Should Balotelli pay the ‘penalty’ for last nights ‘spot’ of bother?

Why always him? It is safe to say there is always a degree of controversy following Mario Balotelli around, whether he is playing in Italy or over here in the UK. Why? Well, to put it simply, he is one of life’s characters.

Mario Balotelli arrived in the summer as last ditch gamble by Brendan Rodgers, who was perhaps still smarting over the loss of star man, Luis Suarez, and honest enough to realise that his earlier signing, Ricky Lambert, would not be the man to fill the Uruguayans free scoring boots.

It would seem that Rodgers likes the element of a challenge and sees it as a good thing for the team and the supporters to have a maverick individual around, hence why he opted to bring Balotelli back to English football, despite his previous spell with Manchester City ending in controversy caused mainly by the player himself.

After an encouraging debut against Spurs, where he got himself into several good scoring positions and led the clubs fans to believe that it would only take a matter of games to get his eye in, it has all gone horribly wrong for ‘Mario Magnifico’. Goals have been hard to come by and his notorious antics have often surfaced to create talking points off the pitch as opposed to his on field play, although this is largely down the scandal digging culture of today's media.

Balotelli's struggling form could not have been helped by Liverpool’s remaining star man, Daniel Sturridge, being out injured for so long, but realistically it looked as though Brendan Rodgers’ gamble had backfired… until more recently that is.

With Sturridge now back playing, albeit not yet scoring at the rate of knots we come to expect from the England marksmen, and Liverpool starting to rectify their poor form that saw them slump to mid table, it would appear that Mario is following suit.

Now it might be a little silly to get carried away with two goals in the last three games but it should be noted that he has come off the bench for both of those goals and taken Liverpool to victory on both occasions. Sometimes it’s the magnitude of what you do, as opposed to the quantity.

Which brings me to last nights game against Besiktas in the Europa League, which since an extra Champions League place has been attached to it, has become more of an interest to teams this season as it has done in the past.

With five minutes remaining the increasingly impressive Jordan Ibe wins a penalty. Usually there is only one man for the job in this situation but iconic captain, Steven Gerrard, is up in the ITV studio swapping opinions with Peter Reid and Gordan Strachan, so is not available to resume his normal responsibilities.

His deputy, Jordan Henderson, has the ball in hand, when Balotelli, who stood out far more in the short time he had on the pitch than other players who were on from the start, comes over and takes the ball from him. Cue the uproar.

Yet anyone who knows their football knows that Mario Balotelli has one of the finest records in European football when it comes to taking penalties. What’s more he is your striker, signed to score goals, so he therefore he is the right man to take the penalty and I would say it was admirable that he had the confidence to come over and take the responsibility on an important night for the club, despite his troubles this season.

I have seen people comparing this incident with with the one involving Leighton Baines and Kevin Mirallas a few weeks back on twitter, but in truth they are nothing alike at all.

On that occasion, Everton’s primary penalty taker, Baines, was on the pitch, so therefore he should be the first choice to take the penalty, especially considering he has only ever missed one in his career. 

Now, had he been off the pitch then maybe Mirallas would have had a case to answer for his determination to put the ball on the spot but that wasn't the case and therefore he was wrong, which was only amplified when he went on to miss.

But at Anfield, last night, Steven Gerrard, was not on the pitch and therefore the sensible choice, which most of the Liverpool fans in the stadium and who I have spoken to since, agree with, was Mario Balotelli.

Yes Jordan Henderson was captain, but that does not give him the right to be selfish in the hope he would get the headlines the next day. Being captain is about making the best decisions for the team and when a penalty is awarded in the absence of your elected taker, the best decision is to give the ball to the best penalty taker on the pitch at the time.

Another way of looking at the situation is that surely Liverpool want Mario Balotelli to start scoring? So what better way to boost his confidence in front of goal, than letting him win the game for you, for the second time in a matter of weeks, with the winning goal. That is, after all, why he was brought to the club in the first place.

At the end of all the bickering and confusion the charismatic Italian coolly proved his point and gave Liverpool the slenderest of advantages to take to Istanbul in the hope that they can reach the next round. 

Who knows, that goal could well be the turning point of his Anfield career and if he goes on to score more goals that eventually lead the club back into the Champions League next season,  I doubt there will be an argument over who is taking the penalty the next time one is awarded when Gerrard is not on the pitch.