Blow for Liverpool FC as scan shows Mamadou Sakho will be out for three to four weeksLiverpool FC have suffered a major blow with the news that Mamadou Sakho will be sidelined for three to four weeks with a hamstring injury.The French centre-back limped out of last Wednesday’s FA Cup quarter-final replay win over Blackburn and scan results have now revealed the full extent of the damage.
It means Sakho will miss Monday night’s home clash with Newcastle, the FA Cup semi-final with Aston Villa at Wembley and the following league games against West Brom, Hull and QPR. Liverpool hope he will be back available for the trip to Chelsea on May 10.Kolo Toure came off the bench to replace Sakho at Ewood Park and he impressed alongside Dejan Lovren, who will be hoping to make his first league start for a month against Newcastle. Fellow centre-back Martin Skrtel is still banned but Emre Can is available to face John Carver’s side after serving his suspension.Boss Brendan Rodgers must decide whether to revert to a three-man backline after playing 4-3-3 in the absence of both Skrtel and Can.
“The beauty of this team is the flexibility of it,” Rodgers said.
“I spoke to (Blackburn boss) Gary Bowyer on Friday night, talking tactics and about the game.
“He was interested about why we went to a four. For me it’s the great flexibility I have now. I can change the system depending on the opponent or the availability of players.
“You’ve got to give huge credit to the players and the amount of trust they have in the work because they can flip so easily between various systems and then perform them very well.
“We haven’t played 4-3-3 with a single pivot for quite a long time but we went naturally into the system. We played Philippe Coutinho in a slightly different role, off the right but he came down the inside. That gave Jordan Henderson the licence then to go outside. It also gave us the numbers centrally.”
Glen Johnson also staked a claim to keep his place after his performance at right-back against Blackburn.The 30-year-old defender will leave Anfield when his contract expires this summer but Rodgers insists that won’t have an impact on whether he’s selected between now and the end of the season. Johnson hasn’t started a Premier League game since mid-December.
Asked if Johnson still had something to offer, Rodgers said: “Absolutely. I just think he’s been unfortunate with the system that we’ve been playing and the consistency and availability of the players who have been in that he hasn’t featured so much.
“I think it shows his level of professionalism and how he’s trained and worked that he was able to come into a game like that and play at full-back.
“The demands of the modern full-back are to get up and back and I thought his fitness came through very well. That shows how well he’s been looking after himself and how well he’s been training.
“I could see him playing as one of the back three. I think he can do that very well. I saw him do it as a young player. When he started he played at centre-half at West Ham. I saw him play for England at centre-half as an under-15 at York City.
“Glen’s comfortable in a central area and even more so in a three, which he’s played sometimes for me. When you play the back three, the two sides of the back three have to be comfortable to step out into a wide area and of course if you’re a full-back, you’re naturally comfortable doing that.
“I haven’t spoken recently to Glen (about his future). What I know is he’s committed in training, he’s never not wanted to train.
“He’s been outstanding in training, just waiting for his opportunity. We’ll just have to see what the summer brings.”
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