Mamadou Sakho

[wongers]

fair comment mate only time will tell but for me he's bang average

[danperkins]

I don't think average is objectively fair. His history and his general stats say he's better than that, there are some things he is excellent at... but also we shouldn't fool ourselves into thinking he is the complete centre half either.

We haven't helped ourselves squad wise however by not accepting he is our best current cb and buying someone suited to playing alongside him. Skrtel and he have had good games together but they've also had their fair share of disasters and never look like convincing long term, while Lovren seems incapable of playing on the right side for some reason and Toure just isn't a real option.

If we fix the spine of the team (keeper, a truly good cb, midfield general and reliable top striker), the lack of which is the real problem at the moment, only then I think we will properly see if Sakho is as good as some think, or as dodgy as others seem to believe.

IMO Skrtel & Sahko have looked quite good together with a run of games this and last season, thing is we can't seem to keep a consistent pairing fit.. it's actually uncanny. Neither is top class but seemed to compliment each other IMO.

Lot of fans seem split on Sakho, I like him but don't rate him as highly as some on here but there are a lot of fans who think he's ****... which is a bit harsh IMO.

[BigChief]

He had a bad bad game today, not sure how anyone can defend him after this performance.

He was rushed back into that defence, would not have played if Lovren was fit. Most of his passing and trickery had Watford turning on their heels as we broke. Problem was Lucas, Can, Lallana slowed the play down every time Sakho gave them the ball.

Some of Lallana, Can, Firmino passes were literally 25 yard back passes in the air to Sakho who was being closely man marked by Ighalo. What f*cking idiot does that to his own defence especially when they're under no pressure themselves? Sakho was playing against at least 18 men on Sunday. At least. And he was the only one trying stuff that our forwards should be. Arguably not something a defender should do all the time but I'll applaud guts over mediocrity any day.

[McDermotX]

It is a bit harsh, but he's definitely a bit of a Sakhred Cow amongst some elements of the support.
He has a lot of the tools required to be a good CB for us, but all to often, people are blinded to his faults - whether it's because he's a likeable lad etc

Yesterday was particularly bad.......as bad as anything Dejan has served up, and Deeney and Ighalo made absolute mincemeat of him at times, especially after he was exposed with the defensive shuffle, easily pushed around, left on his arse etc

Probably back to early, but in truth, his basics were all over the shop and cannot all be explained away by fitness. Right from the start he was placing pressure on the team, giving away the ball, rushing out, poor heading........that's not a fitness thing, just ****ing poor. His involvement in two of the goals and all their best chances cannot be ignored, but hopefully its just an off game for everyone.

[danperkins]

Ball playing CB's (Agger, Ramos, Hummels etc) always get more leeway with the fans as they are in such short supply.

But yeah Sakho was definitely rushed back too early alright. it's hard to know with Sakho as we can't keep him fit long enough, I like him, don't rate him as highly as others but yeah there are alot of LFC fans who really don't rate him at all which I feel is a bit harsh.

In saying that, we as LFC fans don't really agree on much anyways

[Bender]

I said it before the game v Watford Sakho would get screwed by Igahlo due to his 5 weeks out injured and the other clowns in the side.

[Exiled_red]

I think that Sakho is a good player, for me the problems all come down to a lack of a defensive organiser at the back. I think that he needs to be partnered with a Carragher type player who can rein him in a little when he goes too far

[Bender]

I think that Sakho is a good player, for me the problems all come down to a lack of a defensive organiser at the back. I think that he needs to be partnered with a Carragher type player who can rein him in a little when he goes too far

Sakho imo has not had a real opportunity to show how good he really is due to Rodgers and as you say no leadership in defence or in goal....problem for Sakho is his career/rep will suffer while the issues remain at LFC.

[dww]

I think that Sakho is a good player, for me the problems all come down to a lack of a defensive organiser at the back. I think that he needs to be partnered with a Carragher type player who can rein him in a little when he goes too far

I think that is a big issue but I wuld suggest it is one of several with our defense.

To me we have no natural CB partnership, no dominant keeper and Lucas as a DM is not a great ground coverer (apologies for having created possibly the world ugliest term there) which would be one way to counter some of the CB weaknesses. We have also struggled to keep a settled unit due to injuries and catastrophic confidence/form issues from some of our defenders.

[danperkins]

I think that Sakho is a good player, for me the problems all come down to a lack of a defensive organiser at the back. I think that he needs to be partnered with a Carragher type player who can rein him in a little when he goes too far

We have been lacking a defensive organiser ala Carra or Hyypia. Moreno IMO desperately needs a dominant CB to direct him. Personally I don't think we've struck a balance in the defence or in the midfield for years now.

[calvoboy]

It is a bit harsh, but he's definitely a bit of a Sakhred Cow amongst some elements of the support.
He has a lot of the tools required to be a good CB for us, but all to often, people are blinded to his faults - whether it's because he's a likeable lad etc

Yesterday was particularly bad.......as bad as anything Dejan has served up, and Deeney and Ighalo made absolute mincemeat of him at times, especially after he was exposed with the defensive shuffle, easily pushed around, left on his arse etc

Probably back to early, but in truth, his basics were all over the shop and cannot all be explained away by fitness. Right from the start he was placing pressure on the team, giving away the ball, rushing out, poor heading........that's not a fitness thing, just ****ing poor. His involvement in two of the goals and all their best chances cannot be ignored, but hopefully its just an off game for everyone.

I disagree - I thought that he was having a relatively* decent game until around 50-60 mins, after which he was dreadful. Points to complete lack of match fitness, though one or two basic errors he made first half were worrying.

(*note - I'm not saying he was having a great game, just relatively speaking he was doing OK)

It was a patchy game from him today, he did some good stuff at times but he was awful at other times and made some terrible mistakes. A couple of times he looked knackered and out on his feet in the second half, I think we probably rushed him back too soon and he wasn't ready to play 90 mins, hopefully that was the case and he will be back to his old self soon.

I agree with this. I don't think he's a world-beater at the moment by any means, but when he's fit he's shown that he's a commanding header of the ball (as he showed yesterday at times), can see a pass and likes to get us moving forward (despite the **** talked on sky because he looks ungainly), and has the makings of a good defender. He looked completely shot after an hour, but there was nothing we could do as we already had Lucas in at Centre-half after Skrtel went off.

[Exiled_red]

Sakho imo has not had a real opportunity to show how good he really is due to Rodgers and as you say no leadership in defence or in goal....problem for Sakho is his career/rep will suffer while the issues remain at LFC.

I think that is a big issue but I wuld suggest it is one of several with our defense.

To me we have no natural CB partnership, no dominant keeper and Lucas as a DM is not a great ground coverer (apologies for having created possibly the world ugliest term there) which would be one way to counter some of the CB weaknesses. We have also struggled to keep a settled unit due to injuries and catastrophic confidence/form issues from some of our defenders.

I think that all three are problems, I think that a defensive organiser would make the biggest difference as I think many of the back 4 are just playing their own games and not working at all as a unit. I would like a new keeper or Mignolet to recover his form, but I don't see him as the answer long term.

We have been lacking a defensive organiser ala Carra or Hyypia. Moreno IMO desperately needs a dominant CB to direct him. Personally I don't think we've struck a balance in the defence or in the midfield for years now.

Replacing Skrtel with a defensive organiser (someone like Carragher) would make a big difference I think that Moreno and Sakho need reining in a bit at times Sakho sometimes trys to do too much and gets caught out at times like he did at the weekend. Someone like Carragher who would give him a bollocking when he needs it would improve him as a defender IMO. The same applies to Moreno.

[Bloodraven]

So his poor performance was attributed to everything but him being a liability again?

[DannyMan2006]

He was useless but he had an excuse.

I'd be more worried if he had been rubbish on a regular basis prior to that game. Thankfully, it's the opposite.

[Alex]

Heard someone call him a player of extremes today. More in how he is perceived. People either love him and think he is the best defender at the club, or hate him and think he is constantly prone to errors. The reality being its probably somewhere in the middle. He is a decent Premier League CB that is prone to mistakes.

I think if you put a very good CB along side him, then the defence will be way more solid. He just cant bring other players up to the level if they are inferior to him. Seems like the sort of player who could raise his game to meet his partner, rather than helping his partner raise his.

Think thats a fair assessment of him. That all being said I ****ing love him and hope he never leaves.