Mamadou: I'm getting there little by little
Mamadou Sakho believes he can flourish at Liverpool as he continues to settle into life in the city – and the Frenchman is determined to display his leadership qualities when he returns to action over the coming weeks.
Sakho has not featured for the Reds since picking up a thigh strain during the pulsating Capital One Cup win over Middlesbrough on September 23, and has now been sidelined for the club's last 10 games in all competitions.
The Frenchman, who arrived in the summer of 2013, has made just four starts for Brendan Rodgers' side this season - but the 24-year-old believes he has a part to play for the Reds once fully recovered.
"I am still in my learning phase," he told Champions Magazine. "Little by little I'll start to open up even more because when you don't speak a language well enough, it's difficult to show your character; it's difficult to communicate.
"But it will come, little by little. I've improved my English. I understand a lot better, especially the local Scouse accent. I'm still working.
"I've been spending afternoons with the kids [at the Liverpool FC Foundation] regularly since I arrived. I am always happy to give French lessons and share some sport sessions with them. It's important for them and me."
Sakho became Paris Saint-Germain's youngest-ever captain when he was handed the armband on his league debut as a 17-year-old Academy graduate against Valenciennes in October 2007 - and to this day, it's a record the centre-back is immensely proud of.
While he insists much has changed during the seven years since he skippered his boyhood club for the first time, the Reds' No.17 believes he retains the inspirational qualities which marked him out for the responsibility at such a tender age.
"The moment will stay with me forever," he said. "But in football you need to move on. I am not 17 anymore, I am 24. My career is different now. Everything I've accomplished has helped me gather experience but now I must move on and look forward.
"For me it [leadership] comes naturally. There are different kinds of leaders - technical leaders, dressing room leaders, psychological leaders.
"I'd rather keep my personal objectives to myself so people don't think I'm too pretentious. But I am a very ambitious person, I have set personal objectives, the team has set some too and they are quite similar."
