After
a very promising performance against Borussia Dortmund, Liverpool Manager was
in an upbeat mode. What was their last pre-season game against a really strong side, Reds performed really well. Alongside Philippe Coutinho and Raheem Sterling, one man who
played his heart out and showed the cop what he is capable of was Dejan Lovren.
Brendan Rodgers was in all praise for his new defender in the press conference. Speaking about Lovren, Rodgers said,
“I've been very pleased with all out signings. Dejan was
perfect, a very dominant number one centre half.”
Dejan
Lovren is one of the signings Liverpool made this summer along with Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana, Lazar Markovic, Emre Can and Javier Manquillo. He was brought from Southampton for a fee
of £20 Million. Many would say that’s too much for a centre back. But Lovren is
the perfect signing Liverpool needed. He would have joined Liverpool in USA had
there been no VISA problems. So he made his debut in front of the Kop and what
a debut it was. After scoring a thunderous header, the Croatian was rock solid
in his defensive duties as well.
Last
season, Liverpool major problem was its defence. They conceded goals for fun
and weren’t able to put a lid on their goal post. Since after Jamie Carragher
retired in 2013, Rodgers was in a search of some talisman in his defence.
Liverpool needed an organiser in their defence and Lovren suits in that role
perfectly. Last season, Liverpool tried different defenders but no one proved fruitful. Martin Skrtel, Mamadou Sakho, Daniel Agger and Kolo Toure all had a dismal season. When their strikers
were scoring goals for fun, there defenders were shipping goals at almost equal
rate. Liverpool conceded 50 goals last season, a tally which took Premier League title away from them.
Skrtel
was a common factor in different strike partnerships but his performances
weren’t up to the mark. He was a standout performer for Liverpool but his
contributions as compared to Lovren were meek. Skrtel made 9 defensive errors
last season. While Lovren made only 1. Lovren made 1.55 successful tackles per
game. While Skrtel was nowhere close to it. Only Liverpool defender who came
close to this mark is Sakho with 1.52 tackles per game. Remember Lovren won a
total of 48 tackles as compared to Sakho’s 25 in total. Lovren do lag behind
Skrtel in one figure which is most headed clearances last season.
So
it’s obvious that Lovren would bring more stability and stiffness in the
backline of Liverpool. He’s a really strong central defender. In his first
season in English Premier League with Saints, he has impressed everyone with
his defending and going for the ball. He
seems calm on the ball and wins a lot of his challenges. He is a very vocal
defender, just what Liverpool needed in their ranks last season.
Liverpool
may have made handful of signings so far. But as it seems now, Lovren will have
more game time than those of other new signings. Lallana, Lambert, Can,
Manquillo all have to fight for a regular starting XI spot, but Lovren will
have a regular spot as far as Brendan Rodgers is concerned. More importantly,
he has Champions League experience, a factor which many of Liverpool youngsters
lack. He can use these factors to his advantage and could be the prosperous of
new signings at Liverpool.
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