Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers admits he was 'surprised and shocked ' by the online racist abuse targeted at the club 's striker Mario Balotelli . Anti-discrimination body Kick It Out revealed on Thursday night that Italy international Balotelli had been subjected to more than 4,000 racist messages on social media this season . Balotelli 's Liverpool team-mate Daniel Sturridge and Arsenal striker Danny Welbeck have also each received more than a thousand discriminatory messages according to research carried out by Tempero , a social media management agency , and analytics firm Brandwatch . Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli ( centre ) has been the subject of thousands of racists posts on social media . The Italy international ( right ) performs a back-heel during a training session at Melwood on Friday . Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers says he is 'shocked ' at the level of online abuse aimed at Balotelli . Arsenal striker Danny Welbeck ( left ) has also been targeted by racists on the internet this season . Balotelli 's Liverpool team-mate Daniel Sturridge ( centre ) is another player to be harassed online this term . Kick It Out estimates there have been 134,000 discriminatory posts this season with 39,000 of them directed towards Premier League players , and Rodgers says the issue must be addressed . ' I was aware of the findings and I was surprised and shocked , ' Rodgers said . ' I think one message is one too many to be honest . We support all the relevant organisations who are working to stamp all of this out . 'In the modern world and modern football it is something which is very much there , but we need to eradicate all of it out of social life and professional sport . ' I think it is the responsibility of us all to help all the various organisations stamp it out . ' Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet takes a philosophical attitude to the online abuse of footballers and believes players must learn to handle the situation . ' I think that is normal in the world we live in , ' Mignolet said . 'Social media is something worldwide and you ca n't control it yourself really but you have to accept it . 'The spotlight is on you so you have to deal with those sort of things . ' But Stoke manager Mark Hughes said he would welcome tougher sanctions against individuals who indulge in online abuse , believing they are safe behind the cloak of anonymity . 'The internet is difficult to police as we well know , but anything racist , homophobic - even just in general life - it should be rooted out and stamped on , ' Hughes said . 'It is not acceptable . The fact people can hide behind their computers on the internet makes it more difficult to manage and stop . Stoke City boss Mark Hughes has called for a crackdown on racism and an end to online anonymity . 'But there needs to be a will and if there is a way of stopping this happening , then that should be encouraged . ' More than 8,000 abusive messages were directed towards Balotelli , over half of which were racist . Welbeck received 1,700 , of which half were racist , and Sturridge 1,600 , of which 60 per cent were based on sexual orientation . The sheer volume of racist and other abuse on social media has prompted Kick It Out to form an expert group to tackle football-related hate crime across social media , working with football , the main social media platforms , organisations dealing with internet safety and the police . Kick It Out director Roisin Wood said : 'It is really shocking . We knew there was an issue but even we were shocked by how many the players have received . 'For one player to have received over 8,000 abusive messages is phenomenally awful . 'You can not accept players getting that level of abuse so we want to bring this expert group together to see how we can address this . 'We do n't see the problem going away . Some of the perpetrators are young people and they need educating that you can not sit in your room and abuse people like this . ' Balotelli scores for Liverpool from the penalty spot during a Champions League game against Besiktas . Kick It Out only started receiving complaints of social media abuse during the 2012-13 season and has since started reporting the incidents to True Vision - a national reporting facility which had been developed to deal with hate crime online . The research showed the Premier League clubs receiving the highest volume of discriminatory posts were Chelsea ( 20,000 ) , Liverpool ( 19,000 ) , Arsenal ( 12,000 ) , Manchester United ( 11,000 ) and Manchester City ( 11,000 ) . Twitter was the most common platform for abuse with 88 per cent of messages coming in the form of tweets . Kick It Out has launched several t-shirt campaigns to help combat the concerning level of racism in football .
Liverpool # Mario Balotelli has been racially abused online . Anti - racism website # It Out have revealed thousands of abusive victims . Brendan Rodgers has slammed any discrimination as unacceptable . derby ##shire boss Mark Hughes has also called for a crackdown on racism .