El Shaarawy is a beast i agree, but you really can't compare Milan's midfield to that of Juventus or Napoli for that matter.
Milan's team primarily consists of older players that used to be good once upon a time, I really don't think that was the best place for him to play in terms of him growing as a player

Also doesn't even mention El Shaarawy.

Kaka was actually pretty good last year. And the others do the job in Serie A. Sure, there's well below their peaks, but compared to the other Serie A midfields, it's still one of the best.

Muntari Essien Kaka and Robinho are all washed up dude

Jericho says

he never really had anyone strong at AC Milan to support his style of play

You what? Midfield is about the only place where AC Milan are actually decent now.

Montolivo, De Jong, Poli, Muntari, Essien, and of course, Kaka and Robinho??

(Yes, some have left now, but this was last year)

he never really had anyone strong at AC Milan to support his style of play plus Milan's manager really doesn't compare to BR lol. He doesn't need to fill anyone's boots, just be himself minus his antics. That should be fine. The fact he has agreed to what looks like a highly incentivised contract and taking 50% wage cut explains a desire from his part to become a better player. So lets just hoping that transformation can come at Liverpool.

Football nerds

Balotelli's just the naughty kid at school that gets praise for not beating up the other kids. All of the other kids don't really understand why their good behaviour goes unnoticed for the whole time that this is happening.

"You would never have expected to have seen Balotelli defending a corner"

"I know Martin, this is a new side to Balotelli we're seeing!"

"Maybe he's worth his price tag after all!"

As for Balotelli carrying a team, that's exactly what AC Milan signed him to do.

They finished in eighth last year. 45 points behind Juventus, after a year even worse than Manchester United's.

British people are so cute :)

Nah, Suarez always had the ability, just not the discipline. He managed to keep his discipline for an entire season (til the world cup, ha ha).

Balotelli, even ignoring his horrible discipline, is still nothing like the player Suarez is.

At City, Balotelli was behind Aguero and Dzeko in the pecking order, and that was on merit. Aguero was one of the best strikers in the PL before his recent injury crises, but Suarez is most definitely well above Edin Dzeko, and Balotelli isn't.

I don't know anyone that said that about Suarez. They just said he was a dirty bugger and they didn't want him at their club. This was before he carried them through the entire season.

Not to mention the fact that Origi looks really sharp with the ball and would probably link up really well with Sterling, Sturridge and Lallana

yeah, but we've won two games out of 3 as of right now, the only two teams i'm scared off are chelsea and city. We've done well so far but the seasons only begun. People said somewhat the same thing about suarez last season after he got banned for a bit for biting ivanovic that he really wasn't someone who could win a club the title (this was shortly after the 12-13 season ended) and he turned out to be a phenomenal striker. We all know that balotelli's got the potential to carry a team singlehandedly, he just needs the right guidance and BR seems like the right man to mentor him

I don't really understand why you signed Origi and then instantly loaned him back to Lille for the season. I'd rather have taken a chance on blooding him like he did to Sterling, as he had the pace and the potential to be great. Now, you only have three centre forwards. Balotelli, Sturridge, Lambert. If Sturridge gets a big injury, are you going to play a Balotelli-Lambert combination? Not in a million years.

Mikalis is right.

You've got the same problem we had last season. We signed so many midfielders that it just meant they were being juggled and nothing really blended.

Mate, Balotelli is one of the most inconsistent players out there. He's had so many games for the scum in the past where he didn't even turn up. I believe that he'll be more of a team player under Rodgers because of his old fashioned approach to man management, but you won't even notice him in a lot of games.

He has ability, but as Mika said, he's certainly nowhere near close to Suarez. He's not got the pace and he often looks sluggish on the ball. He was tracking back against us on the weekend, which is something that he didn't really do much of in the past.

However, even if he's not lazy for you this season, he is not the sort of player that can win a title. Neither is Sturridge. Liverpool's focus should be on Raheem Sterling if they're going to take anything away from the 2014-2015 campaign.

You may have signed half of Southampton's squad, but Lambert is nothing more than a utility man at Liverpool and is too slow to be a first team player in a BR side. Lallana is good, but how do you fit Lallana, Coutinho, Sterling, Sturridge and Balotelli all into a side? Same problem as United have.

Lovren is also pretty good, but I'm still not convinced by Sakho, and Skrtel is better up front than in defence.

Edit: Forgot, add Markovic to that list of players to try to cram in.

Balo took a 50% cut in his wages to show that he's infact a changed man + we signed half of southamptons squad, who were all great signings. Balo needs just a little bit of time to make that impact since he needs to get used to the club, im sure he'll be great

Come to think of it, 4-2-3-1 actually makes more sense now that I know RVP is out for 8 months.

Harrold says

To be honest, I'm pretty sure they got Di Maria in to provide a boost. It probably led to the signing of Falcao, showing that United had big plans for the current season.

Di Maria was quality in the world cup, for the short amount of time that he played, and I'm sure that he'll be a beast this season. The thing is, even with your 4-3-1-2 prediction, I still feel like the squad lacks the right sort of shape.

And the 4-2-3-1?

To be honest, I'm pretty sure they got Di Maria in to provide a boost. It probably led to the signing of Falcao, showing that United had big plans for the current season.

Di Maria was quality in the world cup, for the short amount of time that he played, and I'm sure that he'll be a beast this season. The thing is, even with your 4-3-1-2 prediction, I still feel like the squad lacks the right sort of shape.

Liverpool won't make the top four after the CL starts to tire them out. Suarez had a fear factor that they just haven't replaced. Sturridge is good, but he's no sole striker, which is why he never succeeded as a solo striker at Chelsea or Man City.

Balotelli usually has a good start then turns into a laughing stock, and I don't understand why, having got rid of Suarez, Brendan Rodgers decided to get the only striker in the world with as bad a reputation as to match that of Suarez.

Liverpool aren't improving though.

Kaboul was switched off in that game and we lost any impetus going forward because of the early goal. Liverpool shut up shop and kept 10 men behind the ball. That game could have gone a completely different way if not for a few things that happened early on.

As for last season, we were nowhere to be seen against the top four teams.

I mean, I totally agree that Vidal would have been a much more useful signing than Di Maria, but Di Maria is still great. I'm not entirely convinced on Rojo, but everyone else we signed was brilliant. It's just that a top box-to-box midfielder and a world class centre back (Hummels) were the most important targets, we didn't get either.