Swapping shirts at the wrong time

Mario Balotelli's misfiring career at Anfield took another turn for the worst against Real Madrid on Wednesday with a halftime shirt-swap that did not impress manager Brendan Rodgers.

With Liverpool 3-0 down and being outclassed by the champions, Balotelli was spotted by TV cameras indulging in an exchange of shirts with Madrid defender Pepe in the tunnel, a ritual which seemed wholly out of place at that point.

On being told of the episode after the game by a TV interviewer, Rodgers, who took off the ineffective striker at the break for tactical reasons, said he did not like it and would deal with the situation.

Rodgers, who dealt with a similar situation involving a shirt swap between his player Mamadou Sakho and the then Chelsea striker Samuel Eto'o in December, said: "That's the first I've heard of it but if that's the case then I wouldn't like it.

"It's something that I don't like to see, I've seen it happen in other leagues and other countries but it's certainly something that doesn't happen here and shouldn't happen.""For me, if you want to do that it's something you do at the end of the game.

"We had an incident last year here with a player, which I dealt with, and if that's the case then I'll deal with this as well."

Rodgers again did not sound impressed with the efforts of Balotelli, who has not been able to score for Liverpool in six Premier League games since his 16 million pounds signing and looks increasingly short on confidence after missing an open goal against Queens Park Rangers on Sunday.

"It was just tactical. I felt that we needed a bit more intensity and someone to create through the middle and occupy their centre-halves a wee bit more. Adam Lallana came on and did very, very well," said Rodgers.