Mario Balotelli has demonstrated the right attitude and desire to succeed as a Liverpool player, according to the club’s assistant manager Colin Pascoe.The Italy international has mustered just one goal in 11 appearances since his £16m move to Anfield from AC Milan in the summer.
Speaking ahead of Liverpool’s Capital One Cup fourth-round match with Swansea at Anfield on Tuesday, Pascoe insisted the club’s staff will help Balotelli recapture his best form.
“He works hard, he is a great talent and every day on the training pitch you can see he wants to do more,” Pascoe said. “At the end he is always asking to do more things.
“Everything will be alright with Mario because you know his hunger is there and he wants to win.
“After every training session he wants to do shooting, passing – he wants to do everything, to work on his game. We as coaches will help him that way.”
But Pascoe refused to be drawn on whether the 24-year-old striker would feature in the clash against Garry Monk’s side on Tuesday night
“We have strikers and midfielders who can step in as we rotate it,” he said.
“It is not all about Mario here – you have (fellow strikers) Rickie Lambert or Fabio Borini that can step in. It may be one for Mario, but we’ll just wait and assess everyone and decide then.”
And asked about using Balotelli alongside someone rather than as a lone frontman, Pascoe said: “With Mario and Rickie working together and linking up, it worked well, and when Daniel (Sturridge) gets back, the three of them can cause a problem to any team.
“At Tottenham (a 3-0 win) with Mario and Daniel up front we put in our best performance of the season so far – that worked well.”
When asked if there were long-term fitness concerns about England international Sturridge, Pascoe said: “No, not at all. He is a great pro, he looks after himself well and he has just been unfortunate.”
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