There is one over-riding issue we needed to resolve, the lack of a striker that can play in place of Studge if he is injured or otherwise unable to play. Remy unfortunately failed his medical because I thought he was perfect for our system(s) and would work very well alongside Sturridge or in his stead.
Now we've tried to secure Sanchez, Cavani, Falcao, Lacazette (sp.), Bony and Benzema (and these are only the ones having credible reports - there may well have been others, Reus perhaps, that never saw the light of the fans' day) however for one reason or another each of these fell through or didn't even get past Go. The only other viable options left with 10 days left in the transfer window are Bony (again, and at £19m) or Eto'o (who is not going to be able to play a pressing game at his age either).
Balotelli is a nutter, we all know that, however he is also extremely talented and could easily achieve the same level as the majority of those listed above, if he can mature. We shouldn't forget he's only 23 yrs old (and most of his bad shit happened when he was a teenager or 20/21, so that even if this goes tits up and we are forced to sell him in a year or two, he will probably still have scored goals at roughly a 1:2 / 1:3 ratio and we should get most of our money back selling to the next club ready to take a chance on his talent being worth more than his temperament is detrimental.
If you watch the video I posted above you'll see him often in the LM/RM channels, I imagine with Moreno (especially) and Manquillo that we'll be seeing a lot more of them on the outside and with Sterling, Lallana and Markovic I don't see Studge or Mario spending too much time out wide at all, unless pulling wide to take defenders with them and create space for one of those three. What he does offer is fantastic skill on the ball, great pace, a penchant for the unexpected (both good and bad !), superb free kicks from long or short distance and an ability to score in a hat full of different ways. In other words unpredictability - something that is very difficult to defend against. He could end up being a fantastic signing for us .... or could just as easily fail dramatically. Which ever way it goes we needed to take a gamble on someone and, with Rodgers history of getting the best out of difficult youngsters or those with unfulfilled potential, I'm pretty excited it's someone as overtly talented as Balotelli we've signed.
but I think Sturridge was forced upon him when they bought him and wasn't a personal choice. I think he's quite pragmatic and will probably try to get the best out of Balo and not try to prove a point to his board in any case.