by Mark Bassey

Mario Balotelli was the topic of discussion on Thursday night. And it was not about his match-winning penalty.

The controversial Italian, who started the game from the bench, grabbed the ball from stand-in skipper Jordan Henderson, after Jordon Ibe was clipped in the area.

Balotelli of course has a good record from the spot. He calmly tucked away the spot-kick and Liverpool take a slender advantage into their away game at Besiktas.

Reds captain Steven Gerrard, who was a pundit on ITV for the match, blasted the striker for taking responsibility off Henderson and called him mischievous. But manager Brendan Rodgers has calmed the troubled waters.

Rodgers told a news conference: “If the three players are on the field, you have Steven and Mario as your top two. But neither of them were on at the start, so you have to nominate someone.

“Jordan was the penalty taker. But when we got a penalty, Mario was on the field, so Jordan gave the penalty to him. There was no issue.

“What you don’t like to see is four or five players around the ball looking to take a penalty. It was maybe the etiquette that was not as we would have liked last night, but we got the end result.”

One wonders what the furore was about in the first place. You get the impression that Liverpool are desperate for Henderson to take over from Gerrard. But we know he is not half as good.

ifreke

Ifreke Inyang is a public commentator and social media critic who has worked with a number of high profile publications across the country.