Dejan Lovren isn’t the best centre-back out there but he’s certainly not the worst. Repeatedly hammered by supporters even before a ball is kicked when a team with his name in it is announced, we can’t help but feel a little bit for the lad.
Liverpool’s defence isn’t as poor as it is just because of the 28-year-old’s inclusion. The whole defence is a shambles and that includes whoever is in between the sticks. Neither Simon Mignolet or Loris Karius have shown that they are good enough for a so-called elite club, a tag that Liverpool is desperately trying to cling on to under our lacklustre owners.
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Jürgen Klopp has failed to address the goalkeeper situation and instead bizarrely chooses to rotate his two Number 1s. Ridiculous.
To make matters worse he threw Mamadou Sakho out of the club despite the centre-back pleading for a second chance. Liverpool fans were left baffled with Klopp’s decision, Crystal Palace fans celebrated it.
Liverpool legend Phil Thompson, who bossed the centre of Liverpool’s defence and helped them win 7 League titles, 3 European Cups, 3 League Cups, 1 FA Cup, 6 Charity Shields, 2 UEFA Cups and 1 UEFA Super Cup, suggested last month that Klopp should have made up with the 27-year-old who he says was the best defender at the club.
“Our best defender at the start of this season has been allowed to leave. Mamadou Sakho was our best defender. He was a warrior, a fighter, a battler – all those things and you saw it at Crystal Palace last season. He was like that at Liverpool. I know there’s fallouts in football all the time but somewhere along the line you can’t cut off your nose to spite your face. He should have made up with the boy … you lose out to Van Dijk for whatever reason that happened so surely you would be keeping Sakho.”
While Klopp was working at forcing Sakho out for good, some numptie at Anfield decided Dejan Lovren should be offered a new contract worth £100,000-a-week. Not a single Liverpool supporter thought the decision by one of FSG’s puppets made any sense at all.
Another former Liverpool centre-back who has every right to comment on players who are deployed in a position that he made his own at Anfield, once suggested that Lovren could become a leader and future captain at Anfield.
Prior to Steven Gerrard hanging up his boots, Carragher was full of praise for Lovren, the same cannot be said today.
“I think if Lovren establishes himself in the team and becomes a top player by showing the same form he has at Southampton for Liverpool, then in the next few years when Stevie does decide to call it day he will be in contention. You look at him and he has the potential to make a big powerful impact at the back and that’s what Liverpool need … I saw him at Anfield when Southampton travelled there and I saw him against Manchester United as well and he was outstanding in both games. He got the winner at Anfield – I remember that well. But he looks like an organiser and he looks like a leader. There are a lot of good centre-backs out there and they’ll have different qualities but you don’t get many of that type and that’s what I saw in those games.”
So what went wrong? His mind appears to be elsewhere and his confidence must have taken a hit. After being hauled off at the weekend, he will have opened up his phone to a load of abuse from shameful Liverpool fans who take it too far with the way they run their mouths online. This resulted in him removing his profile picture from his Instagram, removing reference to Liverpool in his bio and turning off comments on all the photos he had previously uploaded. Obviously a mini breakdown.
Clearly hurting, Lovren has received few words of support from the fan base. Instead he has become the latest scapegoat. He always gives 100% but admittedly his 100% isn’t good enough. The fans have decided that instead of getting behind him to offer words of support he shall instead be left to walk alone. We would accept that it’s hard to defend his current performances but targeting him in such a manner isn’t going to help.
And it’s not just his relationship with the fans that Lovren is struggling with. It has been well documented that the player caught his wife, his childhood sweetheart, having an affair, which is enough to mash anyone’s head up. It is claimed that was all part of an attempt to try and squeeze £3.5million out of him which resulted in the kidnap of his wife. She claimed she was taken by gunpoint to woods with her young son. This resulted in Lovren being quizzed by serious crime officers in relation to the case. More recently Lovren claimed burglars had possibly pumped gas into his holiday home as he slept with family before they made off with jewellery and cash. Just WTF?! There’s no wonder he has no idea what day of the week it is while running around the heart of the defence like a psychotic pheasant.
If all that isn’t enough to shit you up, lining up alongside other shaky defenders in front of weak goalkeepers and behind a midfield that offers zero protection should be. The blame lies at the feet of Jürgen Klopp for all of these things, apart from the kidnapping and burglary, of course! Everyone but Klopp has been aware of the problems at the back for years.
Yes, Virgil van Dijk would be an improvement but even he will find it difficult in a team with no leadership. If he comes in, let’s hope that he is able to lead from the back even without the captain’s armband.
We feel for Lovren. We don’t like to think of anyone hurting, although we’re pretty sure that the £100,000-a-week pay packet will soften the blow. He should never have been offered that deal, he should have instead been sold and replaced with a more competent defender. Regardless of what Klopp says, there are five better centre-halves ou there than what we already have!
Until then, let’s remain positive because we still have Estonia international Ragnar Klavan that can be called upon …
