Liverpool defender Mamadou Sakho has been ranked in the top 10 players at the World Cup by a statistical index after the group stage fixtures in Brazil. The 24-year-old centre-back started each of France's three Group E matches as Didier Deschamps' charges sealed top spot with two victories and a draw. Next up for Sakho and Les Bleus, who last won the tournament on home soil in 1998, is a last-16 encounter against Nigeria, to be played in Brasilia on Monday evening. Ahead of that match, the Reds' No.17 was positioned 10th of all the players at the tournament by a dedicated analysis system in use by FIFA at the competition. The index measures the positive or negative impact of every pass, tackle and move during a game to produce an overall score for each individual out of 10. Sakho's result after three run-outs to date is an impressive 9.47, the fourth-highest of any defender competing in South America, and immediately above one Lionel Messi.
He has looked very re-assuring. I love the way he gets the ball, drives out of defence and picks a nice pass to feet. Does it time and again. Looking forward to seeing some of that for us this season.
Commentators of the France games I have watched can't resist constantly having a dig at him, totally unjustified. "Not the best on the ball" "Very shakey in possession" "He's a battler, but not the most technically gifted" "Bambi on ice", etc ad nauseum There was enough constant criticism for me to actually notice. What is their problem?
Would that have been Martin Keown? He has a real problem with Sakho, mainly that Sakho is picked ahead of koscielny. Was made to eat his word when Sakho went off with France being 5-0 up and the game ending 5-2 with koscielny on and then again when the French defence looked **** without Sakho in the R16 game. Think part of the problem for Sakho last season was the language barrier, looks more comfortable with France cause the communication isn't an issue. Should get better the more he gets used to Liverpool.
His fitness was up and down so he did not really get a chance to settle in to a rhythm. He looks like Dani Alves. He obviously worships the guy haha. Decent played and only 20. I'd welcome him.
Sahko only arrived, hasn't played that many times and it's not easy to slot into a shaky defence quickly. Should improve this season
He obviously has huge potential just hope he goes on to hit it. LAst season as always going to be difficult with no settled back 4 in place and then the injury. Added to the fact we were very attacking and none of the back 4 had that much protection. We should certainly be trying to build the defence around him for the next couple of years though (and hopefully beyond then) and that's hopefully when we'll see his best.
Helps that he doesn't have a massive empty hole in midfield when he plays for France. I think any defender in the world would be scared ****less in our defence, players get in behind our midfield so easily.
Sakho the 10th best player at the world cup after the group stages? A perfect example of why statistical indices are so pointless.
