Rodgers admits Balotelli was a risk

Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has admitted he took a calculated risk when he signed Mario Balotelli from AC Milan.

Liverpool who spent 16 million on Balotelli have failed to see a return on their investment after a slow start from the striker.

Balotelli has failed to score in the Premier League and has only scored 1 goal in 9 games.

"I always said it was about availability and affordability of players," said Rodgers.

"Mario was the one right at the very end who was available for that. I said when he came in that it was a calculated risk and it’s something I have to work on to try to make it work for the team.

"You assess what the group had. We brought in Rickie Lambert as someone who can play some games for us and come off the bench and be an impact player for us in certain games.

"Daniel is a top Premier League player but has shown during his time here that he does get injuries so we needed to prepare for that. Obviously Fabio Borini looked like he was on his way out [to Sunderland].

"We had attempts for other strikers that didn’t materialise for one reason or another so it left us right at the end of the window with a decision on whether just to go with what we had, when experience told us we were too light, or take a calculated risk on a player who has quality and then could we get it out of him consistently?"