Balotelli Shirt Swapping at Half Time

The guy is mentally retarded. What would you expect from him ? He's a good man though.

RED wrote:I'm surprised many of you don't find this a big deal. Had a Utd player who has been garbage thus far, plus with a poor attitude, did this, I'd be peeved off.

Maybe some of you will react different had this happened to one of your players. Maybe.

In your scenario you're peeved off that your player is playing like garbage. The actual shirt swapping is not the issue or at least it shouldn't be.

I can see why the shirt-swapping would rile some people up, and if he was going to do that at half-time (kind of dumb), he should have AT LEAST waited until he got into the tunnel or told Pepe to wait until after the game..

His attitude and lack of any verbal communication on the pitch always makes it seem to me that he doesn't really care much and is just there to have fun like it's a Sunday pub league match or something. It's irritating to me because it's his job as a professional to give his all but it just seems like he's a lifeless mime out there with no real expressions who can't wait for the ref to blow the whistle so he can go home. Watching him I usually get the sense that he lacks genuine passion for football and that's bad for any pro, not to mention a very talented player.

He had a few nice passes today (the low cross to Allen for example) , but he had his share of wtf passes as well even though 'Pool were getting overwhelmed, he struggled to get into the game in the same way that Coutinho, Sterling and Gerrard were doing.

Zealous wrote:

RED wrote:I'm surprised many of you don't find this a big deal. Had a Utd player who has been garbage thus far, plus with a poor attitude, did this, I'd be peeved off.

Maybe some of you will react different had this happened to one of your players. Maybe.

In your scenario you're peeved off that your player is playing like garbage. The actual shirt swapping is not the issue or at least it shouldn't be.

nah, it'll just add to the frustrations.

Be/\/ceCALI wrote:I can see why the shirt-swapping would rile some people up, and if he was going to do that at half-time (kind of dumb), he should have AT LEAST waited until he got into the tunnel or told Pepe to wait until after the game..

Yep.

I wonder if Roy Keane was his manager ...

He's just a scapegoat now simply. This thread wouldn't even have been created had he scored against Everton or QPR last weekend.

HE *bleep* SWAPPED SHIRTS AT HALFTIME!?!?!?!? OH THE HUMANITY!!!!!1111

He's been made to be a scapegoat but he's still absolute wank lol

Gil wrote:He's just a scapegoat now simply. This thread wouldn't even have been created had he scored against Everton or QPR last weekend.

Oh, you mean do his job?

He's been a failed experiment thus far. He only has one LAST chance when Sturridge returns to see if he can actually perform next to another quality player.

Otherwise he's probably gone in the summer if not sooner.

Oh *bleep* off, even Carlo in his presser said Balotelli caused them the most problems and attacked the space the most out of every other player. Hell, even that manc *bleep* Neville pointed it out several times during the game.

45 minutes later, 3-0 down after another defensive shambles & apparently he wasn't running around enough and was lazy and lethargic.

This is just a case of people judging him for his past endeavours rather than what's actually happening right before their very own eyes. Apart from Coutinho and Sterling I can't think of a single player in a Liverpool shirt that played better than him in those opening 45 minutes.

The only thing Balotelli did bad tonight was run into a couple of defenders rather than passing to Sterling. The best in the World made that same mistake on about 3 separate occasions.

That piece of shit Suarez racially abused Evra and bit Ivanovic yet Liverpool fans still backed him. Balo swaps shirts with Pepe and it's the most unprofessional thing ever apparently.

Gil wrote:Oh *bleep* off, even Carlo in his presser said Balotelli caused them the most problems and attacked the space the most out of every other player. Hell, even that manc *bleep* Neville pointed it out several times during the game.

45 minutes later, 3-0 down after another defensive shambles & apparently he wasn't running around enough and was lazy and lethargic.

This is just a case of people judging him for his past endeavours rather than what's actually happening right before their very own eyes. Apart from Coutinho and Sterling I can't think of a single player in a Liverpool shirt that played better than him in those opening 45 minutes.

The only thing Balotelli did bad tonight was run into a couple of defenders rather than passing to Sterling. The best in the World made that same mistake on about 3 separate occasions.

That piece of shit Suarez racially abused Evra and bit Ivanovic yet Liverpool fans still backed him. Balo swaps shirts with Pepe and it's the most unprofessional thing ever apparently.

Suarez used to win game after game for them and ran like a mad man for 90+ mins every match. Can't compare him with Balo.I admit that I'm kind of a fan of his antics but he has mental problems. He is a nice human being from what I've seen though. I give him that.

Gil wrote:Oh *bleep* off, even Carlo in his presser said Balotelli caused them the most problems and attacked the space the most out of every other player. Hell, even that manc *bleep* Neville pointed it out several times during the game..

Carlo must of been being nice then.

He did fck all, had no impact and was basically passenger.

i think balo's days of bouncing between " big " clubs are numbered .

Everywhere Balotelli goes, he is rated as a  scapegoat  by some ppl.
Being a scapegoat presupposes the existence of a problem .
And if is he the problem ?.

Liverpool were struggling before they signed him. He's not the problem. The problem is that everyone expects more from him than he's capable of providing on a regular basis.

I agree that the English media always has to scapegoat someone after one of there darling EPL teams fail to impress in Europe and that person is usually foreign especially when they have the good ole boys preview shows with the all pumping up how good the EPL is and how Pool or anyone else might knick Madrid or other said better team.

But in this case I don't think that's the case. For a guy new to a club who has been under performing, just wait until after the game to trade shirts, there is no reason other than being an idiot, selfish or just dumb to do it 3-0 down at halftime in Pool's biggest home game of the year nd return to big boy football.

It's bad form and I know it's not the custom in other sports to trade jerseys but this would not stand in any other sport and again they have the end of the game to do it.

If I was Gerrard in the locker room and seen Balotelli who replaced a bulldog like Suarez jogging in with no jersey on and a Madrid jersey in his hand and playing badly my head might explode.

IT just isn't OK. The competition isn't over, trading shirts at halftime is for friendlies or pre-season games or for a promotion team in awe of said player, not Pool vs Madrid Champions League tie. Again just do it after the game.

Nah, if this were any other footballer this would be brushed aside or under the rug. It's because it is Balotelli and the media have been aching for him to do something stupid. So now that he finally did they're blowing it out of proportion.

And it's not just English media, Balo was almost solely blamed for Italy's WC, which was very unfair in my opinion.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Nah, if this were any other footballer this would be brushed aside or under the rug. It's because it is Balotelli and the media have been aching for him to do something stupid. So now that he finally did they're blowing it out of proportion.

And it's not just English media, Balo was almost solely blamed for Italy's WC, which was very unfair in my opinion.

That is false.

Sahko did the same last year and got torn a new one by the media.
Andre Santos did the same a couple years back and swapped shirts RVP at halftime and got ripped.

Might have been noticed, but this is the first time I'm hearing of both incidents. Considering I'm a fairly active member of this community and that I read sports news regularly it seems that this particular incident is gaining far more traction than either one of those.

BarrileteCosmico wrote:Might have been noticed, but this is the first time I'm hearing of both incidents. Considering I'm a fairly active member of this community and that I read sports news regularly it seems that this particular incident is gaining far more traction than either one of those.

Don't know what you were doing then....

Sahko was dropped for multiple games for that.

Andre Santos? Death threats, calls for Wenger to never pick him to be anywhere near a Matchday team. Was basically the reason why he was shipped off (that and he was utter shite).

edit .

i need some sleep.

so i've been busy all day with exams and all i keep hearing about is how balotelli swapped shirts.
why is no one talking about the spanking madrid gave liverpool..?
seems like a scapegoat to me.

I don't like that tbh. The game isn't finished and only one thing should be on your mind, destroy the opponent. Leave that shxt for the end of the game.

If Rodgers subbed him off for that, the joke's on him. If any player was going to score at least a consolation goal it was Balotelli. Not Lallana lmao.

i'm not a fan of shirt swaps at halftime especially when the team is losing...its not just an england thing, that day when messi violated leverkusen and they lost like 7 or 8 zero, two of their players (one of them was the skipper) had a little spat at halftime when one player took messi's kit (the skipper who i think had agreed to swap with messi before the game started took it from the other player. when the game ended, at full time the player who seemed to have no shame with the result went again to get messi's second jersey)....rudi voller was furious at it, and i think leverkusen ended up seizing both jerseys from both players....

Would this even be a thread if Mario Balotelli wasn't involved? Stop being so melodramatic ffs. I never understood why people waste their time arguing over pointless crap and I still don't.