Former Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren has claimed that Jurgen Klopp recently told him the Reds ‘miss’ the Croatian.
The centre-back brought an end a six-year stint at Anfield in the summer when he was sold to Zenit Si Petersburg for £10.9m.
Speaking to Russian publication Sport-Express, the 31-year-old made the bold claim that: “I think Liverpool miss me more than I miss him. And Jurgen Klopp knows this because we communicate. He wrote recently: ‘We miss you’.”
Lovren also stated he doesn’t regret his decision to leave Anfield, having fallen out of favour last season, whilst Klopp is perhaps right to feel that way about his former defender given what has transpired since.
The Liverpool manager has been left scraping the proverbial barrel for central defenders at the club after long-term injuries suffered by Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez.
Van Dijk met Lovren recently in Dubai, where the pair trained together, and the Croatian has pleaded with the Dutch defender not to rush back to action, saying: “If the risk of relapse persists, it is best to wait.”
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Nobody could have foreseen the frankly brutal central defensive casualties suffered by the Premier League champions this term.
The decision to sell Lovren last summer barely saw an eyebrow twitch at the time – albeit a long-time servant, his habit of high-profile errors made him a liability.
That said, given what we know now, not many of even the most stubborn Kopites would say they wish he hadn’t left.
