If you follow me on my personal account on Twitter, you know very well that I am a very big fan of Mario Balotelli. I'm sure I come off as a "fanboy" or just completely bias towards Mario. However, the reason for my strong liking for Mario isn't hollow, I have a reason and backing for every opinion I have on Balotelli.
Many Milan fans have been extremely critical of Balotelli this season. He hasn't been scoring the number of goals you'd expect from him and sometimes in games, he appears lazy or shows a lack of effort. There have been countless rumors of him being sold this coming summer and quite a few people have been wanting that to happen. On the other hand, many people don't want Mario to be sold. He only arrived in Milan in January of 2013. Less than a year later, people were calling for him to be sold, saying he's immature, inconsistent, doesn't care and isn't worthy of the Milan shirt. When he arrived, he almost single-handedly brought Milan from the trenches of Serie A, to the Champions League. Going into this season, expectations were high for the club. With Mario about to start his first full season, along with El Shaarawy and Niang playing alongside him, it was supposed to be an attack for the next decade. Unfortunately, it became no where near that. The season started off almost identical as the one prior. El Shaarawy went down with a long term injury and still has yet to return, Niang went completely out of form and was eventually sent on loan to Montpellier in January. It was up to a disorganized, mediorcre midfield, an awful defense, aging goalkeeper and Mario Balotelli and Alessandro Matri to meet these high expectations.
The wins never came for Milan and the goals hardly went in for Mario. Nearly all the blame was put on him, every mistake, every thing he did, he was ripped apart by the Milan fan base, at least from what I've seen on Twitter. This man that we all cheered and worshiped upon his arrival, was mocked, laughed at and insulted by his own clubs fans when he cried on the bench after being subbed off in a match against Napoli. It seems like whenever he gets a yellow card or puts in a poor performance, Milanisti tear him to shreds. When he scores or plays well, everybody falls back in love with him. Overall, this season, it's been poor for Mario and people want him out, but why?
Mario Balotelli is by far Milan's best and most valuable player. He is 23 years old, which is still very, very young career-wise. Yes, some people may argue Kaka is better or even De Jong. I'll agree, both may have been more effective this season for Milan, but those are two completely different positions, different roles than what Mario plays. Here is why Mario is having such a poor season: Milan in general is having a poor season. To go into detail, Milan plays a 4-2-3-1 formation, in that formation, Mario is all alone, up top. In a position like that, no matter who the striker is, that player must rely completely on his midfield for the build up play. Milan does not have a very good midfield. They aren't bad, but when everyone else is out of form, how can you expect Mario to be in form? When an entire team has been out of form for 2 years, why should and how should, Mario be able to completely change that?
Remember, Balotelli joined this club in a bad state. In the time that he's been here, Berlusconi has hardly invested at all and Galliani has made some very poor transfers, including buying Matri and then missing out on Strootman, Jorginho, Nainggolan and others. We all know Mario's caliber, we know what he's capable of, but to reach your full potential, especially in this sport, it takes a team. Everybody needs to help each other and right now, Mario isn't getting much help. Not only is he not getting help from the club, he's not getting help from the fans. Milan fans and rival fans alike. If it's not racist chants from opposing fans, it's his own fans mocking him, calling for him to be sold. I understand the massive expectations of Milan and what we should expect from a star striker, especially from one with an ego of Mario Balotelli, but in order to help not only him, but the club as well, we shouldn't rip our players to shreds. We shouldn't slam them for every mistake they make, we should support them all the way through. Constructive criticism is completely normal. When Mario has a bad game, point it out, say what he did wrong and how he can do better, but don't downright insult him and say he should be sold right off the bat.
Talents and personalities like Mario don't come around very often, so instead of ripping on it every chance you get, embrace it. Embrace his arrogance, embrace his ego and confidence. I know he can be extremely frustrating, with the yellow cards, the diving, the arguing with the referees, but are you willing to give up on him at just 23? I know people are starting to say, "Ok, he's not that young anymore, he'll be 24 soon. It's time for him to get his act together." I agree, I think it is time for him to start scoring a little more consistently, but players don't even reach their prime until the age of 27 or 28. And with a team like this, how is it possible for any player to reach his prime at all?
Mario has never really been in a good situation at the club level. At Inter he had his problems with Mourinho. At City, he had his problems with the media and then he comes to Milan in one of it's worse states since the 80s and when he doesn't play well, you're going to say he should be sold less than a year later? Give it time, be patient. Once Milan starts to rise, Mario will start to rise. He didn't take down Germany by accident.
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