I like the question, redrob, but I don’t think it’s any reflection on Rodgers or Klopp. Many other managers, including Mourinho have failed to harness his talents. As mwake says, he’s at a smaller club where he is undoubtedly the main man, the crowd idol and the subject of the media talk all the time. He was competing with various other egos when he was at Anfield, and also to be fair playing in a struggling team in a much more competitive and high quality league. The French league is pretty poor, bar one or two clubs. As I heard somebody say yesterday talking about the Spanish league, you don’t get players of the quality of Payet and Shaqiri playing in mid table teams in any other league other than the Premier League.
Balotelli couldn’t handle it.