Liverpool manager delighted with his defensive summer acquisitions…
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers thinks his new £18m centre-half Mamadou Sakho is going to be a Premier League star for the next ten years, reports the Mirror.
The 23-yerar-old French internati0onal defender joined the club on deadline day, along with young Portuguese stopper Tiago Ilori, and Rodgers has been mightily impressed by what he’s seen so far.
“He is 6ft 3ins tall, super quick, powerful and can jump. He just needs to adapt to the pace and physicality of the Premier League. He is one for the future, but he can be a really big talent,” said the Northern Irish boss, who has led Liverpool to three wins from their opening three matches.
“Sakho is also young, but he is an experienced player,” Rodgers continued.
“He has senior international caps for France and looks an absolute monster in training. He’s one who is ready for now and that’s what we want.”
Sakho is expected to start this evening away to Swansea alongside Danish centre-back Daniel Agger, who was made Liverpool’s vice-captain during the summer.
With Kolo Toure and Martin Skrtel also starting the season well though, Sakho will have his work cut out to secure a regular starting position – but Rodgers thinks his investment will tighten Liverpool’s defence for the foreseeable future.
“I wanted to try and protect the present and the future of the club,” he said.
“We had a chance to do that and protect the club for maybe the next 10 years and that is what we’ve done.
“Centre-halves are so hard to find. You look at some teams and they have ageing centre-halves because it’s a struggle to get a really good one. We were fortunate in that two became available.”
Rodgers reckons that £7m stopper Ilori can also evolve into one of the league’s best.
“One that we had been tracking for a year was Tiago Ilori, a young talent, but who can become a
big talent,” he added.
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