Who needs Carlos Tevez when you’ve got Mario Balotelli?
Posted Monday, October 03, 2011 by The Sun
GOOD GUY ... Mario Balotelli celebrates with Adam Johnson and David Silva
CARLOS TEVEZ heads into the dock today knowing he is no longer indispensable to Manchester City.
It would have been unthinkable 12 months ago — but the FA Cup winners are doing just fine without their former captain this season.
Tevez will give his own account of his Munich mutiny as part of City's internal probe into last Tuesday's amazing events in the Allianz Arena.
The Argentine striker, 27, refused to come on as a sub in the 2-0 Champions League defeat at Bayern Munich.
But City fans who made the short journey to Ewood Park for Saturday's 4-0 win over Blackburn could not have made their feelings any clearer.
A banner reading 'Tevez Out' was unfurled in the Darwen End, while the 7,000 travelling army gave manager Roberto Mancini a rousing reception.
There could be no doubt whose version of events they believe.
And, on the pitch, a second-half City masterclass against Steve Kean's strugglers showed there is life after Tevez.
That made it 23 goals in seven league matches for Mancini's men so far this term — and Tevez has not scored one of them.
This time last year, almost everything at the Etihad seemed to revolve around their talismanic forward.
But now City have moved on.
They have a new skipper in Vincent Kompany, new heroes and, according to Adam Johnson, even a new 20-goal-a-season striker in Mario Balotelli.
Now, Balotelli has done some wacky things in his time but even he has never been accused of going on strike on the bench.
Like all at the Etihad, Johnson was banned from mentioning the 'T' word. But he reckons Super Mario is the man to make up the shortfall in goals.
Three in his last three games suggest he might be right, too.
Johnson said: "Everyone knows what Mario's like but he's a goalscorer.
"He's a man who can get 20 goals a season if he plays as a central striker. He's a big lad, strong — he has all the attributes.
"It's just a case of putting it together week in, week out. He's close to doing that as well.
"You look at his stats and it just proves his goalscoring ability. If you give him a chance, he'll put it away."
Balotelli, 21, did just that at Blackburn — getting ahead of Scott Dann to volley in Samir Nasri's cross.
Johnson said: "It was a classic striker's goal and you don't really associate Mario with them. But he can do that sort of thing.
"Some people seem to think he's someone a bit fancy who scores a great goal now and again. But he's more than that.
"He'll score the tap-ins and scruffy goals as well. He can do everything a striker needs."
First-team coach David Platt reckons the former Inter Milan ace has settled here now.
Platt said: "In the last six or seven weeks, we have seen a smile on his face in training.
"His concentration levels are up. He comes in and does his work and there are no distractions off the pitch.
"He has bided his time, too. There were three or four games when he didn't get on. Then he came on last week, got his goal and has gone on from there.
"His performance at Blackburn was very, very good.
"He is still young. It is very difficult to move countries — I used to play in Italy — and to do it at that age is particularly difficult."
Balotelli's display against Rovers helped City forget all about their nightmare trip to Munich.
England winger Johnson, 24, added: "You can certainly say it was a good response to what happened.
"You could see we were together out there but the unity has never gone — it's always been there.
"We showed our resilience. After everything that's happened and then coming in at 0-0, a few heads could have gone down.
"We could have crumbled. But this shows the strength of the squad and the character we have here."
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