Boss: Mario's been studying LFC history
Mario Balotelli has been brushing up on his Liverpool history and studying icons of the past in a bid to become an Anfield legend, Brendan Rodgers has revealed.
The Italian striker, brought to Merseyside from AC Milan to bolster the Reds' strikeforce in the summer, netted his first goal for the club on Tuesday night against Ludogorets Razgrad.
With 81 minutes on the clock and the supporters aching for the club's first Champions League goal in five long years, Balotelli trapped a pass in the penalty area, swivelled and struck with the outside of his right foot in front of the Kop.
The match was far from over, though, and high drama lay in wait on a night when Steven Gerrard's stoppage-time penalty secured a slender 2-1 win; however, Balotelli's opener was a moment to savour for the home fans.
His manager was thrilled by the goal, too. Rodgers hailed the forward's influence post-match before explaining how the Reds' illustrious past has been firing the 24-year-old's passion to succeed.
"He's a boy who has really looked into the history of the club and he understands the great strikers of the past," Rodgers told the Liverpool Echo.
"We have spoken about [Luis] Suarez and his time here. Remember he's still young, he still wants to learn, he still needs to learn and that's the beauty of it for me.
"When I spoke to him when I first met him he still had this keenness to want to learn and when you see his work against Ludogorets, he put his body on the line and he needs to do more of that.
"I think that will come when he gets fitter and getting into good positions will allow him to score goals. But he's well in tune with the history, not only of the club, but of Liverpool."
The towering Italian's Anfield remit will be to assist in supplying the goals that were delivered in abundance by Rodgers' side throughout the 2013-14 campaign.
However, the manager insists the No.45 will also seek to improve his overall game as he adapts to his new club's style out on the Melwood training pitches.
"As a coach you'll always have some players who are low maintenance and some who are high maintenance for different reasons," said the manager.
"I'll spend a lot of time with a lot of the players, but he's a good boy and he's prepared to work.
"His work-rate [against Ludogorets] was good, OK the ball's bounced off him a couple of times but we're trying to improve him in the transition so that when he makes a mistake he can go after it.
"I think we can see he's trying to put it in for the team and that's very important because the crowd demand that.
"The players who have been here in the past in that position have been non-stop and he's becoming attuned to that.
"He's aware of that. He scores goals and if he continues to work, everyone knows he's got the quality and he produced it when we needed it."