Jack Frankham explains why Mamadou Sakho doesn’t deserve to be cast aside.
Mamadou Sakho seems to be on his way out of Liverpool after the Frenchman didn’t follow rules during the Reds’ pre-season tour in America. He was sent back to England and his future has been uncertain ever since.
There has been interest from Stoke City for the Frenchman as Klopp wants Sakho to go out on loan to play football regularly. He’s certainly not in the good books at the moment, but there is room for him at Liverpool in the future.
Sakho, for me, is Liverpool’s best defender. He showed an immense amount of passion last season and was vital to Liverpool’s push for Champions League through the Europa League. He was banned and didn’t take part in the latter part of the Europa League campaign due to him taking his positive drugs result. UEFA was investigating if the pills he took was a banned substance but he was later cleared of all wrongdoing.
Months later after the Euros, we got the news that he was allowed to play and that the pills he took wasn’t on WADA’s banned list of substances and UEFA wouldn’t take the investigation further.
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Maybe if Sakho had played in the Europa League final then we would’ve won, and maybe he would’ve started at the Euros for France. In the space of a few months, due to his suspension, he missed out on two European cup finals.
In my opinion, Sakho deserves to stay at the club and should go straight into the first team. He brings more than his defending abilities to the team; his passing is brilliant for a central defender.
Joel Matip was brought in to be a first-team starter and has brought something unique since arriving at Merseyside. His passing from the back is what we’ve missed and his positive thinking will work as a delight to the club and the fans.
Lovren didn’t star brightly at Anfield when Rodgers was the manager but has improved massively under Klopp. His confidence has risen and he looks immense in defence. He’s certainly improved and now he is challenging Matip, Sakho and Gomez for the centre-half spots.
Sakho does seem to be halfway out the door but he’s Liverpool’s best defender without a shadow of a doubt and deserves to be given more leeway.