Liverpool could revitalise their interest in Paris Saint-Germain defender Mamadou Sakho as the player stalls over a new contract.
Brendan Rodgers had done some superb work in building the attack of his team heading into the new season and now it seems he’s ready to shift the focus towards the defence.
Mamadou Sakho is a player Liverpool were linked with over the final part of last season and they could still go after him, if he doesn’t agree a new contract with French giants PSG.
Sakho is an extremely talented 23-year-old who can play on either side of central defence and his stats suggest that in certain areas, he’s a better defender than Daniel Agger and Martin Skrtel.
Passing
Sakho has a higher successful pass rate on average, based on league games last season, than either Agger or Skrtel.
Sakho completed 91.6% of passes on average compared to the 88.7% of Agger and the 90.5% of Skrtel.
What that tells us is that he’s a defender who likes to get on the ball and pass it out from the back. That makes him a good fit for Brendan Rodgers because of the pure football he likes his teams to play.
Fouls
Sakho gave away slightly fewer fouls in central defence than either of the current Liverpool defenders last season.
Agger and Skrtel gave away 0.7 and 0.9 fouls per game on average but Sakho was slightly better with his timing at just 0.6 fouls per game.
That’s very important when Liverpool are under pressure because it shows he’s just as good, if not better, as Agger and Skrtel when it comes to making last gasp attempts to win the ball back and throw in a challenge.
Long Balls
Sakho has a higher average in terms of long balls than Agger and Skrtel, which makes him a good potential player for Rodgers to use when it comes to hitting the ball long.
It seems passing is one of his main strengths and he hits 4.3 long passes per game, which find their intended target. That’s better than the 2.5 of Agger or the 3.3 of Skrtel.
However, the Liverpool pair’s lower average is understandable considering the more short passing based game Liverpool tend to play.
Sakho represents a very good potential investment for the club but the deal seems to rest on what happens during his current negotiations with PSG.
Would you take a risk on him?
image: © jbj
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