Life is hard for the loanee, working to integrate yourself into a squad you know you'll be leaving at the end of the season. Doubly difficult is immediately getting injured on your debut and missing the next six weeks, as Aly Cissokho found during his unfortunate return against Newcastle that made him look exactly like a player coming back from injury.
It was a rough re-introduction to the team, but Cissokho improved against West Brom last weekend and is enjoying the wingback position that Brendan Rodgers has been utilizing in tandem with three centre backs.
"It's a role I like a lot," said Cissokho in an interview with Liverpool's website. "I can get up the field a lot, whilst remaining safe in terms of the three behind me. We have three defenders in line as flat backline, which gives me a lot of freedom. My natural position is a left-sided defender, so this freedom allows me to give everything I can to the team.
"We have midfielders who work in line, so it takes a lot of physical and cardio effort to get up the wing and track back in case of danger and to defend as well. [The injury is] getting better a little at a time. I have some more cardio work to do but that's not too tough. It takes a big physical effort, but the manager demands a lot of effort in these areas among the defenders."
With Jose Enrique still out with a mysterious and chronic knee problem, Cissokho has a chance to continue improving his game in order to stake a real claim on the position once Enrique returns. His generally positive display on the weekend culminated in his providing an assist on Luis Suarez's stellar headed goal has given the player a boost, and the player is happy with how it's improving the restart to his season.
"It's always a pleasure to provide an assist for a goal," Cissokho continued. "It gives me a lot of confidence as it was only my second start in the league and I wanted to do things well, adapt to the team and the Premier League."