COMMENT: Vindicated? Content? Just how will Mamadou Sakho be feeling today?
You can be sure Mama won't be bouncing. That's not him. He'll be upset. Gutted. For the fans - and his teammates at Liverpool. But the irony can't be washed away. Barely 24 hours after Sakho produced a five-star debut to help Crystal Palace earn a clean sheet and three points against Middlesbrough, his real employers were being blown away at Leicester City.
Philippe Coutinho may've found a way past Kasper Schmeichel as a consolation, but Liverpool barely laid a glove on Leicester. They were out-fought. Bullied. And by a group of players who were rock bottom going into the game. It was the champions who were fragile. Delicate. The opportunity was there for Liverpool to have the King Power turn on their heroes. Instead, it was Klopp's lot whom wilted. With a make-shift centre-half in Lucas Leiva and a dog's body left-back in James Milner, the back four was creaking from the opening minutes. Such a situation will not have been lost on Sakho, as he watched the horror show unfold from his couch.
All things being equal. Clean slate n' all that. Would Sakho be getting a game for Liverpool today? Absolutely. Yeah, he has a mistake in him. And he can be sloppy in possession. But as a centre-half, he'd walk into that Reds line-up last night.
And this goes deeper than simply squad options. Sakho is a former captain. A leader. A France international. He's been around the block. Sakho is everything Jurgen Klopp's team now cries out for. Yet, all that experience was shunted aside due to a personality clash. Sam Allardyce can't believe his luck. Ten months on since he last played a competitive game and the Frenchman produces a performance like that? Imagine what he'll be like after a run of games under his belt?
And with his charisma, Sakho is already mending bridges between the players and fans: “We played 12 against 11 in this game because the fans were really good for us and they gave us a lot of courage and confidence to go on and play with a lot of energy and it was nice to get the result for them."
The only confrontation we'll now see at Selhurst Park will be from pitch invaders eager to give Mama a hug. Big Sam will be delighted.
It's not like Klopp could accuse Sakho of downing tools as he continued to ignore him in the first-half of the season. The defender did everything that was asked of him. He trained with the kids. He turned out for the U23s. Even played in the Premier League International Cup against players, many of whom will look back on the occasion as the highlight of their short career. But Sakho never complained. Indeed, his social media posts - always upbeat - often featured him doing extra fitness work away from Melwood.
Yes, he overstepped the line while on preseason. Was a bit too familiar for Klopp's liking (which is bloody ironic given the nature of Scousers), but there's been nothing sinister in Sakho's behaviour since he was sent home from their US preseason tour.
“It’s not that serious," Klopp claimed at the time. "He missed the departure of the plane, he missed a session and then was late for a meal … But it’s not that serious."
But clearly, for Klopp, it was "that serious". And it came down to personalities. Not attitude. Well, at least that's what we hear from Sakho's former U23 teammates.
"I think we were all surprised how professional [Sakho] has been and how serious he has been in training," said Reds prospect Matty Virtue. “It can be a problem when a first-team player comes down and doesn’t really want to be here but he’s managed himself very well and especially in the games we’ve all learned from him.
“He is a top player, captained France and captained PSG, and all you can do from those players is learn. He has been where we all want to get to."
Klopp is getting a lot right at Anfield. And the knee-jerk calls for his head today are ridiculous. Results like Leicester, just as with Burnley and Swansea City, can be overcome with experience. Or as John Aldridge put it this week, "football intelligence".
But such a process will take time. And can only be accelerated by importing leadership and know-how. Just the sort of qualities Klopp offloaded to Big Sam a month ago - all because of a bit of tardiness on the other side of the world.
?????? @CPFCpic.twitter.com/sLbZYD9SUR — Mamadou Sakho (@mamadousakho) February 25, 2017