Mario Balotelli: Page 21 - The Arsenal discussion forum and community: One More in the Tolly

Mario Balotelli

Rex

Mario needs some Wenger love. The old man has plenty of faults, for sure, but when it comes to creating a positive environment and making players feel important - then he is pretty fucking great.

kamikaze

qs! wrote:
We are talking goals. Theres not much else that matters when you're looking at a striker.

you're right, conversion rate (goals/shots) is all that matters.

as of 21 march 2014, the best striker in the premier league was.... nicklas bendtner.

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/deadliest-strikers-premier-league---6782472

Burnwinter

qs! wrote:
I don't mind us signing him but its a massive, massive gamble so it has to be priced as such. TBH I don't think he'll move cheap enough and I think there are better options available.

Yeah, ok. I think 20-25m for such a player would be sane in this market. 30m or over would be pushing it for anything other than a sure thing - but really the prices go much higher than that once we look at options who are "better" than Balotelli.

Lukaku at 25m would be a good signing for us if he can be had, which I doubt.

Biggus

Rex wrote:
Mario needs some Wenger love. The old man has plenty of faults, for sure, but when it comes to creating a positive environment and making players feel important - then he is pretty fucking great.

Don't know about that Rex, many players have said how aloof distant and conservative he is.

Cannon

Biggus wrote:
Rex wrote:
Mario needs some Wenger love. The old man has plenty of faults, for sure, but when it comes to creating a positive environment and making players feel important - then he is pretty fucking great.

Don't know about that Rex, many players have said how aloof distant and conservative he is.

If Balo LIKES football and wants to focus on it and become a successful striker, he would find Wenger anything but aloof or distant.

y va marquer

Many? Really?
I can't remember hearing of any player saying Wenger is aloof, conservative and distant.
They don't sound like words that would trip easily off a footballer's tongue 🙂
Who were these players Biggus?

I think the notion that Wenger's patience and love will have some kind of transformative and lasting effect on Balotelli is totally pie in the sky though.
If we get Balotelli we know what he's like, so we pretty much have to accept him as he is without expecting Wenger to be some kind of father figure counsellor guru.

Segway

kamikaze wrote:
qs! wrote:
We are talking goals. Theres not much else that matters when you're looking at a striker.
you're right, conversion rate (goals/shots) is all that matters.

as of 21 march 2014, the best striker in the premier league was.... nicklas bendtner.

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/deadliest-strikers-premier-league---6782472

Compare the sample size. Bendtner had like three games at that time while the stats on balotelli is based on an entire season. Have to say his conversion rate is extremely poor. In fact it's worse than Giroud's. I think people have been charmed by his flashy skills rather than his actual output.

speedy

On the pitch and off the pitch balo likes to do his own thing.

Rex

Wenger is good at creating a good learning environment, and he shows faith in players beyond what is usual among managers. The rest is up to the player of course. I think that setting would be a good match for Balotelli, but I could be totally wrong of course.

Qwiss

kamikaze wrote:
qs! wrote:
We are talking goals. Theres not much else that matters when you're looking at a striker.
you're right, conversion rate (goals/shots) is all that matters.

as of 21 march 2014, the best striker in the premier league was.... nicklas bendtner.

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/deadliest-strikers-premier-league---6782472

So you've picked one of the stupid stats. How very childish.

Qwiss

Rex wrote:
Wenger is good at creating a good learning environment, and he shows faith in players beyond what is usual among managers. The rest is up to the player of course. I think that setting would be a good match for Balotelli, but I could be totally wrong of course.

Wenger is good at that when he has players who are similar. Anyone with even a slight whiff of a dodgy attitude has left the club pretty quickly. I don't think he's ever dealt with a player like Balotelli and I'm certain that is by design.

lorddulaarsenal

Conversion rate is probably one of the more appropriate stats to use - provided you feel the team can create chances for the forward to finish.

Different matter if you're relying on the player to create chances by himself.

So many wordy posts in this thread

Slicing through all the guff spouted here, it basically boils down to Balotelli being a talented enigma who is a bit of a risk given his history

Qwiss

Conversion rate is poor stat because a striker with a 1 in 4 strike rate who takes 12 shots a game is better than a striker with a 1 in 3 rate who takes 5 shots.

Goals scored is about the only stat that matters for strikers. Maybe assists.

evoh

Conversion rate is a weird one though.

Take two similar strikers, like mandzukic and giroud and it is fine because they take similar chances.

Balotelli take all the free kick and takes a shit load of shots from distance, not all chances are created equal or taken equally.

C.Ronaldo only has a 16% conversion rate, does that make him and average finisher or is he taking low % shots more often than not?

banduan

lorddulaarsenal

qs! wrote:
Conversion rate is poor stat because a striker with a 1 in 4 strike rate who takes 12 shots a game is better than a striker with a 1 in 3 rate who takes 5 shots.

Goals scored is about the only stat that matters for strikers. Maybe assists.

Conversion rate is a good stat in that it tells you how effective the striker is when a chance is created for him. The onus is then on the team to create chances for that effective striker.

Goals scored is of course a good stat but it doesn't tell the full story. Case in point Kezman.

I think stats are used too much to argue a cause.

Klaus

evoh wrote:
Balotelli take all the free kicks

Nuff said, really.

Not sure why someone would exclude penalties from the conversion rate either, but I'm sure Ronaldo would have similar stats if you did.

y va marquer

qs! wrote:
Conversion rate is poor stat because a striker with a 1 in 4 strike rate who takes 12 shots a game is better than a striker with a 1 in 3 rate who takes 5 shots.

Goals scored is about the only stat that matters for strikers. Maybe assists.

Agreed.
Plus you can always look at a player's goals scored stat in the context of the team for whom they play if you want a better feeling as to whether a striker's worth raving about or not.

Gurgen

qs! wrote:
Rex wrote:
Wenger is good at creating a good learning environment, and he shows faith in players beyond what is usual among managers. The rest is up to the player of course. I think that setting would be a good match for Balotelli, but I could be totally wrong of course.

Wenger is good at that when he has players who are similar. Anyone with even a slight whiff of a dodgy attitude has left the club pretty quickly. I don't think he's ever dealt with a player like Balotelli and I'm certain that is by design.

Van Persie?

Captain

Nasri too as a recent example.

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