Hail Mario – a team man!

WELL, it isn't always him. Or even about him. Brendan Rodgers was right – it wasn't the Mario Balotelli show. Not even with a pink boot on one foot and a blue one on the other could the Italian super showman steal it – this was a Liverpool show.
Just as surprising as the relatively low-key performance from their marquee signing was the Reds' steamrollering of a Spurs side supposedly reinvigorated by their bright new manager. And a Reds side supposedly in transition.
Billed as the match of the weekend, it proved as lop-sided as last season's encounters between the two teams – the only consolation for Spurs being that the extent of the humiliation is on a downward trend: last year it was 5-0 and 4-0; so at 3-0 they're getting there.
Maybe the rare visit from owner Joe Lewis – an occurrence of Halley's Comet infrequency – may herald some last-day transfer spending for they look nowhere near like a top four outfit. If Mauricio Pochettino has sorted the misfits out, it wasn't apparent on Sunday's evidence.
In contrast Liverpool, with a massive rejig of resources in an attempt to make up for the loss of Luis Suarez, simply carried on where they left off last season – well, before they imploded at Crystal Palace anyway.
Cynics had viewed their £100m plus spending spree as repeating Spurs' mistake of blowing their Gareth Bale windfall – i.e. it being impossible to replace the irreplaceable with a job lot of journeymen.
Spurs, on the other hand, had learned their lesson and had got a better manager who was going to turn their misfiring recruits into half-decent players again – at no further expense. Or so the theory had it.
And early season signs supported this. Liverpool were taken apart by Manchester City while Spurs had cruised to two victories in the league and comfortably through their Europa League tie.
Pochettino was exactly what their continental players needed – especially the biggest flop of all, Eric Lamela. And the Argentinian boss duly had his compatriot showing hints of why he'd cost £30m of Lewis's money in the first place.
Lamela was tidy again on Sunday but he was about the only bright spot in a performance that had Pochettino wisely ensuring the lip readers couldn't interpret his observations.
Unless he can work his magic over the season or has sprung a surprise on the last day of the transfer window, winning the Europa League looks a more likely way of landing a Champions League spot than finishing in the top four.
Where Spurs were disjointed and lacklustre, Liverpool were dynamic and organised. Quickly out of the traps, they laid one on for Balotelli after three minutes. He should have scored. He could have had a hattrick but maybe it's better that he didn't.
For this was a team performance, a unit where most parts were working in surprisingly impressive unison and no individual – not even Super Mario – could steal the collective thunder.
The best the Balotelli-obsessed tabloids would have been able to make of it was: "Balotelli shock – he tracks back, he marks at corners!!" If that 'news' did register at all on the Richter scale, it is perhaps even more encouraging for Rodgers and Liverpool than if the man had scored a memorable goal.
For then it would have been business as usual. What Liverpool want from Balotelli is a rebrand – an end to the many myths about the lad who tried hard to dispel them in his interview with Oasis's Noel Gallagher while at Manchester City. Alas, to no avail.
Not all the tales carried in Monday's paper were true, it seems, and anyone who has read of his troubled upbringing will cut him a fair bit of slack for his waywardness.
Fostered to a loving home, as a child he nevertheless encountered enough racism outside it to attempt to scrub the colour off his skin.
Where he'd be now without football, you shudder to think but for all his prodigious talent it has never been properly harnessed to the benefit of a team.
It is a huge ask of Rodgers to pull off what has eluded managers such as Jose Mourinho, Roberto Mancini, Massimiliano Allegri and Clarence Seedorf, but you cannot but admire the Northern Irishman's approach: "No media day – no special treatment," he insisted.
Liverpool is a city that takes players under its wing more than any other in Britain. Suarez is one of many foreign players to vouch for that. It is a big place but not too big - players still feel they belong as if to a family – and the down-to-earth Scouse humour ensures there are no egos.
But it will be Rodgers' already impressive man-management and just how he deploys Balotelli that will decide whether this gamble comes off.
At just £16m it isn't so massive – certainly not as big as what Spurs took with some of their signings – and from this vantage point, I have a sneaking suspicion it will work.
Even if it doesn't, Liverpool look good enough to be a top four side again this season. A couple of the new men look pretty tasty – Alberto Moreno giving the perfect riposte to critics of his geriatric mistake against City with a magical run and finish while Lazar Markovic has shown a nifty pair of heels and nice touch.
With Daniel Sturridge still a handful, Raheem Sterling maturing and Steven Gerrard freed of international millstones, three of last season's stars could be even better.
The squad has a lot more depth and if Balotelli can fit in, Liverpool could be more than mere top four contenders.
In the couple of days he's been at Anfield, Rodgers has got him to do more than any previous manager. Missing three chances and being hauled off on the hour might sound like a failure but we saw the flip side of Balotelli on Sunday – marking at corners, chasing attackers and gelling with teammates.
And no, he remained quieter than the Icelandic volcano. Whisper it softly, but Super Mario could be a team player after all.