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.)

'Inter is going to kill Liverpool'

That's all I heard going into our first elimination showdown from those who think they are in the know. I hope now they have a better understanding of how the footballing world works and some clue who the true ringmasters are... or maybe I should say puppets and puppet masters. Here's a clue, those with the strings attached to their arses are the team with the least amount of players on the pitch and those controlling the strings make the most money from matches. It's not rocket science.

The first match at Anfield was a joke nonetheless. With a man advantage and a ferocity of attack it was merely a matter of time before Liverpool netted. The second match was one of less subtlety. The surprise Torres goal seemed to spark a change of favoritism, atoned probably to in-game betting, but the ref could hardly keep his hand out of his card pocket with or without the smirk on his mug. A draw would have sufficed, a win for Liverpool was probably more profitable.

Now we have Arsenal and my first thoughts were, 'we've no chance.' The younger, more exciting Emirates side should in all reality have little trouble with the slower, less creative Reds. But one has to consider where the officiating crews' loyalties will lie. Hopefully not Arsenal, but who knows.

The coming schedule is brutal, but really, what is our goal? Fourth place and the Champions League? The latter negates the former, so what is more important? Obviously a trophy is nice but giving in and throwing away matches at Man United and Goodison Park are hard to fathom. I just don't see it.

The saddest casualty of the season was not Daniel Agger but Harry Kewell, who showed glimpses of past brilliance in the mere minutes his been able to play. Is Ryan Babel that much better than him right now? No. Hopefully King Harry will get a chance to once again shine with his future at Anfield now seemingly nonexistent.

Liverpool 2, Inter 0: The show must go on...

All we heard coming into this match is how this was Rafa's last stand or how 'awesome' Inter, the supposedly best side in Europe, was going to 'crush' Liverpool. Fueling the delusions of the betting man, whether intentional or not. Unfortunately this win was about as legit as our American owners promises of bringing back the glory days. Not that I think Liverpool wouldn't have won otherwise.

Even when it was eleven-all, the Reds were the better, if not dominate side. When Materazzi was sent off, it was merely a matter of time. The fact that 'the Matrix' was the subject of 'poor' refereeing is comical nonetheless. Here's a player, who when he actually plays football, is pretty good, but he's also smart enough to know that he doesn't to be effective. His 'style of play' makes it almost too easy for a ref to give advantage to an opposing side. Nevertheless the red card was undeserving, though the powers-at-be had to protect their most likely scoring prospect.

Once again Rafa got away with poor tactics by not starting Pennant on the right. Hate him for his style of play, shady past, skin-color, what may you will, JP was a key to what little success we had last year in the Premiership and the Champions League. Even in this match he was misused by his teammates, who appeared to have forgotten what it was like to play with him. Regardless, he still had a hand in both goals.

Taking out Babel, even for Pennant, was also a little baffling since he didn't appear fatigued and was still somewhat a threat. As was taking out Lucas for Crouch. Crouch was once again useless if not detrimental to his own side. Even with service from Finnan, Pennant, and Aurelio, the 'lanky one' did nothing. If he has to rely on the perfect pass to be effective, then he is essentially ineffective.

Kuyt, on the other hand, looked once again as if he was taking 'Cristiano Ronaldo' pills. Maybe he is taking the PESs that the Portuguese Prince and his teammates have been taking for years. If so, more power to him, it gave him actual pace and made some decent decisions with the ball. In other words, he didn't appear to be a liability.

No one was really outstanding for the entire match though Torres did put forth a commendable effort. Gerrard made up for small snafus with his brilliant strike and it appeared 'the ghost of Momo Sissoko' had possessed Mascherano at times. If I had to pick a man of the match, why not award the man who gifted us a relatively easy win, Frank De Bleeckere. Until the next farce, keep lying to yourself, reading spineless crap, and most of all, betting against Liverpool. Cheers.

A win tomorrow would be the worse possible thing

Here we are again at about the same point we were last year. All that's left is the Champions League and quite frankly, I hope that dream ends tomorrow... but it probably won't. Losing to Barnsley was nothing more than a confidence boost to all those poor betting addicts who think the Reds have no chance against the big, bad Internazionale. Go ahead, make your wager, it's a done deal. Bet the house, the kid's college money, and then make sure to have a rafter to set the noose. The show must go on.

Rafa made one glaring mistake in the Barnsley match and whether he did it intentionally or not, matters little. Babel, who was clearly our catalyst on attack, should have been left on the field until the final whistle. He appeared to be the only player with a clue about how to bring the ball up. My apologies to Xabi, of course, who once again displayed his brilliant passing abilities, but appears too timid to play too far forward, especially with the less-disciplined Lucas at his side.

I could beat a dead white elephant, but what's the point? Crouch is useless. He has no pace and even less creativity. Against a side that made Dirk Kuyt look like an Olympic class sprinter, Crouch was a witless turtle playing against apparently genius Championship-level hares. Not that Kuyt deserves any praise himself, he as well deserves no place on our club.

Where was Jermaine Pennant? When we finally got our act together in the league last season it was because of JP becoming the main ball-carrier and creator on attack. Yossi is not a true winger and having him out there supposedly playing that position only creates congestion and frustration. Having him out there with Crouch and Kuyt is borderline insane, stupid, or criminal, you can decide that which best fits your feelings.

Don't get me wrong, winning tomorrow would be great, except it would only see Rafa staying on longer and the American owners sticking around as well. Two things I could do without. Of course, the 'Golden Child' will be back and hopefully will stay fit for the entire contest and Masche will be back at Stevie-G's side.

As a supporter I have little reason to be optimistic about our club. A whole lot of change will have to happen this offseason for me to think otherwise. New owners, new manager, Crouch and Kuyt sold, Hyypia retired, Kewell apparently gone since he's no longer getting much playing time, and the infusion of some of the youngsters like Paul Anderson would be nice. What we be even more nicer would know Hicks' and Gillet's true agenda.

Sizing-up the Nerazzurri

It could have been much worse. We could have drawn Real Madrid or even A.C. Milan. It's not that I don't think we could beat those sides, it just would have been a more difficult task. Real is the deepest squad on the planet and from the looks of things, Milan doesn't have much else to play for, being essentially out of the Scudetto race already.

I personally think Inter is the most overrated club in Europe right now. Serie A is relatively weak this season, mostly due to the fall of Milan. When Udinese is the fourth place side, 16 games into the season while scoring only 20 goals, your league is fragile.

What worries me most is the second/away leg. It's set for March 11th, three days after Newcastle come to Anfield. I don't know why they didn't just schedule it for the 12th. Inter has a match two days prior, but that will probably be rescheduled now, though I doubt we'll get such accommodations.

I also can't wait to hear the rubbish that the Italian press will spew about our fans coming to Milan. I'm sure it will be flattering. The Italians have some of the most violent fans in the world, the English pale in comparison, but the see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil policy is in full effect. Riots, stabbings, the killing of policeman, our fans are the ones that should be worried, granted most of it occurs in the Rome area and down south.

As for the actual matches, I see rather drab affairs. I expect them to slow things down as much as possible in both ties, especially at Anfield. Cruz and Zlatan don't worry me much, so we shouldn't have much trouble preventing them from scoring. The problem is, it's not going to be easy for us to net either. Certainly the magic of Torres and Gerrard would come in handy, but I wouldn't be surprised to see 0-0 results at the end of both matches, going to penalty kicks. Get studying, Pepe.

One more thing, I would love to see Mascherano take out Materazzi, especially if he starts with his cheating tactics. He's just horrible for the sport in general. Cheers.