Liverpool flop was sold after he scored own goals on purpose with team-mates fuming

Liverpool flop was sold after he scored own goals on purpose with team-mates fuming

LOOK BACK: One Liverpool cult figure knew exactly how to get under his team-mates' skin and was a nightmare to train with

Former Liverpool striker Rickie Lambert had to be kept apart from Mario Balotelli in training during their time at Anfield together. The tempestuous Italian had a habit of scoring own-goals when he felt fed up, though his team-mates struggled to find the amusing side.

Lambert, 44, moved back to his boyhood club in the summer of 2014 after Luis Suarez's dramatic exit to join Barcelona. Brendan Rodgers also brought in Balotelli, eight years younger than Lambert, to partner him in a new-look Reds attack.

Except the two frontmen making up Liverpool's attack had very different approaches when it came to their mindsets in training. Lambert was attempting to prove he belonged at Anfield given his schoolboy days at the club had been cut short, while Balotelli was already notorious for not taking much seriously in football.

And it showed in his demeanour as the former Manchester City and Inter Milan prospect failed to kick on at Anfield. Balotelli, currently playing for Al-Ittifaq in the UAE, scored just four times in 28 games for Liverpool before he was shipped off once again to Nice in 2016.

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Speaking on the Straight From the Off podcast in 2021, Lambert said: "He was a good lad, childish but infectious. But as soon as he stepped on the training pitch he became a different person.

"I’ve never seen anything like it, to be honest. At first, he gave everything when he played. But in training, I could tell he wasn’t giving his all. He was answering Brendan [Rodgers] back and my head went with that.

"The fact that he was playing in front of me didn’t bother me at first, I thought ‘I’ll get myself in’ but just seeing the way he was in training, and then he was playing, it did affect me a little bit."

He added: "My head went with him in training and I had to go in and say to Brendan, ‘Don’t put me on his team again’. I think Stevie [Gerrard] had said the same."

A report by The Standard in August 2015, shortly before Balotelli returned to AC Milan on loan, backed up those claims. In it, the Italian was said to have left both bystanders and team-mates astonished when he ripped a "jaw-dropping" goal into the back of the net from halfway.

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The only issue being it was into his own past reserve goalkeeper Brad Jones. Balotelli was featuring on the weaker side in a 10 versus 10 game at the time, likely made up of substitutes ahead of a weekend fixture against Arsenal, when his frustrations got the better of him.

That refusal (or outright inability) to not give in to certain emotions ultimately characterised Balotelli's time at Anfield and his career as a whole. And Lambert wasn't able to put up with the Italian's antics as he sought to overcome his own struggles back at his boyhood club.

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