It was a case of improve or enjoy the bench for the next few months

Most footballers simply want to play football week in, week out, and it was looking like that option was pretty much over for Balotelli.

With the return of Sturridge not to mention the fact that Rodgers seemed to be trying out Borini and Lambert up top instead of the former AC Milan player, Balotelli only had one option.

Said option was to play his way back in to the side – and make sure that he did the business in training as well to give Rodgers no room to criticise.