge in the forward roles, but then you have Sterling, Coutinho, Lallana, and Markovic, pushing for the one AM spot so maybe a move to a 4-2-2-2 to accommodate 2 AM's would be better. They then have four CM's in Lucas, Henderson, Gerrard and Allen, and Emre Can who can play at DM and CB. With a good rotation policy they should be able to keep everybody fresh and relatively happy. Do we expect Lucas Leiva to move on? Have Liverpool been foolish in not bringing somebody in at CM to keep everybody on their toes?

It will depend on the formation.

My fav is the diamond, with everyone fit would likely be:
Manq Skrtel Lovren Moreno
Gerard
Henderson Can
Coutinho
Sturridge
Balotelli.

Sakho might displace Skrytl. Lala will push Coutinho.

 

[Balti]

well the Premier League will be more interesting for his presence that's for sure

he's too good for them though

and he'll let them know it soon enough

 

[supercrystal7]

After Wilshere's poor performance this season and how he has tailed off I could not help, but remember when Balotelli won the golden ball and Wilshere was runner up. The two of them really have fallen off and need to work hard to get back to where they were. I expected both to be world class, but they have not progressed as I expected. I have lost hope in both of them ever living up to their potential.

 

[blueincy]

Lets see if he is hounded by the press every second of the day and make story's up like when he was with us..
Gutted when he was sold, my 6 year old still sings his song.
Probably get the message after the second car they use to tail him gets nicked.
As long as he bangs a couple in against our closest rivals then I'm happy. Thought he hated Manchester? Wait while he sees Liverpool.
I can see it now, the media loving Rogers turns bad boy good FFS. He's a family man now all grown up blah blah blah.

This picture made me laugh.

 

[Bobbins]

Lets see if he is hounded by the press every second of the day and make story's up like when he was with us..
Gutted when he was sold, my 6 year old still sings his song.
Probably get the message after the second car they use to tail him gets nicked.
As long as he bangs a couple in against our closest rivals then I'm happy. Thought he hated Manchester? Wait while he sees Liverpool.
I can see it now, the media loving Rogers turns bad boy good FFS. He's a family man now all grown up blah blah blah.

This picture made me laugh.

That should say "Calm down i didn't bite anyone" !!

 

[Moorsey 2002]

I think his reducing transfer value speaks volumes about where he's currently at in his career and is summed up really well in this article :

<a class="postlink" href="http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/aug/23/liverpool-mario-balotelli-song" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.theguardian.com/football/blo ... telli-song</a>

Will anyone else be slightly annoyed about seeing him in a Liverpool shirt, even though, like me, they were really really glad to see the back of him from our team ?? Strange what football does to you !

Hope he does ok for them but obviously not too good.

 

[Rocket-footed kolarov]

It'll be interesting to see how they actually line up when they have all players fit and available. The diamond formation used last season can accommodate Balotelli and Sturridge in the forward roles, but then you have Sterling, Coutinho, Lallana, and Markovic, pushing for the one AM spot so maybe a move to a 4-2-2-2 to accommodate 2 AM's would be better. They then have four CM's in Lucas, Henderson, Gerrard and Allen, and Emre Can who can play at DM and CB. With a good rotation policy they should be able to keep everybody fresh and relatively happy. Do we expect Lucas Leiva to move on? Have Liverpool been foolish in not bringing somebody in at CM to keep everybody on their toes?

It will depend on the formation.

My fav is the diamond, with everyone fit would likely be:
Manq Skrtel Lovren Moreno
Gerard
Henderson Can
Coutinho
Sturridge
Balotelli.

Sakho might displace Skrytl. Lala will push Coutinho.

Can't see Emre Can playing that position in a diamond formation, he isn't dynamic enough, and is more suited as backup to Gerrard at the base of the diamond. You have also left out Sterling who was superb for Liverpool last season, playing at the point of the diamond. I expect Rodgers to be experimenting with formations again and trying to squeeze too many attackers into the starting XI in an attempt to keep them happy.

 

[ifiwasarichfan]

I have done three 13 hour shifts on the spin and I have missed most of the thread and haven't been able to keep up, so a few questions :

Why is he leaving the club he so obviously loves and he did love us but was homesick ?
Why is a player so talented taking a pay cut ( I got that bit off SSN) ?

ps; nice to see you back on the forum Pidge.