So that’s what went wrong.
Mario Balotelli has blamed Brendan Rodgers’ tactics on his Liverpool failure. The Italian striker has returned to AC Milan on a season long loan, after failing to settle, or consistently score goals, since moving to Merseyside for £16 million last summer.
The 25 year old managed just 4 goals in 28 appearances, amid reports of unprofessional behaviour behind the scenes. Balotelli is said to have scored an own-goal from the half-way line in training, skipped training to buy an iPhone 6 and didn’t even know who Joe Allen was, despite playing together for a number of months.
However, Balotelli claims that Rodgers’ tactics was the reason why he failed to excel at Anfield.
“I must accept my faults but the formation chosen by Rodgers was not suited to my characteristics,” he told Italian media outlet Gazetta dello Sport.
“At the beginning I missed several easy chances, then I had fewer chances to score, a bit of bad luck, injuries. A mess of things.”
Balotelli isn’t alone in blaming Rodgers for his failure to settle at Anfield, and the player went on to say that, contrary to reports, he’d behaved professionally while at Liverpool.
“The professional Mario didn’t just land here in Milan, even at Liverpool my behaviour and lifestyle were normal,” Balotelli said.
“Over the last year there was never a problem with my private life. I may have put pictures from restaurants on Instagram but that does not mean I did not train, even though I was not playing.”
H/T This is Anfield.
