5 Games Which Shaped Mario Balotelli's Struggle for Liverpool in 2014/15
Mario Balotelli's time at Liverpool can only be described as an abject and unrelenting failure, with the striker having struggled to assert from himself from the very start.
Joining the Reds in a roundly lauded, much-discussed £16 million deal last summer, Balotelli was earmarked as the centre-forward who would make the Anfield faithful forget about Luis Suarez, who had just departed for the much more comfortable surroundings of Barcelona's Camp Nou.
It just hasn't happened, though. In the Premier League, for example, Balotelli has made 16 appearances, scoring just one goal.
But how did it go so wrong for Liverpool's No. 45?
Here are the five games that shaped Balotelli's struggles at Liverpool in 2014/15.
Tottenham Hotspur 0-3 Liverpool, Premier League, 31 August, 2014
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After his arrival on Merseyside, Balotelli, perhaps surprisingly now, ushered in something of a feel-good atmosphere, countering the loss of Suarez.
This bled through into his Reds debut, a 3-0 away win over Tottenham Hotspur, three games into the Premier League season.
After a win over Southampton and a loss to Manchester City, the Reds were still finding their feet in a post-Suarez system. But Rodgers' partnering Daniel Sturridge with Balotelli immediately conjured some fine attacking play.
Operating in a well-oiled 4-4-2 diamond, Liverpool created chance after chance, with Balotelli often the beneficiary. The striker took five shots on goal, as the Reds pummelled an isolated Hugo Lloris.
Manager Brendan Rodgers even afforded himself a smile as Balotelli ballooned a now-trademark, long-range effort after catching Lloris well off his line.
After a bright showing on his maiden Liverpool outing, it seemed that the No. 45 could have finally found his home.
Liverpool 1-2 Chelsea, Premier League, 8 November, 2014
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Injury to Sturridge and a change of tactics from Rodgers saw this verve swiftly dissolve, however, and Balotelli trudged through fixtures as an ill-fitting lone striker.
This shouldn't have been a surprise to the uncharacteristically dogmatic manager, with the striker protesting back in October, as reported by Chris Bascombe of The Telegraph, that: "I have never been a real, out-and-out striker. ... If it was my choice, I would always go with two strikers."
Welcoming champions-to-be Chelsea to Anfield at the beginning of November, Rodgers opted for a 4-3-3 formation, with Philippe Coutinho and Raheem Sterling flanking Balotelli.
But the striker, whose tendency is to drop deep to collect the ball and dictate from almost a No. 10 position, was cruelly shackled by an on-form John Terry and Gary Cahill; he made just 28 touches and one off-target attempt on goal during his 78 minutes on the pitch.
Despite going 1-0 up thanks to a deflected Emre Can strike, Liverpool fell to a 2-1 loss, with Cahill and Diego Costa securing the spoils.
Balotelli looked completely out of sync and didn't start a Premier League game for the next five months.
Liverpool 0-0 Bolton, FA Cup, 24 January, 2015
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During Balotelli's November-to-April barren run from the starting XI, there were times when Liverpool supporters were right to question just why he was absent.
One such occasion came as the Reds were held to a 0-0 draw at home by Championship side Bolton Wanderers in their FA Cup fourth-round clash.
Balotelli didn't even make the bench despite being fully fit.
What unfolded at Anfield was an entirely drab display. The Reds were successfully stymied by a resolute Trotters back line, with lone striker Sterling flailing under pressure from the impressive Matt Mills.
Liverpool desperately needed another, non-Rickie Lambert attacking option that evening, and Balotelli could have been the perfect foil to Sterling's intelligent movement.
After the game, however, Tony Barrett of The Times relayed Rodgers' words via Twitter, with the manager referencing Balotelli's absence: "If you can't press, you can't be a part of the team. It doesn't matter who the player is."
This may have been a rather contentious statement, given the on-bench ubiquity of the lumbering Lambert, but this served as something of a death knell for Balotelli's first-team hopes.
Liverpool 1-0 Besiktas, Europa League, 19 February, 2015
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Balotelli did peak on a return to the side as an impact substitute, with influential displays coming off the bench against both Spurs and Crystal Palace, but this culminated in an ultimately disruptive involvement against Besiktas in Liverpool's Europa League round-of-32 first-leg clash at Anfield.
Bizarrely, this came when Balotelli scored the winner in a 1-0 victory.
When Jordon Ibe was felled in the box after receiving the ball as part of a move Balotelli's endeavour kick-started, the Italian usurped the visibly exasperated Sturridge and Jordan Henderson to take the penalty.
Converting it with aplomb, that should have been the incident over, but Can was the only Reds player to rightly congratulate Balotelli for his effort. The German midfielder consequently lambasted his team-mates.
These rebuffs continued after the game, as Steven Gerrard, a television pundit for the night, declared that Balotelli had shown "a bit of disrespect," during the incident, as reported by the Guardian's Andy Hunter.
Balotelli was the match-winner, but he wasn't treated like one.
This game was perhaps the first in which Balotelli's team-mates displayed disdain for his perceived arrogance.
Hull City 1-0 Liverpool, Premier League, 28 April, 2015
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With Sturridge out with another long-term injury and Lambert and Fabio Borini falling further down the pecking order, Balotelli was afforded a pair of starts in the league in April: a 0-0 draw away to West Bromwich Albion and a 1-0 loss at Hull City's KC Stadium.
Relatively muted against West Brom, it was Balotelli's drab contribution against Hull that underlined, perhaps for last time, that Liverpool's No. 45 is just not suited to a Rodgers-helmed system.
Balotelli took just 19 touches of the ball and made 15 passes during his 64 minutes on the field—the worst output per minute of any Liverpool player—and was once again isolated as a lone centre-forward.
His most notable contribution was an early bust-up with Hull midfielder Tom Huddlestone.
Balotelli was subbed off after 64 minutes at the KC Stadium, and Lambert took his place in the team for the Reds' following league game, a 2-1 win at home to Queens Park Rangers.
That the tragically off-pace England striker boasted more endeavour and incision than his Italian counterpart may well have sealed Balotelli's fate this summer.
This season can only be defined as a struggle for Balotelli, one which Rodgers is unlikely to revisit.
Statistics via WhoScored.com.
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