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Mario Balotelli blames Brendan Rodgers for Liverpool failure but admits he has 'thrown away too many chances'

Balotelli has returned to AC Milan on a season-long loan and admits he realises he is in the last chance saloon

Jack de Menezes
Friday 28 August 2015 10:49 BST
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Mario Balotelli believes Brendan Rodgers did not help him with his formations
Mario Balotelli believes Brendan Rodgers did not help him with his formations

Mario Balotelli has blamed Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers for his failure to grow into a success at Anfield after completing a season-long loan to his former club AC Milan.

Balotelli’s £16m transfer last summer has gone down as a complete disaster on Merseyside, with the Italian striker scoring just four goals throughout the entire 2014/15 season with just one of those coming in the Premier League.

Having failed to prove his critics wrong, Balotelli was shipped out to Milan on loan that looks certain to spell the end to his short Liverpool career, especially given that Rodgers has moved this summer to sign reinforcement in attack in the form of Christian Benteke and Danny Ings.

However, despite leaving a heartfelt farewell to the Liverpool fans on Facebook, Balotelli has told Italian newspaper Gazetta dello Sport that Rodgers’ reluctance to adapt his formation to Balotelli’s style did him no favours in settling in at Anfield.

Brendan Rodgers and Mario Balotelli

“I must accept my faults but the formation chosen by Rodgers was not suited to my characteristics,” said Balotelli. “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.

“I never complained – I accepted the decisions of the manager and I always behaved like a professional.”

Since returning to Italy, Balotelli has agreed a one-year deal with his former club which has several ‘good behaviour’ clauses in his contract, but Balotelli insists that he always remained professional at Liverpool and adhered to the separate rules in his contract.

“At Liverpool, my behaviour and lifestyle were normal,” said the Italy international. “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. My problem has never been my quality but my character. There are always a lot of voices surrounding me, every aspect of me is amplified.

“I am a man and I no longer ­ create problems. I am restarting from zero. I know that I can’t make any mistakes, I can’t expect anything and I must win everything back. I am no longer a child and I have already thrown away too many chances.”

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