Mixed bag: Why Liverpool's 17m pound man has blown hot and cold so far

Mamadou Sakho tussles with Swansea City’s Jonjo Shelvey during an EPL match

Mamadou Sakho was adored in Paris. The local boy grew up in the Paris Saint-Germain youth ranks, learning his trade and applying himself to eventually became club captain. After the money started flowing into PSG’s bank account from their new owners, Sakho steadily found himself on the fringes of the first team.

For that reason, he was forced to move away from his boyhood club and start again at Liverpool. After moving across the channel for £17 million, Sakho has played seven Premier League games and earned his place in Brendan Rodgers’ three-man defence.

The Frenchman, who Rodgers has nicknamed ‘killer’, received some criticism from some fans for his performance at Arsenal on Saturday evening. The Reds fell to a 2-0 defeat, playing with as much energy as a deflated balloon, to fall five points behind the leaders.

Using Squawka’s Performance Scoring system, Sakho has amassed 135 points, making him Liverpool’s fourth highest scoring defender this season. Glen Johnson is the highest placed, despite only playing five matches.

Sakho has made a name for himself as being hard to get past; a good trait for a central defender to have.

He has kept that going at Liverpool, winning 67% of his duels, including 9 out of 10 tackles and 16 out of 25 headers. His success rate is the best for an outfield player who has played more than once.

Mamadou Sakho stats

His passing accuracy is also the second best at the club. He has completed 90% of his passes, just one percent short of Martin Skrtel. Rodgers will be pleased with the figure as he wants his side to build from the back with good passing.

On the face of things, he seems to be playing well – and he is – but there are other things, past numbers, that are stressing fans out. Sakho has been seen to struggle with the pace and ferocity of the Premier League, something always attributed to a foreign player when they first arrive in England.

He has been found out of position a couple of times in recent games, especially for Arsenal’s first goal on Saturday. He was caught high up the pitch and made no real attempt to get back into the penalty area to prevent the opening goal.

The volley from Santi Cazorla that put Arsenal in the ascendancy was scored from Sakho’s defensive position. As Cazorla headed the ball against the post, Sakho wasn’t inside the penalty area yet, and when the Spaniard took his shot to score, the Frenchman was only just inside the 18-yard box.

One could also attribute some of the blame for the second goal on Sakho, too. He was quite slow in closing down Aaron Ramsey before the Welshman unleashed a ferocious half-volley on Simon Mignolet‘s goal.

Sakho’s statistics fare well and suggest he’s been exceptional this season, but a deeper analysis shows some flaws in his game. The French defender has played well but it is small mistakes like the ones at the Emirates that are being picked up on. If Sakho can eliminate these types of errors from his game, he will keep his place in the Liverpool side with ease.

His tackling is impressive, as is his passing, but it is his sluggishness and laziness off the ball that is his downfall. So far, he’s done okay, but he is wavering on the line of uncertainty and for a £17 million signing, that can’t be acceptable.