Should Liverpool really sell this out-of-favour forward?

He has played for a number of big European clubs over the years including Inter Milan, AC Milan and Manchester City, and currently is still a Liverpool player despite spending last season at the San Siro.

Despite being rather lacklustre under Brendan Rodgers, should Jurgen Klopp stick with the troublesome Italian or look to offload him as is very much expected?

His form has been anything but consistent through most points of his career, but nevertheless, Balotelli is most definitely a big-game performer. Possessing these types of players in your squad should not be undervalued.

Scoring two goals in the Euro 2012 semi-finals to knock out Germany, scoring a hat-trick for Man City in the Manchester Derby, scoring the winner against England in the 2014 World Cup group stages, and providing the title winning assist to Sergio Aguero against QPR – clearly Mario Balotelli is quite often the man for the big occasion.

He has not necessarily done it for Liverpool during his sole season to date at Anfield, but he never really featured in any massive ties for the Reds, although having said that he did score the winner against Tottenham Hotspur.

Furthermore, if the match goes to penalties, Balotelli is one of the most reliable players from the spot in world football with an unerring confidence and coolness from 12 yards. To the casual observer, his run-up is hardly convincing, but it almost always leads to the ‘keeper being out-foxed by the enigmatic Italian.

With Belgian forward Christian Benteke seemingly out the door at Anfield after just one year on Merseyside, Liverpool will be left with just three senior strikers in their squad – namely Daniel Sturrridge, Divock Origi and Danny Ings, but of course both Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino can adeptly fill in. The departure of Jerome Sinclair to Watford just compiles the problem.

With the return of Balotelli from loan, Liverpool would be almost gifted that fourth striker to their squad who can provide cover should the other three suffer an injury or lose form.

It could of course be argued that another player can be bought this summer to add to Liverpool’s attacking talent, but Balotelli is a safe guarantee whereas any new player may not be willing to sign or could be a massive waste of money.

Extracting the best out of him has been a task that many highly rated managers have struggled to do consistently, including Roberto Mancini and Jose Mourinho no less.

Jurgen Klopp may fancy the challenge of being the man to get the very best out of the Italian, and his very best is certainly something worth having in your side.

Despite Balotelli’s undoubted ability with a football, consistent is not a word you would use to describe his career. Mario is one of those players that can be absolute world beater one week, and an effective waste of a player on the pitch the next.

This makes him a very unreliable man to have at the tip of your attack and unless he manages to find a good, consistent vein of form, he will struggle to get anywhere near Klopp’s starting XI especially considering the stiff competition he has for the place.

One of the key features of a Jurgen Klopp team is Gegenpressing, or as Jurgen Klinsmann once called it “immediate recovery football.”

Basically, the tactic implores immediately pressing the opposition when you don’t have possession, which requires bundles of energy to hopefully wear the other team out and keep them under constant pressure. Certain players are naturally suited to this style of play, and unfortunately for Klopp and Liverpool, Balotelli most certainly is not.

Mario spends most of his time on the pitch walking let alone jogging and sprinting to win back possession for his team, so a lot of work would need to go in at Melwood to get Balotelli to adapt to Liverpool’s style of play.

Furthermore, strikers that have succeeded at Anfield over the past decade tend to be fast, nimble and prolific players like Fernando Torres, Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge.

Bigger, more physically powerful strikers (the category Balotelli falls into) haven’t tended to do so well, as Liverpool fans won’t have such rosy memories of Andy Carroll and Christian Benteke’s Anfield careers for example.

In addition, Balotelli is no stranger to having a crazy story written about him – take the Italian setting off a firework in his bathroom for example, or driving around with thousands of pound’s worth of cash on the car-seat next to him.

He is one of the biggest and strangest characters in world football, which doesn’t always yield great results on or off the pitch. You could not see Balotelli being part of a strong team network like what Leicester City had last term, as his character is much like marmite.

Also, because he has quite a large ego to say the least, he has been known to fall out with his fellow team members in the past, with the training ground spat with his manager Roberto Mancini at Manchester City being the highest profile example.

At times he can be brilliant, but when it isn’t going well he has the same problem as Nick Kyrgios in tennis; he tends to keep the head down and give up rather than fight right until the end.

So, should Liverpool sell Balotelli? Despite the advantages of keeping him on, I ultimately think they should as he simply doesn’t fit into Liverpool’s current system.