Liverpool have drawn up a three man shortlist of West Ham’s Diafra Sakho, West Brom’s Saido Berahino and Porto’s Jackson Martinez to replace Mario Balotelli in January, according to reports.
Balotelli has been a major disappointment since his £16million summer move from AC Milan, scoring just two goals in 14 apperances in all competitions.
The Italian has missed the Reds last five matches with a groin problem, and during that time has been charged by the FA over a post on social media that used racist and anti-semitic language.
Brendan Rodgers has started to lose patience with the 24-year-old already according to widespread reports, and has identified three possible replacements ahead of the January transfer window.
Berahino and Sakho have been scoring regularly in the Premier League this season, whilst Martinez has been scoring goals for fun both in Portugal and in the Champions League.
And Rodgers sounded less than enthusiastic when recent discussing the Italian striker.
He said: “As a club we felt that was the solution at the time. Obviously Daniel Sturridge has shown in his career so far that he gets injuries. We had Rickie Lambert. Fabio Borini was looking as though he was gone so it would have been unfair to leave Rickie, as a 32-year-old, as the only striker we had. But although I felt signing Mario was a risk, as a group we couldn’t afford not to at the time.”
