Much of the criticism of Balotelli I read here is just an echo chamber of tv pundit nonsense.
First off he has barely played for months, just late sub appearances. Second when he was playing, the entire team was poor, not just him. Rodgers admitted this when he pointed out a short while back that the team needed to get back to a faster pressing style of play. If nine other outfielders had been doing this in Aug, Sept, Oct and November we wouldn't be in 8th spot right now.
In his last three sub appearances his impact on our attacking play when he came on has been massive. In the United game he was desperately unlucky not to score, against Wimbledon, his arrival turned the game away from Wimbledon who were pressing with impunity. This weekend against Sunderland, we went from toothless with Borini doing the square root of fuck all, to exciting and aggressive.
The unwillingness to give him a start ahead of Borini and Lambert at this point is mystifying. In any case, like others, I want to see him play with Sturridge, see if we don't see the level of play we saw against Spurs that had everyone wetting their pants.