Mario Balotelli or Robert Soldado: Who Has Been More Disappointing?
Tottenham Hotspur visit Anfield on Tuesday night to take on top-four rivals Liverpool in what can be billed as the battle of the disappointing strikers, with the underwhelming Mario Balotelli and Roberto Soldado both available for selection.
Balotelli and Soldado joined Liverpool and Spurs, respectively, with considerable reputations but have failed to live up to them so far.
With both such formidable non-events so far since their signings, it is difficult to gauge who edges the other in the disappointment stakes.
To measure which striker is the more disappointing, there are three key factors to consider—expectation, value of transfer fee and overall output on the pitch—which will be weighed up mathematically, statistically and subjectively to find a conclusion.
So who is the most disappointing striker: Balotelli or Soldado?
Expectation
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To consider the gravity of a disappointment, it is pertinent to weigh up what was expected of the player on his signing for the club and, in Balotelli and Soldado's case, both had a considerable challenge on their hands.
Balotelli joined Liverpool in the wake of Luis Suarez departure from Merseyside to Catalonia, with the Uruguayan signing for Barcelona in a £75 million deal.
Suarez was so central to Liverpool's title-chasing 2013/14 season, scoring 31 goals and making 12 assists in 33 Premier League games, with a near-telepathic relationship with strike partner Daniel Sturridge making the Reds an untouchable prospect at times.
Any striker would have struggled to live up to the expectation of compensating for the loss of Suarez, but Balotelli's failure has been substantial.
Meanwhile, Soldado joined Spurs in 2013 as part of the influx of signings offset by the £85.3 million sale of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid.
Bale moved to the Bernabeu after a sensational 2012/13 season, having scored 21 goals in 33 games.
Soldado's fellow strikers in the 2013/14 season were the frustrating Emmanuel Adebayor and the soon-to-be departing Jermain Defoe—the peripheral status of the pair highlighted Soldado's position as the main striker at the north London club.
However, the failure to replace Bale's input is not exactly Soldado's problem, with Erik Lamela ostensibly signed as the Welshman's like-for-like replacement.
In terms of expectation, Balotelli shades it.
Most Disappointing: Balotelli
Transfer Fee
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With football—and the Premier League in particular—such a money-oriented spectacle, the value of any signing is paramount and continually scrutinised.
As reported by BBC Sport in 2013, Soldado joined Spurs in a £26 million deal, with this standing as a "club-record signing" at the time, eventually equalled by the transfer fee required to sign Lamela.
This was part of a Transfermarkt.co.uk-reported outlay of £107.25 million in the 2013/14 season.
Balotelli joined Liverpool in a £16 million deal in the summer of 2014, according to BBC Sport, with this standing as less than half of the club-record £35 million transfer fee used to sign Andy Carroll in 2011.
As Transfermarkt attests, Balotelli's signing was part of a £133.26 million outlay sanctioned this season.
Soldado's fee stands at just under a quarter of Spurs' season's spend, while Balotelli was just over a 10th of the overall money spent for Liverpool in the 2014 summer transfer window—in terms of the hit the clubs took in signing these strikers, Spurs' signing of Soldado is more significant.
Furthermore, Balotelli's resale value is arguably more than Soldado's given the Liverpool man is just 24 years old, while Soldado is now 29.
Most Disappointing: Soldado
Output
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Naturally, the level of disappointment regarding any signing is ultimately boiled down to their output on the pitch, and neither Balotelli or Soldado have contributed significantly.
This season, in 760 minutes across 12 Premier League games, Balotelli has failed to make a single goal or assist—this is magnified by the 3.9 shots the striker has made on average per game.
Soldado has scored one and made another in 653 minutes across 15 Premier League games, despite having made just 1.2 shots per game on average.
In terms of contribution in creative and defensive areas of the game, however, Balotelli is the more proficient, with an average of 0.6 key passes and one tackle per game compared to Soldado's 0.5 key passes and 0.5 tackles.
However, as Neil Jones of the Liverpool Echo reported in December, Reds manager Brendan Rodgers must not agree this level of contribution is par for course: "Working with Mario, we’ve seen that he is someone who is better in and around the box. That level of pressing and intensity is not part of his game."
The £16 million and £26 million spent on Balotelli and Soldado respectively can arguably be rationalised purely by the goals they have scored and assisted.
While Soldado has spent a season more with his club, a healthy return of five goals and six assists last season, added to his two contributions this term, means Spurs' £26 million outlay has returned at £2 million per Premier League goal so far.
Meanwhile, as Balotelli is yet to score or assist in the league, Liverpool's £16 million spent seems futile.
Most Disappointing: Balotelli
Verdict?
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Considering the level of expectation for each player joining the club, the value represented in their respective transfer fees and their level of output so far, Liverpool's signing of Balotelli stands as the more disappointing.
Failing, quite expectedly, to compensate for the loss of Suarez in the summer, as well as a general lethargy on the pitch contributing to his ineffective displays, the £16 million spent on Balotelli is risible.
While Soldado is far from the star No. 9 Spurs were likely hoping to have signed in their £26 million deal two years ago, the former Valencia man is contributing when required and serves as a more effective team player, as his seven Premier League assists shows.
Both would line up as considerable disappointments on Tuesday night, but Balotelli's fruitlessness is more significant.
Most Disappointing: Mario Balotelli
Statistics via WhoScored.com.
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