Two yellow cards in just eighteen minutes at Anfield, leaves mindless Balotelli once again asking: "Why always me?"

Bar the fireworks and the catalogue of off the field issues that comes with the Mario Balotelli package, it was all going so well for the Italian on the pitch.

The firework episode was still resonating in everybody’s minds when he scored his 5th and 6th goals in a 5 game run to contribute so significantly to the 1-6 thrashing. “Why Always Me?” he asked nonchalantly after his side footed finish opened the scoring on that seismic day, but it took 35 days for him to provide his own answer to that particular poser at Anfield on Sunday, he reverted back to the spectacularly idiotic Balotelli that attracts the spotlight like no other.

The striker was coming off a run of nine goals in ten games, including one in a poor individual display against Napoli in midweek, and was beginning to look like a genuine footballer, the one that has threatened so often in patches only to be let down by baffling stupidity and indicating that he does possess the talent that has Roberto Mancini persistently sifting through the lunacy in order to unearth it. His disappointing night in Naples was probably reason enough to jettison his trusted disciple in favour of Samir Nasri, but when Mancini called on his substitute with Manchester City’s game with Liverpool poised at 1-1, he would not have expected, even in the context of Balotelli’s wildest moments, that his player would proceed to attract two cautions, in a six minute spell between 77 and 83 minutes, and be heading back into the direction of the dressing room a mere 18 minutes later, leaving his team-mates to desperately hang on to a point courtesy of the miraculous reflexes of his goalkeeper Joe Hart.

Mancini has of course been here before, the petulant dismissal with his team trailing a 2-1 aggregate deficit to Dynamo Kiev in last season’s Europa League or even his sudden dramatic phobia of grass which saw him avoid responsibility in the first leg out in Ukraine which has put his team in severe hindrance. The ridiculous has often come hand-in-hand with the sublime, two goals at West Brom last November were followed by his first red card in English football, while the ridiculous has also been known to stand alone; his last trip to Anfield saw him substituted on and then off to cap a torrid night, while Mancini showed even the most stringent of patience can wear thin as he immediately hauled Balotelli off for attempting the most ludicrous of back-heels when on a pre-season jaunt of America. 

His talent has never been in question; he was handed his Inter Milan debut at the age of 17 in a 2-0 win away at Cagliari in 2007 and scored twice three days later in a 4-1 win at Reggina, going on to be part of the Scudetto winning Inter Milan side of that year. Nevertheless, the frustrations that came with the striker always seemed to betray his promising development, Jose Mourinho was vocal in his disdain for Balotelli on numerous occasions, including his inability to train well, eventually leading to Mourinho to abandon his patience with the young Italian after his long run of barmy episodes hit a nadir with the Champions League semi-final over Barcelona, marring celebrations by throwing his shirt to the ground and inviting a physical confrontation with supporters.

Things were never easy for Balotelli in Italy; he was promoted to the full Inter Milan side early by Roberto Mancini, now his manager at Manchester City, only to attract a negative reception not based on performances, but by the colour of his skin. Scoring in a 1-1 draw away at Juventus, he was subjected to taunts from the Bianconera who claimed that “black Italians do not exist”, leading to a partial attendance ban for Juventus fans. Following his turbulent childhood where he experienced a premature split from his natural parents as a result of medical problems as an infant, he was perceived as an outsider upon his breakthrough to Italian professional football and such volatile indifference made it very difficult for him to settle. Losing Mancini, who had instilled a huge amount of faith in the youngster, at the end of his debut season, was a blow, initiating a series of confrontations and scrapes with the equally egotistical Mourinho.

But it was Mancini’s faith that refused to wane and his devotion to the player was typified by his £24 million signing in the August of 2010 and just over a year of madness later, Mancini still refuses to buckle to the increasingly common perception that his trust in Balotelli is misguided. Since being in England, Balotelli has picked up 16 bookings and three red cards from a total of 38 Manchester City appearances, to put this into context, Sunderland’s much maligned Lee Cattermole has 45 bookings from 141 career appearances and only two more dismissals to his name than Balotellli. Even during his recent resurgence as an integral member to the City title charge, he has acquired five bookings from his last seven games, a strike rate as prescient as any that he is nowhere near curbing his fractious character that is so often to the detriment to the team, as it were on Merseyside on Sunday evening. As his arm wrapped around the skull of Martin Skrtel, Martin Atkinson prepared to produce the fifth red card of 21 year old Balotelli’s four year career. 

Still Mancini’s belief that one day he will eventually cut shy of the wild antics refuses to wilt, as he stood on the touchline concealing his anger enough to calmly usher his striker down the tunnel there was a sense of severe disappointment but again, with the words of “we have no problem” in the aftermath of the incident which took a further caveat with news that Balotelli’s infuriation had extended enough to damage the away dressing room door at Anfield, summoned admiration of his loyal refusal to condemn his charge but also feelings of exasperation that the protagonist of this drama is so blind to the effect the Italian protagonist is having on his team. Much is documented of Mancini’s luxury that he affords Balotelli’s genius in the same realm as Sir Alex Ferguson associated to Eric Cantona, letting him miss the FA Cup victory parade to visit his Italian home, while he was allowed to stay on in Italy after the defeat to Naples on Tuesday, but what the manager seemingly cannot see is that unlike Cantona with Ferguson, he is reaping not match-winning ingenuity but frustrating naivety. 

Mancini did go onto claim that Balotelli’s sending off was heavily influenced by the reaction of Liverpool’s players, that of immediate crowding and Skrtel’s penchant for writhing in agony to an impact that, to the most rational of neutral, was in the aftermath of the minimalist of contact, However, similarly to past incidents that spring to the memory, Swedish midfielder Pontus Wernbloom’s ridiculous over-reaction to a miniscule kick by the Italian in the under 21 European championships of 2009, courtesy of a simple internet search, would be a case in point; that the troublesome reputation Balotelli has endeavoured to build up is now to his hindrance. Rather than the ferocious talent that is promised us in little glimpses, we still have this tormented footballer chained to the wall by his wild antics. However, not in any time soon, does Mancini seem willing to give up on him.