10 Things Liverpool Want You To Forget About Mario Balotelli

3. On-Pitch Demeanour And Work-Rate

Rodgers' Liverpool side are not just an excellent footballing team with brilliant creative players, they also work incredibly hard. Rodgers loves high-intensity pressing and relentless running from his players, aiming to win the ball back as soon as quickly as possibly. Every member of the side does their job, knowing that one person failing to will ruin everything. Balotelli is certainly not known for his work-rate, in fact he can be very lazy. When things aren't going his way, and he's not seeing the ball as much as perhaps he'd like, he can give off a terrible demeanour on the pitch. His shoulders drop, his concentration lapses and he can look generally disinterested. While some may claim this is just the way he plays, and that he's very effective playing like it, he won't last 10 seconds under Rodgers if he doesn't put a shift in. It's easy to forget Daniel Sturridge arrived with the reputation as a lazy player too, and he has improved greatly in that respect. The hope is that Balotelli does exactly the same, rather than risk the wrath of his teammates and manager.