Can Balotelli resurrect Reds career…?
It’s taken him 13 Premier League matches, but misfiring Italian maverick Mario Balotelli finally broke his Liverpool top flight duck…
Fans will be hoping the 24-year-old lets the goal inspire him to knuckle down and carry on in the same vein – because he wouldn’t be the only Liverpool player to bounce back from a shaky start…
Here’s six of our better ‘renaissance men’…
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(Video) Watch this… Mario Balotelli didn’t just score last night – he worked his socks off!
(Image) Mario Balotelli DID crack a smile after securing win over Tottenham…
Ian Rush
Ian Rush is by far and away our record goalscorer, notching 345 times during his two Liverpool spells – but some younger Reds fans won’t know that it took the Welshman nine games to open his account. In fact, it took him a while to ever get in the side under Bob Paisley… We’re not saying Balotelli’s going to notch quite this many, but there’s hope at least!
Martin Skrtel
The Slovakian is now (mostly) a rock at the heart of our defence, and there are rumours that he might be given the next permanent captaincy position over current vice-skipper Jordan Henderson… However, due to his (at the time) limited passing skills, Brendan Rodgers cast Skrtel aside during his first season in charge – instead using veteran Jamie Carragher alongside Daniel Agger. Skrtel worked on his ability to play from the back however, and while Carragher’s retired and Agger’s since been offloaded to Brondby – the 30-year-old has the second highest pass completion ratio in the Premier League this term (91.2%), and is one of the first names on the team-sheet.
Ray Kennedy
Another Liverpool club legend, Kennedy was originally a striker when he arrived from Arsenal in 1974 – but had to change his position because John Toshak and Kevin Keegan occupied the forward roles.
Instead, Bob Paisley used him on the left, and he went on to win the first division five times and the European Cup thrice.
Not bad for a failed striker…
Jordan Henderson
The favourite to take Steven Gerrard’s permanent captaincy armband, Henderson was once branded a £16m Liverpool flop, in line with fellow rubbish signings from 2011 such as Stewart Downing and Andy Carroll.
He passed the ball sideways only, and looked to lack any of the talent which that kind of figure should command. There were even rumours that his signing cost former Director of Football Damien Comolli his job.
However, having at first failed to break into Rodgers’ starting XI, with Jonjo Shelvey and Nuri Sahin ahead of him in the pecking order, Henderson began to make his mark… His endless work-rate and improved offensive contribution saw him play a vital role in our title challenge in 2013/14, and his leadership qualities are becoming increasingly visible, too.
Peter Crouch
A £7m signing from Southampton back in 2005, it took the likeable beanpole forward 19 games to break his Liverpool duck!
From that point onwards – Crouch bagged a tidy 42 goals for Liverpool, including a memorable hat-trick against Arsenal, and a wonderful bicycle kick versus Galatasaray.
A cult hero, certainly.
Lucas
Has any player come ‘back from the dead’ as many times as Lucas for Liverpool? Once upon a time, the hard-working Brazilian was booed by the Kop, and he was was pulled out of first-team action for some time as a result.
Hugely impressively though, Lucas fought back – proving his doubters wrong by improving his defensive characteristics and developing himself into one of the country’s premier anchoring midfielders. In 2010/11 he won the Liverpool Player of the year award – and if injuries hadn’t curtailed his progress on more than one occasion, he would have continually improved.
Even this term, when many fans had written him off due to his seeming inability to play our fast-paced passing brand of football, the Brazilian stepped up when called upon and was instrumental in our superb run of recent form. Injured again, let’s hope Lucas can find it in him to bounce back once more.
