Big-Game Experience Should See Mario Balotelli Get Chance vs. Real Madrid

It has been an incredibly bizarre start to the season for Liverpool. After last season's incredible performance in the Premier League, losing Luis Suarez was always going to make it tough for Brendan Rodgers' side to replicate those heroics.

Yet despite barely getting out of second gear all season, they are ahead of the likes of Manchester United and Arsenal in the league table. While Chelsea and Manchester City are streaking away from the rest quicker than Usain Bolt on an Olympic track, there are two places still very much up for grabs inside the top four.

Few would doubt that attacking fluency has been perhaps Liverpool's chief problem this season which, after losing Suarez, was compounded by the loss of Daniel Sturridge to injury.

That's put a heap of pressure on the man who was tasked with filling Suarez's shoes (if anyone could have, that is); and Mario Balotelli has certainly struggled to do that in the opening weeks of his career at Anfield.

Sunday's performance against Queens Park Rangers was another huge indicator that Balotelli is struggling to get back into the groove of playing in the Premier League. After all, it is a league unlike any other on the continent, something Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal has alluded to himself in recent days.

And on Wednesday night, Rodgers faces the toughest test in charge of Liverpool so far, as they welcome Carlo Ancelotti's Real Madrid side to Anfield. Even without Gareth Bale, the list of names Madrid will be sending into battle could well have kept Rodgers up all night, and that's without having problems of his own.

The biggest talking point from a Liverpool stance pre-match is who gets given the task of taking on Pepe and Raphael Varane at the heart of the Madrid defence. Some have made a case for Raheem Sterling to be played as a lone striker, but that would be unwise from Rodgers. Others say that Rickie Lambert is deserving of a chance to start from the beginning, but again, that wouldn't be smart thinking from the Liverpool boss.

A quick scan down the likely Liverpool XI for the game shows few players with serious Champions League experience; Steven Gerrard is a former winner of the competition of course, and Glen Johnson has also played plenty of times in the tournament. Dejan Lovren, too, has European experience to his name, but apart from that, there is little else in the way of continental know-how.

And that's exactly why Mario Balotelli has to get the nod once again on Wednesday night. Simply put, this is not the time for Rodgers to withdraw Balotelli from the firing line; the Reds boss needs as much big-game experience as possible against a side who lifted the Champions League last season.

There's also the case of Liverpool's opening group game at Anfield, when they (just about) defeated Ludogorets 2-1. That was Balotelli's finest night in a Liverpool shirt to date, and the shift in play from the physical, demanding approach of the Premier League to the continental play so often seen in places like France and Spain suited Balotelli much better.

We've seen Balotelli step up in big games so many times before. His performance in Manchester City's 6-1 win against Manchester United almost three years ago to the day is one such example, as is his showing against England back in the World Cup earlier this year.

Sure, Balotelli is not Luis Suarez. But then again, nobody is. It's unfair to draw comparisons between the two, and that could well be having an impact on Balotelli's start to life at Anfield. But big games are often the backdrop for "Super Mario" to shine, and Brendan Rodgers must see that with all his experience at domestic and international level, Balotelli would be wasted on the bench against the Galacticos of Real Madrid.