Liverpool 0, Hull City 0: Five things learnt

1. Joe Allen isn't championship material.
Well, he would be great in the Championship, but Liverpool will never win anything starting him.  He's good for a mid-table club, but if we are going to be serious contenders, we need players who can take us to that level.  I like Joe Allen and think he's about as good as he can be, but it still isn't good enough.  Seriously, would he be anything but a reserve at Chelsea or Man City?

2. We can play defense.
Hull is not a top five side, but they are far from the relegation discussion.  They are capable of scoring goals, but today, even with Ben Harfa starting they were hardly a threat.  I just hope this positive, one of the few we can take from the match, is a trend for the future.  Still, I think Skrtel and Lovren went too far forward at times and that will hurt us against better clubs.

3. Balotelli is useless as the lone striker/forward.
The game tilted completely in Liverpool's favor once Lambert came on.  Prior to that, Sterling and Balo tried to team up, but it just wasn't working as Sterling wants to stay on the flanks and it appears to confuse the Italian.  Lambert may be the perfect companion for Balo as his passing ability gives Super Mario chance after chance.  The problem is the 32-year-old lacks the ability to be effective more than 30 minutes on the pitch so using him as a 60 minute sub is our best bet, unfortunately that means an hour of watching Balotelli play defence.

4. Coutinho is a highly effective second half sub.
He was gangbusters when he came on today and was the major catalyst in giving us a chance to win.  If only Balotelli would have converted that last second goal...

5. Manquillo is better than Glen Johnson.
If you didn't know that by now, then give it up.  Johnson turns over the ball consistently and can't play defence while Manquillo is a positive force on both sides of the ball.  At least when the Spaniard makes mistakes we can cough it up to youth, Glen Johnson is just rubbish.  Sell him in the transfer window, Rodgers... if anyone will take him.

Prince is suing Sterling over his hair plus five things learnt from the Boro penaltipalooza

1. Where was Enrique before the 109th minute? Didn't he start? It was almost if Rodgers held him back to protect the undisciplined Sakho.  Maybe he was afraid Old Man Kolo would get infected with catchus outofpositionus, the virus that deludes our centre backs to go forward at the worst of times, the Ivorian may try to roll his wheelchair into the opponent's box.  It was not only the inclusion of Suso and the realized ability of our players that they are capable of shooting the thing called a ball, but once Enrique started getting involved, the Boro defence really started to open up.

2. Rickie Lambert needs to go 'Syd Barret' on us all. Seriously, he should show up at the next match with all his shaved off: beard, scalp, eyebrows, legs, chest, the whole kitten kaboodle.  Then he should act like a man possessed, cussing himself and using crazy antics to baffle the opposition defense.  In the very least it'll make him faster, right? Eh.

3. Adam Lallana is a fantastic Championship player. He reminds me a lot of a young Adam Johnson, dancing around the pitch, making moves and breaking ankles reminiscent of Allen Iverson back in the day.  Of course, he is only a year younger than Johnson and though he did show some flash on the dribble, he did little else.  Twenty six million pounds! Don't think about it, I can see Del Boy's eyes popping out of his head before he almost dies of laughter.

4. What happened to the side that played Tottenham? The first thought is that we had Sturridge, but was he really that much of a factor?  He didn't really do much, he had one key pass, that's it.  Was starting he and Balotelli the secret?  Maybe, but doubtful.  One thing that is apparent is Moreno was more involved on attack versus Spurs than he was at Villa and West Ham.  The left back held the ball 10.9% of the time at White Hart Lane compared to 6.4% versus the Villans and 6.1% at Boleyn Ground.  Maybe the left back position is the biggest catalyst when it comes to Rodgers' tactics, let's why not find out.  Another factor was time spent on the ball, we whizzed that thing around the pitch like it was wasp nest in Sir Alec Ferguson's head.  Whatever we did pre-match to make us look that fresh and quick, Rodgers needs to repeat every match.

5. Raheem Sterling needs to work on his killer instinct. Is it just me or is Sterling's hair getting more and more Prince like with each match?  Let's have a comparison:

It's getting there, lad, but if he comes out full Purple Rain one match, I may lose the plot.  Anyhow, he has to learn to be selfish and shoot the ball more, it's the only way he'll ever get any better.  Plus, he just seems such a nice kid, he really needs to find his inner demon and unleash it on the ball at the proper time, his penalty yesterday and some of his better recent opportunities for a goal have fallen flat.

Liverpool 2, Middlesbrough 2: Weed the garden, Rodgers

Honestly, I don't know where to begin with this one.  I fought sleep and death from boredom throughout the match that could have been a 'how not to play football' instruction video and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference.  I felt like I was having a flashback from a childhood zoo trip where I had to search aimlessly at an exhibit for 15 minutes hopelessly hoping to catch a glimpse of a rare giant elephant shrew.

Liverpool played beyond poor and it was frankly embarassing.  We needed penalties to defeat a side that had no right to be on the same pitch as we were and once again, the same issues we have been dealing with recently, surfaced again.  Unfortunately, we can now add another as well, 'movement off the ball'.  The endless vertical back-and-forth passing and everyone standing around, waiting their turn to touch the magic football was dreadful.   There was only one decent example of movement off the ball, when Enrique broke forward to start the series of events leading to the second goal.

I'll just come out and say it, Rickie Lambert was a bad buy.  He has either lost a step since last season or the whole damn world has sped up a notch.  It's not just his pace that is lacking, but his quickness as well.  Everytime he gets the ball it's like he's standing in a tar puddle, not to mention the Elephant man's bones could predict where his next pass attempt is going.  It's time to wave the white flag, give Lambert a bunk in the Reserves' house, and let him play out his contract there.  He can title his autobiography, 'I got to play 136 minutes for Liverpool and my beard is better for it.'

Another player I have a big problem with is Lallana.  Man of the match?! Are you kidding me?  Was that halo of Anglo-Saxon Britishness glowing so bright above his head that no one noticed all he did was dance around the pitch like Cristiano Travolta and then throw the ball away?  If 'Out of Bounds' was a player on our side, he completed three amazing, perfect passes to him.  All the rest, save the 'no look' back heel were painfully obvious and lead to nothing.

A look at the statistics further shows Lallana's showmanship.  He turned over the ball 17 times, was 3 of 16 on cross attempts, and had no chances created.  Outstanding!  Markovic was apparently 'terrible' despite the fact his stats are very similar to the 'Chosen One' (14 turnovers, 0 for 1 crosses, also no chances created).  The only thing that baffled me about Markovic was his inability to shoot the ball, he was like a deer in highlights every time he got a chance to thump it.  Sterling shows this at times as well, maybe Rodgers has put the fear of God in them regarding bad shots and the 19-year-old and the 20-year-old are traumatized.  Oh yeah, Sterling gets the excuse of being 19, but Markovic is too old for that, right?

Speaking of youngsters, it was quite clear that Rodgers gave Suso a 'shoot away' speech when he took the pitch and the Spaniard took it to heart, taking 4 shots in 22 minutes.  Despite spending less time on the pitch than any other LFC player, he had the most shots and tied Sterling with the team lead with two shots-on-goal.  It also seemed to really open up the match.  Wonder what would have happened if Lazar and Sterling had done so in the first half.

We're going to improve, right?  I mean this match was a step forward? I don't think so.  We played Middlesbrough at Anfield for Christ's sake and still had trouble marking players, still had trouble communicating on defence, still couldn't create space, and were still more predictable than Augustus Gloop near a chocolate river.  These are issues that have gotten worse in each of the four matches.  Rodgers is the gardener and needs to weed it out or else suffer the consequences of sub-par production.

Lazar to get off the Markovic? Liverpool to win 6-0? What the markets say...

Aston Villa to win at 11/1 seems like a decent gamble and 45.92% of all bettors agree.  Looks like a sucker bet to me and Liverpool at 1/3 isn't worth the return.  5/1 for a draw seems to high, expect Liverpool to win.

To win:
Aston Villa	11/1	45.92%
Liverpool	1/3	43.78%
Draw	5/1	10.30%

A lot of people seem to think Sterling will be the first to score and there's a nice pay off if they're right, but if I was a betting man, I'd go with Balotelli or even Gerrard.  Hopefully someone doesn't bet on Studge.

First goalscorer:
Sterling	6/1	39.02%
Balotelli	15/4	24.39%
Weimann	16/1	7.32%
Gerrard	8/1	4.88%
Coutinho	10/1	4.88%
Markovic	7/1
Lambert	7/2
Agbonlahor	14/1
Borini	6/1
Henderson	10/1
Sturridge	14/5

The market is giving Aston Villa much of a chance when it comes to the final tally.  The lowest odds for the visiting side to win is 1-0 and that's at 25/1.  Liverpool at 12/1 for 4-0 looks intriguing and a tiny wager on 6-0 at 50/1 wouldn't hurt.  Apparently most bettors think Villa will double their average goals per a match and score twice against Liverpool.  It's possible, just not very probable.  

Correct score:
Liverpool	4-2	40/1	13.89%
Liverpool	3-0	17/2	11.11%
Liverpool	3-1	11/1	8.33%
Liverpool	2-0	6/1
Liverpool	4-0	12/1
Liverpool	5-0	25/1
Liverpool	6-0	50/1

Bettors overwhelmingly think Balotelli will score at some point in the match and the 19/20 pay off shows it.  Even Markovic with a 21/10 return is not that great off odds.  Henderson at 4/1 or Lovren at 6/1 look like good wagers to me.

Anytime scorer:
Balotelli	19/20	71.43%
Lambert	6/5	9.52%
Bent	6/1	4.76%
Henderson	4/1
Lovren	6/1
Markovic	21/10

Balotelli to score 3 is awfully low at 20/1 and there's a great pay-off if either Markovic gets hot or free-kicks and penalties come into play for Gerrard.

Score hat-trick:
Balotelli	20/1
Markovic	80/1
Gerrard	50/1

Balotelli to score a brace is not that great of a payoff either, Markovic and Gerrard seem most likely again but the return is much less.  Henderson at 25/1 here seems like a decent wager.

Two or more goals:
Balotelli	9/2
Markovic	14/1
Gerrard	12/1

Bettors and bookmakers agree that Sterling will be Man of the Match, but since the pay-off isn't that great and there usually isn't much money bet on these kind of perks, it could happen.  Vlaar at 22/1 though, yeah, good luck.  The best bet is probably Balotelli at 6/1, but I like Henderson at 12/1 and Markovic as a long shot at 14/1 though the return isn't that great.

Man of the match:
Sterling	4/1	37.50%
Vlaar	22/1	25.00%
Balotelli	6/1
Gerrard	4/1
Henderson	12/1
Markovic	14/1

Finally, who do you think will most likely get shown a card?  Yeah, me too, and at 3/1 he isn't even the favorite.  Hutton and Lucas are, which isn't that surprising.

Shown a card:
Balotelli	3/1
Hutton	7/4
Lucas	7/4

The Villan to watch out for on Saturday

Aston Villa is a dreadful, mundane side.  Currently they rank as the third worst attacking side and are second worst on defence, so how have they managed seven points in their first three matches?  Well, other than being quite fortuitous, they rely heavily on their five best players setting up shop in front of the net.

The Birmingham club lives and dies by the performances and defensive cohesiveness of Guzan, Senderos, Vlaar, Westwood, and Delph.  Vlaar is the heart while Delph is the engine and Westwood is the brains of the operation.  Senderos is there just to take care of the leftovers and Guzan is the mouth, his job is to keep everyone talking.  So if you want to stop Villa from initiating attack, take Westwood out of the picture.  If Westwood can't get the ball out to Richardson or N'Zogbia or is unable to break into the Liverpool's third by himself, the Villans will curl up and die a slow death.  Delph will occasionally make a dangerous run forward, but that leaves his side thoroughly exposed on the counter, something in which Liverpool are quite adept, so he'll probably be cautious to do so on Saturday.

For Liverpool to score, they are going to have to penetrate the invisible fortress maintained by the five aforementioned Villa players.  Our best bet is to have Sterling or Coutinho or Markovic or even Suso bring the ball up on the left and go straight at Alan Hutton, if he's not already behind them after a futile attempt at defence or attack.  They are going to have to draw out Senderos and pass the ball back across in the middle to whomever is rushing forward or, God forbid, play the cross game, attempting cross after cross hoping to find Balotelli or Lambert in a welcomed spot in the box.  The latter isn't really Rodger's approach so hopefully we won't resort to such mindless Van Gaalish/'European' tactics.

Villa will rely more on Delph's athleticism to stop Liverpool's attack, which means Westwood will be relied even more on attack.  I highly doubt he'll score, but he is their best 'specialized' passer, though no where near the class of a Gerrard.  Still Liverpool need to respect his abilities and with Skrtel out, hopefully Sakho won't make too many of his runs into the opponent's half.  Lucas cannot continue his horrible form so far this season either, but at least he's more likely to stay back.  In the end. I think Liverpool will prevail, but a nice old fashion whipping would be a much-needed comfort.

EPL Fantasy Picks R4: Can't budge on Studge

I have yet to be able to adorn these fantasy picks posts with Liverpool players and now that I can, Sturridge is sidelined.  There is a plethora of chop-lickin' picks this week including Liverpool, Chelsea, Stoke, Southampton, Man U, and even Hull?

Keeper
Asmir Begovic is the best keeper in the league and has the third most efficient defence playing in front of him.  Factor in Stoke is home against Leicester on Saturday and it's a no-brainer.  The Foxes have dropped all the way to second-to-last in attack eficiency, but they should be able to get off some shots on goal, though nothing Begovic can't handle.

Alternates: Speroni (CP), Mignolet (Liv), Forster (Sou), MacGregor (Hull)

Begovic also looks like a solid long-term pick as well with Stoke's upcoming fixtures: vs Leicester, at QPR, home to Newwcastle, at Sunderland, and then hosting Swansea.  Mignolet has a lot of clean sheet chances coming up, the only worry being the massive schedule congestion coming up with Champions League and League Cup play.  LFC play a ridiculous 7 fixtures in the next 23 days.  Other decent picks are DeGea (Man U), Forster (Sou), and if you're feeling particularly cardiac-ish, Burnley's Tom Heaton has 5 weeks of clean sheet chances coming up.

Defenders
A blind monkey could probably pick a productive group of backs this week. The dream team would be Shawcross (Sto), Ivanovic (Che), Lovren (Liv), and Chester (Hull).  The almost dreamy team would be Pieters (Sto), Moreno (Liv), Davies (Hull), and Clyne (Sou).  The 'what the hell they'll probably do well' side would be Terry (Che), Dann (CP), Alderweireld (Sou), and Sakho (or Skrtel) (Liv).  Finally, the 'why not? they are worth a shot' side is Rojo (Man U), Blackett (Man U), Kelly (CP), and Wilson (Sto).  If I could only pick four, I would really role the dice and go with: Terry, Rojo, Kelly, and Pieters, just have a 'weird' feeling about those four.  Is Daley Blind (Man U) listed as a defender? If so, he's worth a shot as well.

In the long term, it's more of who to avoid from Stoke, Liverpool, Man U, and Southampton.  I think I'd go Shawcross, Lovren, Rojo, and oddly enough, Fonte (Sou).  The latter is also worthy of a pick this week as well.  The players I would avoid from those four clubs are Sakho (Liv), mostly because Skrtel will start when he's fit, Bardsley (Sto), Bertrand (Sou),  and Evans (Man U).  The latter three are all capable of having a solid run, but statistically least likely.

Midfielders
The elephant man's bones could pick a decent midfield this week. The ace picks are Sterling (Liv),Fabregas, Oscar, Hazard (Che), Schniederlin (Sou), Zaha (CP), DiMaria (Man U), and Mata (Man U).  Decent picks are Henderson, Gerrard (Liv), Schurrle (Che), Cazorla (Ars), MacArthur, Puncheon (CP), McGeady (Eve), Livermore, Elmohamady, Ramirez (Hull), Ward-Prowse (Sou), N'Zonzi, Whelan, Moses (Sto), Johnson, Larrson, Rodwell, Giaccherini (Sun), Brunt, Gardner, and Morrison (WBA).  Seriously, put all those names in a hat and draw, you'll probably have a better chance than anyone picking a high-scoring group.  Again, if I had a gun to my head and had to go with my gut, I'd take Sterling, Schniederlin, Zaha, and DiMaria.  If you truly want to take a gamble go with either Markovic or Lallana.

Long term picks are the same for defenders, pick from Stoke, Liverpool, Man U, and Southampton with a little sense and it should turn out fine.  The players I would avoid though are Davis, Wanyama (Sou), Herrera (Man U), Allen and Lucas (Liv).  Mainly because they are either inconsistent or not consistently in the line-up.

Forwards
Seriously, if you need help picking a few strikers for your team this week, you should probably just quit.  A dead fish on a ouija board listening to Justin Bieber could pick decent front men this round.  The prime picks are Balotelli (Liv), DeCosta (Che), Rooney, Van Persie (Man U), Pelle, Long (Sou), and Diouf (Sto).  The boss picks are Gayle (CP), Lukaku, Naismith (Eve), Hernandez, Jelavic (Hull), Crouch (Sto), Wickham (Sun), and Berahino (WBA). The 'that guy at Anfield Banter don't know squat' picks are Zarate (WHam), Dzeko (MCity), Mirallas (Eve), Flacao (Man U) and Welbeck (Ars).  If I went with my gut, I'd go with Balotelli, DeCosta, and Gayle.

My long term forwards would be Balotelli, Rooney, Pelle, Long, Diouf, and Bony (Swa).

Make sure to check and make sure your players are not injured and expected to start before the first match on Saturday.  Not my problem otherwise.  Cheers and buena suerte.

Expect a big match from Balotelli versus Villa

Mario Balotelli took a little warming his first go-around in the Prem.  In fact, his first season at City was somewhat forgettable.  The first time he saw the pitch was a 3-0 loss to Arsenal at the Etihad.  He was a surprise sub, expected to be out due to injury, but he came on for the then 10-man City side in the 72nd minute for a fruitless effort to break his duck.  They were already down 2-0 and to make matters even more embarrassing, Nicklas Bendtner added a third.

His first full debut was a week later at the Molineaux.  City were more pretenders than contenders at the time and it showed.  They had yet to add some missing pieces, most notably Samir Nasri, and Balotelli actually started on the left behind Adebayor.  It was a dreadful performance for the Italian who had 5 shots, though none on-goal, was 15 of 21 passing (71.4%) and caused 17 turnovers. His only positives were 2 chances created and 2 successful tackles, as a red-faced City fell 2-1.

In his third match he finally scored, twice in fact, at the Hawthorns with both goals less than 7 minutes apart.  He then managed a straight red after 'kicking-out' while entangled with Youssuf Mulumbu.  He wouldn't score again until a hat-trick against Aston Villa at the end of December 2010, which included two pens.  He would end that season with only 6 goals, 0 assists, and 8 chances created in 17 appearances.

Flash forward to February 3, 2013.  Balotelli had made the switch to AC Milan and makes his debut at the San Siro versus Udinese.  He managed a brace, the first an ugly left-footed straggler in the box and the other a pen from a gratuitous call earned by an near-paraplegic Sharaaway.  He would go on to score in 8 of the final 10 matches played by Milan that season for a total of 12 goals in 13 matches.

So what should we expect?  A brace in his next match? Well, it's certainly probable considering it will be his first at Anfield and the opponent will be Villa, but he should be a factor in the least.  I fully expect he and Sturridge (if fit) to get at least one each.  This is the match that we need to send a message to the rest of the league and that message should be, 'We are contenders and we aren't going anywhere.'

Ballotelli business better than Man United & Falcao

I will probably never be happy that Mario Balotelli is part of our club.  Three years from now, if he's still a productive member of the squad, I'll eat my words, but his track record speaks for itself.  He grows tired of his manager, the staff, his teammates, club officials, the press and the supporters and starts acting out in the third year.  It happened at Inter, it happened at City, and most recently, it happened at Milan, where they got rid of him before he became a cancer.  If he breaks the cycle, great, but don't hold your breathe.  Let's not wait like City did, if he starts costing us matches by his behavior either on or off the pitch, I hope whomever in charge, hopefully Rodgers, puts him in the reserves dungeon and throws away the key until he can be shipped off elsewhere.  Madrid will probably come knocking by then anyhow.

No matter how it plays out though, £17.6m to sign Balotelli is a much better deal than acquiring Falcao on a year-long loan for £6.7m plus £10m salary and an option to buy him at the end of the season for an additional £40m.  Super Mario is basically a younger, faster, stronger, and more skilled verison of Falcao.  If anyone complains, like myself, that all Ballotelli can do is score goals, well, Falcao can only score less.  Plus the Italian can physically impose himself on the opposition and worry their defence to no end, creating space for teammates.  I don't see the 177cm (5'10"), 72kg (160lb) Colombian with no Premier League experience having much presence, wait until they play Stoke.

Their career club league stats are quite comparable:

	npg90	ap90	gc90	cc90	ccv	pass%	sacc%	shot%	sdr90	tti90	gopd
Balotelli	0.47	0.14	0.77	1.33	0.1	0.757	0.382	0.121	2.14	14.6	-0.46
Falcao	0.57	0.08	0.75	0.90	0.05	0.797	0.492	0.305	0.79	11.21	0.06

First things first, Falcao is four-and-a-half years older than Super Mario.  Which means he's probably at his peak and won't improve much more, not to mention he'll have to make the adjustments for the English game.  Quick, name a 28-year-old South American and/or La Liga player who came to the Premier League and made a significant impact? Don't even try to say Valencia, he's been in the league for eight years now.  The closest is probably Coloccini, but he was 26 when he signed with Newcastle and he's a defender.  Maybe Falcao will make history, but I doubt it.

Mario is a better team player and that says mountains, since we all know what kind of a 'team player' he is.  The thing is, Balotelli has the ability to be a great asset to the club as a whole, while I don't think Falcao has the capacity to do so, because if he did, he would have already done so with Porto or Atletico or Monaco.  He has never been a significant 'defending forward' and forget about setting up others on goal.  When Balotelli cares and tries, which honestly, this is his last chance to do so before he becomes a true pariah, he is eons better than his Colombian counterpart.

In the end, it won't matter though.  If Falcao scores goals and does nothing else, even have the worst efficiency in the league, the Mangoloids won't care.  I honestly think the EPL is too physical for him and can see an injury-riddled season where he gets sent packing back to Monaco in the end.

(Oh and just a quick point because I can see it coming, 16 of Falcao's last 63 league goals since joining La Liga have been penalties compared to 15 of 55 for Balotelli, so save that rubbish for your pub trash bin banter.)

Just how statistically poor was Balotelli vs Spurs?

Before all you fan boys get out your stakes out and start your trash can fires, this post isn't going to be a complete slagging of Balotelli.  Everyone has to understand the expectations that come with a name like 'Super' Mario.  Unfortunately, the fact that we didn't pay £24m for his loan move (you're chum, Falcao) won't matter, even if we had gotten him on a free, he will always be a target for the press and opposition supporters.  He didn't do himself any favors against Spurs though.

Balotelli had 34 possessions (or touches) at White Hart Lane, completed just 8 of 16 passes, took 5 shots, but only one was on-goal.  Factor in his (lack of) defensive contributions and he was accountable for 12 negative changes of possession in 61 minutes.   He did have a chance created and three clearances though.

His attacking efficiency ended up being 0.324, the worst on the team.  For perspective, Lazar Markovic who has played a similar 59 minutes, destroys 'Super' Mario with a 0.744.  Sturridge who is worst on the team among minutes played qualifiers is still better than his Italian strike-mate with a 0.532.  Even Ricky Lambert betters him with 0.625.

He had a poor debut, you can either admit it or take residence in delusion land, where Glenn Johnson is still a good right back.  When he has such matches, he has to do the one thing that can be quantified, he has to create space.  He has to be a threat, go to open areas and force the opposition defence take notice, so Sturridge, Sterling, and other teammate have room to operate.

My feed was down the past couple of days so if you want to go to any missed articles they are below:
Liverpool has played the hardest schedule, boasts the best defence
Wanted: Yaya Sanogo, for impersonating a footballer (Match Day 3 morsels)
Skrtel top defensively, Flamini take over attack & overall efficiency
Tottenham 0, Liverpool 3: Sometimes moments of madness

Balotelli is an over-rated narcissistic cancer

By no means should Liverpool waste their time with Mario Balotelli.  The Italian striker may be one of the most talented in Europe, but he is all about one thing, himself.  Before being sold in the January 2013 window, he had basically already cost Man City a chance of repeating as Premier league champions.  If his lackluster, half-assed efforts on the pitch weren't enough, it paled in comparison to his whiny, childish, and distracting behavior off.

When 'Super' Mario desires to make a difference on the pitch, he can be, at times, unstoppable, but when he could care less, he's not very good at hiding it.  At the beginning of the 2012-13 season, Man City fined him for his less than stellar disciplinary record from the previous year, which Balotelli refuted and threatened to take to a PL tribunal.  He eventually paid the fine, but it looks as if he got his revenge in the most classless manner.  Before his transfer to A.C. Milan, he had scored one goal in 14 appearances for City, let's look at his stats from then, the previous year, and the rest of his season in Serie A:

year	club	npg90	gc90	sacc%	shot%	gopd
2012-13	AC Milan	0.47	0.94	51.9	15.6	0.36
2012-13	Man City	0.15	0.15	17.6	2.9	-0.38
2011-12	Man City	0.68	0.95	39.0	15.9	-0.33

Looks like all of sudden Balotelli found his goal-scoring touch again.  In fact, in the first half of the season at City, less than one out of five of his shots were toward goal, but once he got to magical Milan land, half his shots became on-target.  He also had nearly a full goal swing with his goals-on-pitch difference.  I can't say I'm surprised considering his character.

Balotelli turns it on when he wants to and that's just unacceptable.  He doesn't care about the badge on his chest, all he wants is to be exalted and praised.  He has had problems with every club he has played for and now apparently is upset with Inzaghi and the Milan manager's training tactics. He is not a team player by any means, in fact, in the past five seasons he has received 39 cards and dished out just 12 assists.  Even if he averaged a non-penalty goal per match, which he doesn't, he's not worth the trouble.  We'd be replacing Suarez with a player of half the ability and ten times the trouble.

For those who think he would help us win the Premiership, you're wrong.  City would have won with or without him in 2011-12.  When he was on the pitch, they were a third of the team when he wasn't, hence the -0.33 goals on pitch difference that season.  They certainly didn't need him last season either.

Would anyone take Balotelli over Sturridge right now?

Daniel Sturridge is king right now, the world is at his fingertips, but before January 31, 2011, he was a prisoner, an oppressed striker relegated to the wings and the bench of a Chelsea squad fiercely controlled by a maniacal Italian (that is called 'sarcasm').  Then he was sent out on loan to Bolton, where he scored  8 goals in 12 matches, and seemingly proved his ability up front, even with a lesser supporting cast.  Unfortunately, he got lost in the manager merry-go-round when he returned to Stamford Bridge and was oft-injured the next season-and-a-half.  I guess I should say 'thankfully', since those are the circumstances that led him to Liverpool.

Since joining LFC, he has been pure magic, scoring 31 goals and assisting 10 more in 43 matches (plus 4 goals in 6 cup matches).  He has had one major bout with injury and a few minor ones, which is concerning, but let's just hope that is behind him.  Otherwise, he's been outstanding on and off the field, which the same can't be said of his Italian counterpart.

I just don't understand all the hullabaloo over 'Super' Mario.  There's no denying his talent, but his crap attitude and spotlight antics are not worth the distraction.  I have no problem saying he was the reason City aren't three time champions, his efforts on the field were far less than off.  It's hilarious that he became such a prolific scorer for Milan, at least for the remaining of the 2012-13 season, I'm sure his lack of performance at City during the first half of the season was the Blues' fault and not his.

While I'm convinced Balotelli is more talented than Sturridge, he desperately lacks the maturity, self-respect, and work ethic that the latter displays.  Can you imagine how Balotelli would have reacted to having to play out of position for years (and young, developing years at that) like Sturridge did at Chelsea?  He would have cried and complained until his hair turned whatever color it hasn't been yet.

If there is any indication that he may be maturing and becoming more of a team player, it's the fact that he had 6 assists last season, that's 4 more than he had in any season at City and 3 more than he had his whole time there.  I won't hold my breathe though and with all that said, watch him go out and score a brace today, lead Italy to the finals, and get the most outstanding player of the tournament.  He and Sturridge are certainly both capable.