Football
ESPN staff 9y

Mario Balotelli still targeting title for Liverpool this season

Mario Balotelli admits that he needs to improve his form in front of goal if Liverpool are to challenge for the Premier League title and if he wants to earn a recall to the Italy national side.

Balotelli, 24, has scored just one goal in eight games since joining from AC Milan in the summer and was consequently left out of Antonio Conte's Azzurri squad for the recent Euro 2016 qualifiers against Azerbaijan and Malta.

Liverpool currently sit ninth in the Premier League table with 10 points from seven games and Balotelli admits that there are certain areas of his game that he needs to work on if he is to prove a success at Anfield.

Asked whether he feels Liverpool can achieve a spot in the top four, he told Sport magazine: "I hope so. But I am focused and I want to work on us winning the league, not coming in the first four places.

"No one is in this competition to try and lose it, everybody plays to win, and I think Chelsea and Man City are the teams we need to aim for. We have to give our best, and whatever happens will happen, but I hope we can come very close to the Premier League title.

"I can see already that the Liverpool fans really like me, although I know that maybe they are a little upset because I don't score. I see they appreciate that I am working hard, though, which is nice for me.

"I know I have one goal in the Champions League, but in the Premier League I have to start with one. After that, I might set myself a target, but I swear -- right now my first league goal is my first and only objective.

"I need to get in the box more. All the rumours I hear about that -- these ones are true. I don't do it enough, but it is something I am working to try to do more. I have never been a real, out-and-out striker -- I have always been someone who goes around the pitch, you know?"

Despite enjoying a two-and-a-half season spell with Manchester City in the Premier League, Balotelli admits that he knew little about Liverpool before putting pen to paper.

However, the Italian striker says he is impressed by the quality on display at Melwood and believes the club's core of English players could drive Liverpool to long-term success.

"I didn't really know much about the club before coming here, but I've been really surprised," he said. "I knew they were a very good team, but I didn't know they were as good as they are. Of course we need to improve many things because we have started off not very good, but I think the players here are amazing.

"It's good to see young English players here too: Sterling, Henderson, Lallana. I think the more players you have like this, the better. Maybe over time you have got used to not seeing so many good young English players like that, but now we are seeing some -- it's good that they are in my team."

Balotelli has frequently been deployed as a lone striker by Brendan Rodgers -- especially in the absence of Daniel Sturridge -- and he believes that he can significantly develop as a player under the tutelage of the Northern Irish coach.

"He [Rodgers] is very good, a strong character,"Balotell said. "And I think that comes out in the way the team plays. I think he can help me improve as a player. He is very open, everybody can talk to him -- but first he looks at the person, and second he looks at the footballer.

"If it was my choice, I would always go with two strikers. It's the way I like to play, but Brendan asked me to play as the first striker. I understand that when the ball comes from wide on the left or right, I need to be in the box otherwise there might be no-one there at all."

Balotelli came under heavy criticism following Italy's surprising World Cup group stage exit and he has not yet been called up to the national side since Conte took over from Cesare Prandelli.

However, while admitting that his recent form was not good enough, the former Milan and Inter forward believes that some of the blame was unwarranted.

"I understand why I am not in the squad," he says. "I haven't been scoring, but other players like [Graziano] Pelle and the other strikers have been. So they deserve to be there, but I love Italy and nobody can ever say anything about my national team.

"I will always love it, but I have to be honest and say I was disappointed at what people were saying and how they were blaming me after the World Cup.

"I think I had two, maybe three chances in all the tournament. Everyone knows I scored against England, but I couldn't do much else.

"Even Cesare Prandelli has said bad stuff about me. Should he be going and talking to the newspapers about me straight after a game? I did not expect that and I did not reply, because there is no point.

"I think real men, if they have something to say, then they come to you and say it to your face. I am a face-to-face person, a straight person."

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