Liverpool signed French centre-back Mamadou Sakho from PSG this summer. He has now played 12 games for the club, and after a shaky first couple of matches he has quickly settled in, becoming a regular in our defence. He has demonstrated some excellent qualities, and improved our defence no end. That said, some of his faults have also become apparent.
Considering we spent somewhere in the region of 16 million pounds on Sakho, it was not unreasonable to expect him to be talented. On this front he has not disappointed- his physicality has helped Liverpool no end. A recurring fault in recent seasons for Liverpool has been an inability to defend set pieces, and Sakho has certainly helped strengthen us to some degree in this area. It is clear that he is able to stick to a man and prevent him from getting to the ball; something our other centre-backs are apparently incapable of. Corners are still nervy moments for fans- Sakho cannot of course single-handedly mark all of the opposition- but his arrival has at least made things slightly more secure! This physical presence also helps at the other end of the pitch- from corners in particularly Sakho’s sheer size causes defenders problems, something he has demonstrated multiple times throughout his career to date: at PSG he scored 7 goals, and he’s netted twice for the French national team.
That said, if he isn’t able to prevent his man from jumping for the ball, Sakho does have some problems with aerial duels. His percentage of aerial battles won currently stands at 57%- this is reasonable, but by no means impressive. By comparison, Vincent Kompany has an 86% aerial duel win rate, and even Skrtel’s is 68%. This is clearly an aspect of his game that he needs to work on. Not everybody in the Premier League plays the same way as Liverpool- against teams that simply like to play long balls into the box we require more than strength from Sakho, we need him to be able to get to the ball and head it to safety.
His passing also has the tendency to give Liverpool fans a scare. In fairness to him his pass accuracy stands at a staggering 92%, but some of those completed passes were pretty close shaves! When he does lose the ball, it tends to be in dangerous areas. This points towards an underlying problem of occasional poor judgement. Although it is always good to retain possession, there is no point risking gifting the opposition a chance- there are times where it is best just to get the ball to safety. This is probably something that will come with time and practice- it should be remembered that Sakho is only 23.
This brings me neatly on to my next point- just how much potential does Sakho have? The short answer is a lot. Despite his youth he already has a lot of qualities that make a great centre-back: his passing is, in general, excellent, and his pure strength is immense. He also has reasonable pace considering his size- the combination of mobility and power lead to a player who is naturally very good defensively. On top of this he reads the game well- in the 12 appearances he’s made he has made 25 interceptions- an average of 2.08 per game. What he does lack will surely come with time. As long as he continues to get regular first team football (which is fairly inevitable seeing as he is by far and away our best defender) he will gain more experience of the English game, and consequently improve to suit it. He also seems to have an excellent work ethic- he said that he revels in training with top class strikers such as Suarez as it helps them both to improve. As long as he works hard and continues to be so self-motivated, things will only get better.
To sum up, Mamadou Sakho looks to have been a great acquisition for the club. He is already very good, meaning he bulks up our defence right now. Also, and perhaps more importantly, he definitely has potential to become one of the very best centre-backs around, meaning he is most certainly one for the future.
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