Former Liverpool captain Paul Ince believes Brendan Rodgers should sell Mario Balotelli as quickly as possible.
The Italian striker has only scored twice since making a £16million move from AC Milan in the summer, and is yet to open his Premier League account.
He returned to action after six matches out with a groin injury on Sunday, coming on as a second half substitute during the Reds 3-0 defeat to Manchester United.
And despite having seven shots in just 45 minutes, the Italian still failed to find the net – and Ince thinks it’s time for the Reds to cut their losses.
“It was a strange decision bringing Balotelli in,” he told talkSPORT. “Brendan [Rodgers] thought he could take that gamble because of losing Luis Suarez to Barcelona but if Jose Mourinho couldn’t control him and Roberto Mancini couldn’t control him then I don’t understand why Brendan thought he could.
“I just watched him play yesterday and he plays for himself. You can see the frustration in the other players. There was a time when he could have put another player in but he didn’t.
“It seems like people are frightened to say something to him in case he goes the other way. They keep saying what a great, talented player he is but I’m yet to see it.
“I think the quicker Brendan Rodgers sees it and can get rid of him the better, to be honest, and the better it will be for everyone because there is a lack of spirit in that Liverpool side.”
Paul Ince knows nothing. He has had two attempts at management and failed twice. The only time we looked likely to score against Manchester United was when Balotelli came on. Sterling is a great dribbler of the ball, but striker he aint. He had 3 golden opportunities to score and fluffed his lines every time. Balotelli came on late because he is still not fully fit, still recovering from a groin strain, but his shots were hard and accurate, unfortunately De Gea was playing out of his skin. As to Ince’s accusation that Balotelli is a bad influence in the dressing room,[not reported here] that is pure fantasy. No such accusation has come out of the club and if you go onto the LFC website and watch the squad training, you can see Balotelli is right in with all the horseplay and banter.