Ever since Jurgen Klopp took over at Liverpool, a number of players have seen an up-turn in form and confidence under the new manager – none more so than the Croatian centre-back, Dejan Lovren.
Last night’s performance in Dortmund was not a surprise after seeing a drastic improvement from the player we saw last season and the end of Brendan Rodgers’ reign.
Eyebrows were raised after his signing from Southampton at the start of last season for a large sum of £20m and further doubts were cast upon Lovren after a difficult season, swapping in and out of the team with Martin Skrtel and Mamadou Sakho.
Lovren’s season was worsened when his penalty sailed over the cross bar in Istanbul, to knock the Reds out of the Europa League at the hands of Besiktas. Lovren, with the rest of the Liverpool defence, were widely criticised throughout the campaign as being the reason for the disappointing season in which Liverpool finished sixth, following such an impressive season the one previous.
The Reds came into this season with mostly the same defence that finished the last one, which caused some issues amongst fans, but Brendan Rodgers believed that the defence would sort itself out. Unfortunately, the defence remained a big issue and were at fault for a large proportion of goals conceded.
Liverpool fans began to lose patience and many were calling for recruitments and suggesting options that could come in and strengthen the back line. However, Lovren’s Liverpool career was to be revived when a certain Jurgen Klopp was announced as the new manager in late October when Rodgers was sacked.
Under the German manager, Lovren was given more and more starts as he grew to become an early favourite for Klopp. Since then, the Croatian international has begun to show signs of his form at Southampton that tempted Liverpool to pay the money they did for him.
Lovren has played 19 games since Klopp has arrived and in those games, 10 clean sheets have been kept which represent 66% of all Liverpool’s clean sheets under Klopp so far this season.
His confidence has improved ten-fold and he is starting to show consistency in his solid displays at the back with either Sakho, Skrtel or Kolo Toure. He has reverted back to the way he played at Southampton; a no-nonsense approach that is extremely effective. Under Rodgers, he was encouraged to keep the ball at his feet and try to make passes, which was just not his game.
Now under Klopp, he has been given the license to play his way and defend how he prefers, which is why he is now playing the best football of his career.
Last season, there were times when Lovren was making careless mistakes that were directly leading to goals. Now, he is the one making up for his fellow defenders mistakes, as we saw in the game against Tottenham Hotspur when he constantly made amends for Sakho’s numerous errors.
Lovren felt the pressure of his price tag in his first season, which affected his performances. Whilst he would not use this as an excuse, players are often overwhelmed with the price in which they sign for a new club.
In his most recent performance against Dortmund, in which he came up against arguably the best striker in Europe currently, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, he was assured and professional in the way he defended, which is why the forward was substituted after 70 minutes, as he could not get anywhere near the ball.
With Joel Matip arriving from Schalke in the summer, he and Lovren could be the answer to Liverpool’s defensive woes and a partnership that will allow Liverpool to finally compete at the top again.
