Where will Sakho play?

MAMADOU Sakho is a beast of a player.
Of all the signings made in a busy summer the former Paris Saint Germain Captain is comfortably the highest profile. Breaking Liverpool’s transfer record for a central defender at somewhere between £15m-£18m, it is unlikely Sakho has been bought simply to add competition and warm the bench. However the question that won’t be answered until the international break is over is in which position will he play and who will he replace?
Sakho brings a lot of qualities to a Liverpool defence that is yet to concede a goal in the Premier League. Although the back five take a lot of credit for this (4 ever presents, while Skrtel replaced Toure for the United game) a large part of this defensive solidity is due to the excellent screen that both Lucas and Gerrard have provided. Lucas has been excellent in all three games and Gerrard has curtailed his attacking instincts to support the defensive cause whenever the opposition team has gained momentum in a particular phase of a match.
The defence itself has not been without fault. Enrique still has not looked that solid and while Daniel Agger has played well at times, the lack of pace amongst all our centre-back options (all be it less exposed as we have played rather deep) has been put to the test. More pace in the backline will allow us to play a higher line more effectively and not invite so much pressure, as we did in the second halves against Villa and United.
Sakho brings height, power and excellent pace to the defence. In addition he has captained teams from a young age and while his leadership of the Liverpool defence may take time to develop (with more experienced international captains already around him, and language being an initial problem) it is surely one of the characteristics that interested Brendan Rodgers.
At just 23 years of age he has already played 196 game for Paris Saint Germain with 13 international caps. He has European experience as well, but the French league is hardly of the highest standard.
Mamadou is primarily a left sided centre-back, and therein lies the conundrum. Our newly appointed Vice-Captain, Daniel Agger, is also a left sided centre-back, and it is difficult to imagine, injury and suspensions permitting, that Agger would lose his place. That leaves three options for Brendan Rodgers. After a bedding in period, that may or may not be necessary, Sakho can either be deployed as a left footed right sided centre-back, as a left-back, or in a defensive three.
Rodgers, for one reason or another, does not seem to rate Martin Skrtel. Despite winning player of the year 2 seasons ago, and a man of the match performance against Manchester United, Skrtel is poor in possession and somewhat prone to mistakes. His propensity to dive into tackles and challenges looks great when it comes off, but too often leads to costly free-kicks. However Kolo Toure has really impressed and alongside Glen Johnson, who has started the season as well as he finished last, has been Liverpool’s best defender so far in my opinion.
Of the back 4 it is Jose Enrique’s position that would seem most under threat. The powerful Spaniard knows he’s got real competition this season, after the signing of Aly Cissokho on loan who is unfortunately out for up to 6 weeks with an ankle injury. Enrique has pace and power, and uses both to recover defensive positions well, but he can be erratic in possession, liable to make positional errors and holds onto the ball too long when he should release it. However he is a natural left-back. I’ve only seen Sakho play centre-back, where he’s always been impressive when I’ve watched him, but he is much less experienced at left-back. We’ll have to see how he performs in such a position if given the opportunity.
The final option is for Brendan Rodgers to deploy three centre-backs. He has done this on the odd rare occasion last season, but given how we have started the season with 3 wins and none conceded, again this seems unlikely on a regular basis.
Wherever Sakho plays, one thing for certain is that from being rather worried at the end of last season of how we’d replace Jamie Carragher and recover some defensive solidity, the start of the season and the signings of Toure, Ilori and Sakho have certainly calmed a lot of nerves. Many media pundits have been saying how we have had the best Summer’s activity of any of the Premier League’s teams. We’ve certainly got numbers in to bolster the squad with good variety, but such positive statements by the media are easily made when we are the only Premier League team with maximum points and there hasn’t been long to assess the quality of the new players.
I’m looking forward to see all three of our deadline day signings in action, and am particular eager to see how ‘Kirikou’ further strengthens the first team. I’m less eager to see what fashion faux pas (e.g. crystal studded football boots) and famous bad hairstyles (blonde highlights are a favourite) Sakho comes up with, but if he plays well and keeps us top of the table…well, who cares!