The Sunday Mail
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has again suggested his striker Mario Balotelli needs to up his work rate if he is to thrive in his first team.
Balotelli has made an impact coming off the bench in Liverpool’s last two games against Crystal Palace and Besiktas, even though he attracted some negative headlines after insisting on taking a decisive penalty ahead of captain Jordan Henderson in the second of those two games.
While Rodgers refused to criticise his Italian forward for what Steven Gerrard called a show of defiance, he has suggested once more that the energy levels shown by Balotelli need to be improved as he offered this response when asked whether he was pleased with the striker’s contribution against Besiktas.
“No, not really no,” said Rodgers. “We need to ensure that whatever level of the game we are playing at we have everyone working as a team and once we got the penalty he stops working.
“So he needs to improve on that facet of his game to play in his position, rather than standing on the side of the football field.
“He has contributed against Besiktas, he has got the penalty and scored the goal, but that is what he is paid to do. He needs to keep that efficiency in his game and show that he can affect the team whether he is asked to play from the bench or from the start.
“In a different country and a different style of football that (goal) would be all that matters but in this team there is more to it than that.”
Rodgers also added to the debate over who should have taken the decisive penalty in the Europa League tie with Besiktas and hinted that Balotelli was the right man to take the spot kick after all.
Stand-in skipper Jordan Henderson seemed keen to take the spot kick in the absence of injured captain Gerrard, but Rodgers appears to have suggested Balotelli was the right man to convert the winning penalty in the first leg tie.
“If Jordan and Steven and Mario are on the pitch at the same time we would normally have Steven and Mario as the penalty-takers,” confirmed Rodgers.
“With the players who were initially on the pitch last night Jordan was our nominated taker, but history shows he (Balotelli) has scored nearly 30 penalties in big games so he is an outstanding penalty-taker. — Soccernet.
