Liverpool seems to love signing strikers who are “rotten apples”, as after selling Suarez to Barcelona, they have gone after Balotelli from AC Milan. No matter how talented he is, he will not be a huge success at Liverpool, and he was not the signing that Liverpool needed.
Liverpool already have a conundrum of how they will fit all of their signings into their squad, and there is little room for Balotelli in the team. He will not be able to partner Sturridge effectively, as he is too selfish and does not give his all, while Suarez was a player who did all he could to win (too much, as we know) no matter how it affected the team. Sturridge is most effective through the middle, as is Balotelli, so it is very likely Liverpool will stick with two forwards.
Who will be left out of the team then? Lallana and Markovic weren’t even included in the Liverpool squad that played against Southampton, and only Lucas Leiva is a player who played that game who is likely not to start for Liverpool. Balotelli will want to start, and he is never happy when things aren’t going his way, and as a result, when he comes in he tries to do too much by himself. He won’t fit in at Liverpool, and his selfishness will cause problems.
He was problematic at both AC Milan and Manchester City. At City, he was blamed when things weren’t going well. It was probably too harsh for City fans to blame Balotelli alone when things were going wrong, but it is obvious to all that his attitude was poor and that in turn affected the rest of the team. He was supposed to fix his attitude by going to Milan, where he would be loved, but even there his attitude was bad. Maybe Brendan Rodgers can work some magic with him, but with Lallana, Markovic, Sturridge, Sterling, and Coutinho all there, Balotelli may only be a bit part player, and he may not be happy with that.
Recently, I said that Liverpool should not have signed so many players, and should have signed two or three and gotten a top class striker like Falcao. So, they went and bought a striker, but not a top class one. Balotelli has the potential, but not the mental fortitude to be one of the best players in the world.
Even if he performs decently with Liverpool (I don’t think he will fail completely, he will get some key goals, but he won’t be Liverpool’s best player) it will take Liverpool at least a year to build their squad with all these new faces and be able to challenge at the top echelons of football. By that time, Balotelli may already be upset at Liverpool and wanting a move away. It is likely Brendan Rodgers fully believes he can change Balotelli, good luck to him, and if he can, he will be a football genius.
