Sterling tells Liverpool team-mates: Balotelli needs help to replace Suarez

Posted Friday, September 05, 2014 by Talksport.co.uk

Sterling tells Liverpool team-mates: Balotelli needs help to replace Suarez
Raheem Sterling has warned his Liverpool team-mates they can’t rely on Mario Balotelli to replace Luis Suarez.

The controversial Uruguayan completed a £75million move to Barcelona in the summer, and the Anfield giants snapped up the equally controversial Italian to fill the void.

But teenage sensation Sterling insists the former Manchester City striker can’t be expected to do the job on his own – and has called on the rest of the side to help him out.

"Luis will be missed, obviously,” Sterling told Sport magazine. “With 31 [league] goals in a season, anyone would miss him. He’s a massive loss, but the manager has brought in other players to fill the void.

"I haven’t come across Mario too much, but he has the ability and the goalscoring ratio to achieve great things here.

"But obviously not everyone’s going to score 31 goals, so the plan is to chip in with more goals across the team.”

Liverpool finished second in the Premier League last season, the closest they have come to winning the top-flight title since 1990.

And England starlet Sterling insists the players now believe that is the level at which they belong.

"That’s something the manager has tried to bring back to Anfield in the last few years,” he added. “He believes we should be up there, and he’s got everyone at the club believing again that we should be in and about titles and challenging for things.

"There’s a good atmosphere in the changing room, and on the pitch we’ve got a really good understanding of what the manager wants to do and what he is trying to achieve. Everyone’s working together to try to make it happen.”