Manager says it was impossible to replace Luis Suárez‘Mario was the one right at the very end who was available’

Brendan Rodgers has defended Liverpool’s efforts to replace Luis Suárez yet conceded that Mario Balotelli represented his last viable option when signing the forward from Milan for £16m.

The Liverpool manager made his first public criticism of Balotelli following the 24-year-old’s meagre contribution in the Champions League defeat by Basel on Wednesday, admitting the Italian’s creativity and strike rate must improve. He has scored one goal in seven appearances for the club since arriving in August.

Balotelli’s suitability to Liverpool’s style, and vice versa, has been called into question by the team’s faltering form without Suárez and the injured Daniel Sturridge. Rodgers described the former Manchester City player as a calculated risk at the time of his transfer and, in a less than glowing explanation for proceeding with the deal, now claims there were no available alternatives with deadline day approaching.

“I always said it was about availability and affordability of players,” said Rodgers, who considered the merits of Samuel Eto’o before the 33-year-old’s move to Everton. “Mario was the one right at the very end who was available for that. I said when he came in that it was a calculated risk and it’s something I have to work on to try to make it work for the team.

“You assess what the group had. We brought in Rickie Lambert as someone who can play some games for us and come off the bench and be an impact player for us in certain games. Daniel is a top Premier League player but has shown during his time here that he does get injuries so we needed to prepare for that. Obviously Fabio Borini looked like he was on his way out [to Sunderland].

“We had attempts for other strikers that didn’t materialise for one reason or another so it left us right at the end of the window with a decision on whether just to go with what we had, when experience told us we were too light, or take a calculated risk on a player who has quality and then could we get it out of him consistently?”

Balotelli did not have a touch in the Basel penalty area as Liverpool succumbed to their fourth defeat in nine matches in all competitions this season. He also headed straight down the tunnel at the final whistle despite Rodgers’ request for his players to applaud the team’s supporters at St Jakob Park.

“In terms of his behaviour he is consciously trying to work hard at what we demand here, the intensity and work rate,” said Rodgers. “I think in terms of goals, he needs to improve. It is as simple as that. At this moment he has not hit the numbers he will have wanted. I encourage the strikers to get into the framework of the goal, wide players to come in and get into the framework of the goal and to break the lines. The quality of our service [against Basel] wasn’t up to the standard it should be. You also have to make and create goals yourself and he didn’t do that. But we win and lose as a team, and against Basel we were not good enough.”

Suárez’s exit, for £75m to Barcelona, did not come as a surprise to Liverpool, who responded by trying to get Alexis Sánchez as part of the deal only for the Chilean to opt for Arsenal, and then saw a move for Loïc Rémy collapse on medical grounds. Rémy ultimately joined Chelsea from Queens Park Rangers and, despite going for the last resort in Balotelli, Rodgers denies that Liverpool’s strategy for replacing last season’s leading marksman was flawed.

“I wouldn’t say that,” he responded. “There are very few players who can replace Suárez. Actually there are no players who can replace Suárez. When you look at the availability of other players during the summer it was difficult for us. It’s no good now, I know, but we took a player in Divock Origi [for £9.8m from Lille, who insisted on keeping the Belgium international on loan for the season] who we believe will be world class and we’ll get him next summer.

“He is a top player. He has everything – the speed, the profile and he can play now – but our deal was that we couldn’t bring him in now. That was unfortunate because he can run in behind, he can keep the ball and he can press but that was the deal. There were very few who are top class who were available and Mario Balotelli was a calculated gamble that we had to try to work with.”