Balotelli is not any type of football player

[Bingo Lewis]

I can't understand the stick for last night. He was obviously not well.
He's no machine people.

Can't tell if you are joking or not.

I've criticised him in the past, and yes, his attitude can be questionable, but last night I can't think of anything he did wrong.
And he was so obviously not well when he went off. He looked like he couldn't focus his eyesight.

[Avalon]

I thought he did a decent job yesterday. Saw him chase the ball a few times, held the ball pretty well and overall showed he wanted to play, even if he reacted stroppy at times.
The slacking him off is uncalled for. Yes, it looked amaturistic when he wasn't on the pitch. However, it was fairly evident he was struggling. Sure, it is funny that he's alergic to certain types of grass, but I don't think any of us will find it more annoying than himself.

I think we've become a bit spoiled the last few months.

[Douglas Higginbottom]

I have to say the jury is well and truly out for me as he clearly has talent.But some of the posts on here to support him really have to feed on scraps to think of things he actually contributes positively to a team performance.

As an example"Saw him chase the ball a few times, held the ball pretty well and overall showed he wanted to play"

Wow he chased the ball a few times. Hell he should be chasing the ball a lot of times and not just a few and not just when he persoannly lost it wwhich is what I saw.

Held the ball pretty well. Agreed but does that really justify his place in the team at the moment.His passing,bar one beauty, was poor I thought.Overall showed he wanted to play.Is that really a good point as i would expect that from every player.( and are you absolutely sure he did ALL the time?)

[BlueinBosnia]

We sign Young World Player of the year. Said player is allergic to grass.

Typical City.

[ashton287]

Allergic to certain types of grass,Madness.
Next well sign a player who is allergic to sweat.

robinho??

[ashton287]

If he's allergic to grass maybe he would of lasted a bit longer if he had stayed on his feet a bit more the diving soft cunt.

[CityFanFromRome]

I thought he did a decent job yesterday. Saw him chase the ball a few times, held the ball pretty well and overall showed he wanted to play, even if he reacted stroppy at times.
The slacking him off is uncalled for. Yes, it looked amaturistic when he wasn't on the pitch. However, it was fairly evident he was struggling. Sure, it is funny that he's alergic to certain types of grass, but I don't think any of us will find it more annoying than himself.

I think we've become a bit spoiled the last few months.

I've never heard something like that before, but just last Sunday one Lazio player had to come off just after half time because he was allergic to the green paint used to cover some zones of pitch where there wasn't grass, so I'm not that surprised about Balotelli's problem.

[lets all have a disco]

Allergic to certain types of grass,Madness.
Next well sign a player who is allergic to sweat.

robinho??

Ha ha forgot we'd had one.

Only us eh?

[ono]

This thread shows that only around half a dozen City fans on this forum have the ability to think for themselves.

Check out Balotelli's distance covered and compare it to other top forwards in the league.

Check out his goals to minute ratio

Then check out how other supposedly top class forwards perform when spending the majority of their game time out on the wing.

Then go back and look at his bookings and sending off. Forget that the incident involves Balotelli, and then form an opinion on whether he deserved to be punished.

Then spend a little bit of time reading up on allergens

[Ted Hughes]

This thread shows that only around half a dozen City fans on this forum have the ability to think for themselves.

Check out Balotelli's distance covered and compare it to other top forwards in the league.

Check out his goals to minute ratio

Then check out how other supposedly top class forwards perform when spending the majority of their game time out on the wing.

Then go back and look at his bookings and sending off. Forget that the incident involves Balotelli, and then form an opinion on whether he deserved to be punished.

Then spend a little bit of time reading up on allergens

Unfortunately, players with Balotelli's temperament often get treated badly by refs. Ref's are usually wankers & if they can get on the good side of the media by punishing someone 'different 'like Balotelli, they will do. He gives the official a chance to issue a yellow or red card almost every game by childishly kicking out a foot at somebody & they take it.

[Hazy2]

I thought he did a decent job yesterday. Saw him chase the ball a few times, held the ball pretty well and overall showed he wanted to play, even if he reacted stroppy at times.
The slacking him off is uncalled for. Yes, it looked amaturistic when he wasn't on the pitch. However, it was fairly evident he was struggling. Sure, it is funny that he's alergic to certain types of grass, but I don't think any of us will find it more annoying than himself.

I think we've become a bit spoiled the last few months.

I've never heard something like that before, but just last Sunday one Lazio player had to come off just after half time because he was allergic to the green paint used to cover some zones of pitch where there wasn't grass, so I'm not that surprised about Balotelli's problem.

Guesing here maybe this is that case where the little kid sees it on telly and next thing I have got it. Whatever I tend to think he was that pissed of he thought I must walk off or I am gonna be sent off ASAP.

[ronk]

I don't think I'll ever understand the level of vitriol and passionate hatred of Balotelli. All told he hasn't actually done a lot specific but he has somehow managed to wind up some people.

I think the fact that the revelation that he was having an allergic reaction hasn't changed anything shows just how much they have it in for him. He was trying to play on but clearly struggling. It's hard to play football when you can't see properly.

I don't know what the answer is, he's scoring goals and putting in moments of incredible skill, his work-rate is standing up. But I'm watching City fans wanting to see him get taken out in a tackle or get a red card.

He gets absolutely floored in a tackle from behind that should have been a booking, he shrugs it off and doesn't roll around or feign injury, everyone still thinks he has the worst attitude they've ever seen and wishes him doom and unmitigated failure while trying to outdo each other in making outlandish accusations to explain events.

[Sister of fu]

This thread shows that only around half a dozen City fans on this forum have the ability to think for themselves.

Check out Balotelli's distance covered and compare it to other top forwards in the league.

Check out his goals to minute ratio

Then check out how other supposedly top class forwards perform when spending the majority of their game time out on the wing.

Then go back and look at his bookings and sending off. Forget that the incident involves Balotelli, and then form an opinion on whether he deserved to be punished.

Then spend a little bit of time reading up on allergens

The issue I have is him being a soft cunt, could you see Nigel De Jong for instance leaving the field because he has an allegedly?? Not a chance in hell. I suffer very bad hay fever but you would never in a million years get me leaving the pitch because I felt the effects of it. I’m not buying this nonsense about him being allergic to the grass, IMO he couldn’t be arsed playing in -5 conditions and needs to give his head a serious wobble or fuck off away from the club.

Yeah he is talented I grant you that but he is a liability who decides when and if he can be bothered turning up and sorry we can’t afford to carry someone who as the centre of his own bizarre bubble. We are at the business end of our season and we need “everyone” pulling in the same direction not this bell end saying everyone “look at me”. I don’t like to slag players but I am at the end of my tether with this immature wanker.

[kinkylola]

I also think in the first half, he was about the only player who even attempted to drive at the opposition defense.

as a team we played absolutely shit, no question about that. If you want to make a huge deal about balotelli, then that's on you. As someone else said earlier in the thread, he was still miles better than dzeko in that game.

Not everyone is going to put in a shift like tevez ... lots of midfielders in the league don't even try that hard.

Hey may be a cunt, but he's our cunt and we should support him, end of. Not look for every excuse to slag him off. By the way, he's our second leading goal scorer, and he's been injured for almost half the season.

[kinkylola]

I don't think I'll ever understand the level of vitriol and passionate hatred of Balotelli. All told he hasn't actually done a lot specific but he has somehow managed to wind up some people.

I think the fact that the revelation that he was having an allergic reaction hasn't changed anything shows just how much they have it in for him. He was trying to play on but clearly struggling. It's hard to play football when you can't see properly.

I don't know what the answer is, he's scoring goals and putting in moments of incredible skill, his work-rate is standing up. But I'm watching City fans wanting to see him get taken out in a tackle or get a red card.

He gets absolutely floored in a tackle from behind that should have been a booking, he shrugs it off and doesn't roll around or feign injury, everyone still thinks he has the worst attitude they've ever seen and wishes him doom and unmitigated failure while trying to outdo each other in making outlandish accusations to explain events.

this sounds familiar to me ...

[Slim]

This thread shows that only around half a dozen City fans on this forum have the ability to think for themselves.

Check out Balotelli's distance covered and compare it to other top forwards in the league.

Check out his goals to minute ratio

Then check out how other supposedly top class forwards perform when spending the majority of their game time out on the wing.

Then go back and look at his bookings and sending off. Forget that the incident involves Balotelli, and then form an opinion on whether he deserved to be punished.

Then spend a little bit of time reading up on allergens

Or maybe half a dozen posters are blind and can't see what everyone else apparently does.

And a poster with a whole 6 posts to his name should learn the difference before assuming he is one of those who can "think for himself".

That being said, still undecided on him but his last performance does make it harder to defend him.

[kinkylola]

what about the last performance makes it hard to defend him exactly? I don't see it

[Slim]

what about the last performance makes it hard to defend him exactly? I don't see it

Well for about 20 minutes I thought we were playing with 10 men(actually 9, Dzeko was kind of anonymous too), then for the next 25 I wished we were. Then half time.

Then at the start of the second half, we were playing with 10 men, because he failed to return to the pitch for the start of the second half, then he played for a couple of minutes and kept feeling his face and got subbed off. Of course, once Tevez was on we actually looked like we could mount an attack finally. So I suppose in his absence he did some good work.

What exactly did you see in the performance that was so good?

[failsworthblue]

He is no angel and is barking mad, he has talent (see the way he took the ball down from behind him last night on the left wing with the outside of his foot) but he is young and it not being played consistently in the right position, neither is Tevez, neither is Dzeko. Herein lies the problem, we swap and change the team around WAY too much. As Townsend said last night, Mancini needs to know his strongest line up and use it, he just isn’t doing that now. Personally I think that Tevez and Dzeko (although it is no coincidence that we are not seeing his fully potential either) play better with each other as shown last night to a minor degree. Now for all his troubles Balotelli WAS actually ill last night and did at least try to put in a decent shift in most of the first half, some of the comments in this thread are way over the mark. The main point about last night is that we were CRAP as a TEAM, almost every last one of them was poor and likely because our tactics are all over the place. Balotelli is being made a scapegoat to some degree, he is arrogant, mad and not playing too well the way he is being played, but lets not blame everything on him. I would almost guarantee that which ever manager (Mancini or not) plays him in the right position with the right tactical setup around him will enable him to become a GREAT, whether he can fit in our team or not is a different matter currently. One thing though, if we did get rid, he will likely be following Carlos of the door at the end of the season, Dzeko and Jo up front then...

Totally agree mate
The tatics are completely wrong.
We have the slowest midfield in the world at the moment and no width , with centre forwards playing on the wing.
Not the palyers imo!

[Goataldo]

this just in:

"Roberto Mancini has confirmed that many City fans suffered an allergic reaction to Mario Balotelli, during Manchester City's 2-0 defeat to Dynamo Kiev.

Balotelli was given an antihistamine injection during half-time after his face swelled up, and was eventually taken off shortly before the hour mark in some discomfort. This enraged many supporters watching at home, who apparently thought his puffed up face was 'some sort of badly contorted sulk', and his noticably streaming eyes, were due to the fact that he 'doesn't like the cold'.

He was constantly rubbing his face and is believed to be allergic to certain kinds of grass.

"Mario had an allergy, I don't know what, his face was swollen, I don't know why," Mancini said. "He wanted to play in the second half but he had this problem 10 seconds before coming out.

"I came out a minute before the players and I didn't see Mario. He then said he could play but his face was swollen."

Mancini is yet to confirm whether Balotelli will be in contention to face Reading in the FA Cup on Saturday, as he may well have been publically lynched by then"

Ok, he had a shit game, along with many others. He also was as mad as we knew he was already. I'm not quite ready to put the boot in yet. And if he suffered a bad genuine reaction, it's a tad harsh to crucify him.

On another note (didn't see this mentioned) didn't Andy Dibble suffer a nasty reaction to the paint used for line markings once, and have quite a spell out? Will have a look for the story...