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AC Milan and the Balotelli Effect

  By O-Posts Team | March 20, 2013 - 17:05 | , ,
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Just 46 days into his career with the Rossoneri and the effect that Mario Balotelli has had on the club is clear.

Following his arrival in Italy, AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani said that the move for Balotelli was “a dream that has been realized [and] a transfer that everyone wanted; the club, the president and the fans.”

That dream got off to a fairytale start with Balotelli producing a match winning brace against Udinese, a win which lifted Milan above rivals Inter in the table at the time.

Balotelli scored in the next two games for AC Milan, including a stunning 30-yard free kick against Parma to maintain the Rossoneri’s resurgent push up the league. That strike at the San Siro proved enough to match Oliver Bierhoff’s record of four goals in three matches, but the Italy international has since kicked on.

Balotelli came off the bench to add to his tally with another goal against Genoa in only his fifth appearance for the club, whilst last weekend’s brace against Palermo took the controversial striker’s tally to seven goals in six games in Serie A.

Balotelli’s arrival has coincided with AC Milan’s unbeaten run in the league, which has seen five wins in just seven games, but the effect of ‘Super Mario’ has not been universally positive.

After hitting 15 goals prior to Balotelli’s arrival in January, Italian striker Stephan El Shaarawy has managed just one goal in the league since the controversial striker’s move from Manchester City.

Balotelli and El Shaarawy.... contrasting fortunes since the widely publicized move.

Balotelli and El Shaarawy…. contrasting fortunes since the widely publicized move.

The ‘Pharaoh’ has lost his place at the pinnacle of the Rossoneri attack, with both Balotelli and Gianpaolo Pazzini now favoured ahead of El Shaarawy in the centre of the AC Milan attack.

The competition for places up front is something which Massimiliano Allegri will have to manage carefully, but Il Faraone will likely find himself more frequently positioned either side of a central striker, with the striker’s work rate and energy considerably higher than that of the enigmatic Balotelli.

With Mario Balotelli in the side, the Rossoneri have yet to look back and AC Milan’s hopes of a second place finish seem possible based on their form in 2013. Fixtures against Fiorentina, Napoli and Juventus next month make April a huge time of the year for the Rossoneri.

How Milan manage Balotelli over the next four years could prove crucial, especially given the striker’s unmanageability in the past, but should Balotelli mature in his ways and add a higher level of work rate and determination to his game, then the effect of Mario may be long felt at the San Siro.

 

Jonathan Day is a leading football analyst who specialises in European and Premier League football. Jonathan currently writes for Sportingly Better, a football betting blog that offers free football tips and betting predictions. Follow Sportingly Better on Twitter or add them on Facebook for all the latest betting tips.

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Super Mario to AC Milan: Wishing all the best to the Balotelli circus

  By O-Posts Team | January 29, 2013 - 22:37 | , , , , , , ,
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So he’s gone then. Mario Balotelli has called time on his two and a half years at Manchester City that have been marred by petulance and stories of lunacy that have split opinion.

Roberto Mancini thought he could see through the simmering idiocy long enough to get the best out of his striker, but a training ground bust-up at the start of December proved to be the crescendo of his ill-fated time in England as the manager finally admits defeat in his quest to discover the Italian’s best which he has frustratingly shown mere glimpses of.

Balotelli has played just 25 minutes of football since tempers over-spilled on that day in Carrington as Mancini has condemned him to the bench, but AC Milan have come to the striker’s rescue with a four and a half year deal and a £17 million fee.

Balotelli has reportedly taken a pay-cut to escape his troubles at City and to join the club he has apparently supported since he was a boy, it is a deal that has taken a lot of compromise but it’s the best solution to the working relationship between manager and player at Eastlands that had appears to have reached impasse.

Balotelli’s nature for rebellion that can be a threat to any manager’s attempt to create a harmonious side now becomes the problem of Massimo Allegri who is no stranger to working on rocky ground, having steered Milan through the loss of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva last summer to leave them sitting six points off third midway through a season of transition.

Balotelli becomes the latest addition to the Rosseneri revolution and will link up with Alexander Pato and another precocious talent in Stephen El-Shaarawry, a combination that has the potential to be a very dangerous partnership indeed.

As Italy manager Cesare Prandelli will testify, Balotelli has the raw talent in abundance after witnessing his dismissal of Germany in Euro 2012. Mancini knows of his quality too, but drove himself crazy trying to persuade the striker to produce it on a consistent basis.

Underneath all the stories of madness that followed him off the field that had caricatured him as something of a cult figure for the neutral in search of light-hearted entertainment lay the most frustrating element of all, that he could betray such gifted talent to exist to be this aggravated, isolated soul who asked “why always me?”.

Perhaps he will find a happier environment in Milan and become, under the guise of Allegri, become the player Mancini had always billed him to be. His last spell in Serie A was as turbulent as his one in England as the relationship between him the huge ego of Jose Mourinho was doomed to failure.

Perhaps he will find a more settled ground from which to show his ability and produce more of the performances that saw him score twice at Old Trafford, or become the man of the match in the FA Cup final of 2011 that have been, infuriatingly for his former boss, a rarity.

He has been delightful for the neutral with his adventures off the field but now, at the age of 22, many would hope the process of maturity follows him to the San Siro so he can blossom into a favourite for the neutral on the field too.

In the parting words of Mancini, “he can become one of the best players in Europe”, let’s hope, for the sake of misguided talent, that isn’t just a prophecy tarred with blind faith.

 

Written by Adam Gray

Follow him on Twitter @AdamGray1250

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