BALOTELLI SAID: I DON'T MARK AT CORNERS. I CAN'T
In the final part of his explosive new book, Steven Gerrard dishes the dirt on Liverpool’s worst signings
Selling Alonso was disastrous management
by Bentiez
IHAD seen a staggering number of new signings walk into the Liverpool training ground. I watched every single one of their first training sessions with close attention, wondering whether we’d bought a star or another dud, a king or a prat, a Xabi Alonso or an El Hadji Diouf, a Luis Suárez or a Mario Balotelli.
Three players stand out in my time at Liverpool. They all speak Spanish. Each of them unleashes a wave of emotion in me and in every Liverpool supporter: Fernando Torres. Xabi Alonso. Luis Suárez.
It was clear Alonso was royalty after our first training session together in August 2004, and Rafa Benítez, who had been so clever to buy him in the first place, was equally stupid to sell him to Real Madrid five years later. He was, by some distance, the best central midfielder I ever played alongside.
It was a disastrous decision to sell Alonso, and especially for just £30m – which looks a snip now when you reflect on all he has achieved subsequently, both at Real Madrid and Bayern Munich and with Spain, winning the Euros and the World Cup. I blame Rafa entirely for the loss of Alonso. He could still have been playing for Liverpool six or seven years after he left in 2009.
I think more about the special players we lost – Alonso, Torres and Suárez – than the terrible signings with which we got lumbered.
Suárez, who ran and pressed and fought for the ball and ran again – while producing extraordinary moves and sublime goals. There was a sustained period when playing with Luis was like being under a magical spell. He blew me away with his talent.
Fernando came the closest to matching Luis. I had two years with Fernando when he made me feel invincible. I always knew where he was, where he was going to move next. I’m not a natural No 10 but, for a couple of years, Fernando helped me become one. I had my best season then, as a No 10, and that was down to Fernando in 2007–08.
But, ultimately, Luis stands out. I would have loved to have played with Luis when I was a lot younger, and peaking, as we could have been phenomenal together for years. That’s my only tinge of regret with Suárez.
Here’s an example of what he did for me. On March 13, 2012 I scored a hat-trick at Anfield against Everton. It was the first hat-trick in 30 years of Merseyside derbies, since Ian Rush scored three at Goodison Park in 1982.
It was made even better by the selfless magic Suárez sprinkled over me that night. Luis is no saint – and I’m not sure he would have done the same for Daniel Sturridge. There was always a little bit of needling rivalry between Sturridge and Suárez.
But when it came to me, especially against Everton, Luis went out of his way. He helped Liverpool — and me — play like kings.
All the people who revile Suárez, never having met him, might be surprised if they had the chance to benefit from his unselfish willingness to sacrifice himself for his team. He will run himself into the ground. He scores goals. He creates goals. He’s hard and horrible to play against. He’s right up for it. You’ve got a chance of beating anyone in the world with Luis Suárez in your team.
Not every Liverpool signing worked out like that.
Of the bad ones, I don’t really want to waste time thinking about El Hadji Diouf but it’s worth highlighting his wasted seasons at Liverpool as an example of how it can all go wrong.
Gérard Houllier, a very good manager and a usually wise judge of character, signed Diouf in the summer of 2002. Gérard bought Diouf for £10m from Lens – solely on the recommendation of his former assistant, Patrice Bergues, who had coached Diouf there.
I understood why Gérard rushed through the signing, but he did not really know Diouf as a person. He was one of three new signings which were meant to turn Liverpool into Premier League champions. We had finished as runners-up to Manchester United the season before and a combination of Diouf, Salif Diao and Bruno Cheyrou was supposed to drive us to the title. It was probably the biggest waste of £18m in Liverpool’s history.
We finished the season in fifth place and Diouf had sealed his place at the top of the list of Liverpool signings I liked least.
It seemed to me that Diouf had no real interest in football and that he cared nothing about Liverpool. For example, the way he spat a huge globule of gunky phlegm at a Celtic fan in a UEFA Cup match at Parkhead in March 2003 summed up his contemptuous and spiteful demeanour.
A few people have since asked me if I saw any comparison between Diouf and Mario Balotelli – and I’ve always said no. I’ve got respect for Balotelli; I’ve got none for Diouf.
Balotelli can be endearing sometimes – and that’s never a trait that you would associate with Diouf. The only positive aspect of the otherwise ugly signing of Diouf is that he worked hard on the pitch. He always wanted the ball, and he never hid.
But after a while I decided Diouf simply wasn’t your usual footballer. It seemed to me as if football got in the way of his social life.
At least Balotelli could still make me smile sometimes, I have a small hope that, one day, his career might work out and he can prove his potential on a regular basis.
In my last season, Brendan Rodgers came to me at Melwood one day in mid-August. We had a chat on the training pitch. He said, ‘You know we’ve missed out on a couple of signings. I’m basically left with no option but to have a bit of a gamble.’
Brendan paused before he spoke again: ‘The gamble is Mario Balotelli.’ My instant reaction was, ‘Uh-oh.’
I’d never met Balotelli but I’d heard all the stories about the indoor fireworks and José Mourinho describing him as an ‘unmanageable’ player. I could see that, in the right mood, he was a quality footballer but the rest of his career seemed like a spectacular waste of talent. That was my opinion of Balotelli.
But I also had to admit that, when he played for Italy, he seemed able to switch on his gift like he was snapping on a bright light.
When he scored the winner against England in the 2014 World Cup a month earlier he showed all the movement which made him so difficult to mark at his best. I told Brendan that, up close to him on the pitch, you could see that he was a big, powerful guy.
Brendan must have sensed my underlying reservations because he spoke a little more about why he thought it could be worth the risk. Brendan implied that Balotelli
didn't have anywhere else to go – and it seemed as if Liverpool would be balotelli’s last chance to shine at a major club. He would be offered a strict con-tract. Any bad behaviour would be punished. I reminded myself that I had always allowed every new player to come into the club with a clean slate. Balotelli’s reputation tested that resolve but I tried my best to be open-minded.
He made an immediate impression when we were doing work on our defensive set pieces and Balo- telli said to Brendan: ‘I don’t mark on corners. I can’t.’
I nearly fell into the goalpost. I was thinking, ‘What are you? Six foot three, and one of the strongest men I’ve ever seen on a football pitch? And you can’t mark on a corner?’
Brendan was very firm. He said to Balotelli: ‘Well, you can now – and if you can’t then you’re going to learn.’ That was the first conflict between Brendan and Balotelli, on day one, but the manager stood up to Mario really well. From that point, Balotel l i started marking on corners.
He made his Liverpool debut on August 31, 2014 away to Tottenham, and he did well. We won 3-0. He wasn’t outstanding but he worked hard and even looked like a team player. It would not last.
Daniel Sturridge was injured ten days later, while training with England. He would be out for many weeks. Suddenly the Mario gamble was in jeopardy – because I knew that Balotelli would simply not put in the work we needed from a lone striker. Everything became more tangled and more difficult.
Away to Basle in the Champions League, Balotelli started the game and he was hopeless. After his promising debut against Tottenham he had lapsed in training and the subsequent games. His demeanour was very poor. I made up my mind pretty quickly after that about Balotelli.
There was no friction between us. We got on fine. I still tried to help him and I kept looking for chances to praise him.
But I could see Mourinho had been right when he said Balotelli is unmanageable. He is very talented with the potential to be world class, but he’ll never get there because of his mentality and the people around him.
Balotelli’s always late, he always wants attention, he says the wrong things on social media. For me, he doesn’t work hard enough on a daily basis. You’re always fighting a losing battle with Balotelli. He does too many things wrong.
Diouf was spiteful. Football just got in the way of his
social life.