Why always him? Mario misses late sitter

As the Italian trudged off having missed the injury-time chance to end Liverpool's stalemate with Hull City, the judgement on his performance was more compassionate than critical. He did not score, created no goals, and if he has a T-shirt in readiness of his next celebration, it remains redundant.

But this was not the fixture for snipers to take aim. It would take a leap of imagination to call it a great performance, but compared to what has gone before, it might make Brendan Rodgers release some party poppers.

Whatever happens, Balotelli cannot stop being the chief protagonist. You might want to talk about someone else, turn your gaze elsewhere, and then there he will pop up with the last kick of the game, just the goalkeeper to beat, the chance to be the hero. He should have been the match winner. You have to make it about him. Again.

He is the focus when he plays and the focus when he does not. But he was more involved than he has been for a while. His link-up play and application did not bewilder, but it met the compulsory standard for a striker of pedigree.

His best opportunity came in the fourth minute of injury time when Philippe Coutinho presented the Italian with what appeared to be a tap-in. Instead, he fluffed his lines and Hull's third-choice goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic made the last of several crucial interventions.

The first signs of encouragement arrived three minutes in when Balotelli closed down Hull's James Chester. The Kop applauded. It was rather like the giddy excitement you show your child when he first learns to walk. Small acorns, giant oaks.

"He worked very hard today," said Rodgers. "Maybe he thought he wasn't going to play, but you have to stay with it. Unfortunately, that wee bit of confidence is lacking without a goal. Goalscorers will tell you that is where they get their energy from - the ball hitting the net. He was just a bit unlucky he did not get it."

Balotelli was more effective in the final stages once Rodgers had introduced Rickie Lambert to work in partnership.

This is not a scientific calculation, but it was probably the 30th tactical switch Rodgers has made this season. He must be averaging at least three a game, and herein lies another of Liverpool's problems.

Working out how to get the best out of this personnel is not straightforward. It was similar last year, but Rodgers had Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez breaking deadlocks from 25 yards. There is an irony that Liverpool's first Premier League clean sheet at Anfield this season came on the day they were all huff and puff without a lightness of touch in attack.

For this, credit Hull. There will not be many sides facing Arsenal and Liverpool away in successive weeks and emerging unbeaten. There was not much attacking thrust, but Steve Bruce was swift and just to point out that for all the congratulation directed at Jakupovic, he was not overly exerted.

"He made saves you would expect him to make," said Bruce. "But he stood up to the task and he will always remember he kept a clean sheet at Anfield."

The Swiss 'keeper's best work bookended the game. He produced a brilliant save to stop Dejan Lovren opening the scoring with a bullet header after 10 minutes and pushed a Balotelli drive wide three minutes later.

It was another 60 minutes before there was another home surge, when Jakupovic denied Coutinho and Balotelli. In the meantime, Alex Bruce made a goal-saving challenge on Steven Gerrard.

Rodgers has been staying up until 4.30am trying to work out how to solve Liverpool's problems. The first thing he needs to do is get Sturridge back.

Beyond that, at least he now has some video evidence of Balotelli engaging in the minimum requirement of not only keeping his shirt on for 90 minutes, but putting some sweat on it.

Telegraph