Dejan Lovren is a man who has received a lot of criticism from Liverpool fans in recent years, but supporters are no doubt grateful the defender opted to stay in the summer after recent strong performances.
The Croatian defender reportedly wanted to leave the club in the summer, but it seems as if Jurgen Klopp made the right decision in keeping the 30-year-old at the club. Lovren signed from Southampton in 2014 and has gone on to make 176 appearances in his five years with the Reds.
Lovren presumably wanted to leave the club due to the likes of Virgil van Dijk, Joel Matip and Joe Gomez perhaps being ahead of him in the pecking order, but Lovren has proved a lot of fans wrong by stepping up superbly in the absence of Matip. The former Southampton defender was very solid in Liverpool’s vital 3-1 win over Manchester City on Sunday, with fans very appreciative of the Croatian’s recent form.
Some of the best reactions from Reds fans to Lovren’s recent form can be seen in the tweets below.
He is a real mentality monster!
— ?????™ (@Ophrodite_0719) November 12, 2019
Credit to him for putting a performance in even though he didn’t get a move. Didn’t sulk or moan, didn’t disrupt the dressing room, didn’t take any pot shots in any interviews at the club, manager or the fans. Well done.
— Shiroyasha (@Moralmao) November 12, 2019
Which is exactly why you need World Class depth.
— LFC_000 (@LFC_000) November 12, 2019
I love the passion in dejan lovren
— Tyotsumeh Daniel Terfa (@TyotsumehT) November 12, 2019
Lovren can be absolutely brilliant. It’s just difficult to have 100% faith in him.
— 6 times. (@mackemgerrard) November 12, 2019
Chill. Dejan was excellent. For top players like him it’s more an ego thing than anything else. Nobody likes to know someone else is ahead of you. But he had to know he was going to get plenty of matches, including full 90s.
And he gets to stay at a club like LFC and win things
— Israil Thomas (@keepmoremoney) November 12, 2019
These tweets clearly show that Reds fans are happy with Lovren’s recent form and will be hoping that the 30-year-old can continue to impress until Joel Matip returns from injury.
What do we think?
Lovren self-proclaimed himself as one of the world’s best defenders in 2018 which may have been an exaggeration, but there can be no doubt that he has been an excellent back-up in recent weeks for Liverpool. An average rating of 6.91 is solid for someone who is not normally considered a starter, so Reds fans can be safe in the knowledge that they have a reliable back-up as they seek to continue their Premier League title push.