Can Dejan Lovren redeem himself at Liverpool?

Short answer – yes.

But before I begin, let’s take ourselves back to 2008. Not long had we signed a Brazilian midfielder called Lucas Pezzini Leiva and not a lot was going his way in his first season (or two) at Anfield.

Liverpool fans could be forgiven though, having grown accustomed to players like Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano occupying the midfield spot next to Steven Gerrard, it’s understandable for a the new kid on the block to be a little underwhelming.

This reminds me of another Liverpool player. Dejan Lovren.

Source: liverpoolfc.com

Hold the rotten tomatoes and hear me out.

Before Dejan Lovren, Liverpool had a strong set of centre backs. Daniel Agger, Martin Skrtel and the retiring Jamie Carragher.

Like with Lucas being compared Mascherano and Alonso, we are comparing Lovren to Agger and Carragher, which is unfair.

When Liverpool signed Skrtel and Agger they were both around the 24-year-old mark. The same age Lovren was handed the No.6 shirt at Anfield.

It took young Martin and Daniel a while to settle in at Liverpool but they were okay to take their time because a certain Sami Hyypia was still around to accompany Carragher in defence while the two new recruits settle in.

For me, the mistake wasn’t signing Lovren in the summer. It was bringing in a new defender (Lovren) and allowing an experienced defender (Agger) to leave. If Liverpool had kept hold of Agger for even just one more season there would be less pressure on Dejan (and Mamadou Sakho) to perform as Agger could have just been thrown back in, to accompany Skrtel, for the big games if it wasn’t working for the new boys.

I’ll start by comparing Dejan to other centre backs around the Premier League, starting with Chelsea’s Gary Cahill.

Cahill has featured in 20 Premier League games this season for the league leaders and in doing so has won an average of 60% of his defensive duels, with the majority of those being in the air. The same can be said for Lovren who has equalled Cahill’s average but trumping him on ground tackles by boasting an average of 47% while the Chelsea man has found success 44% of the time this season.

Manchester City currently sit second in the Premier League table, narrowly behind Chelsea, and their talismanic defender Vincent Kompany has featured in 13 league games this season. During that time he has won 43% of his duels but just 37% of on-the-ground tackles have gone Vincent’s way.

Statistically, Lovren isn’t looking too bad now is he?

Finally, a little closer to home, I’ll compare Jan Vertonghen to Lovren. Spurs current sit just two points ahead of Liverpool in the league table and Vertonghen has featured 17 times this season. He has won 58% of his duels, again most of those aerial, compared to Dejan’s 60%.

“Where exactly is Lovren going wrong?” I hear some of you shouting. Well, you haven’t really watched much of his performances this year if you’re saying that. He is very prone to making mistakes at the back which do often end in disaster as Liverpool’s Simon Mignolet is hardly in the form of his career.

Lovren celebrates his winner over Swansea. Source: liverpoolfc.com

In the Premier League along he has made a total of six defensive errors this season, the highest in the league, two of those directly resulted in a goal against Liverpool.

Here’s a short video of the Sky Sport’s team analysing Liverpool’s game against City earlier this season, highlighting the type of errors Lovren has found himself prone to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ1D-r5IgZU

He is capable of better though, he spent the entire of last season with just one defensive error to his name at Southampton and, along with Jose Fonte, were arguably the reason Saints saw the success they did last season.

Lovren also won the majority of every type of duel last season in the Premier League, a feat equalled by Liverpool duo Skrtel and Agger who helped Liverpool finish second last year.

He has been a Liverpool player for nine months and that can be over in the blink of an eye in football. Heroes aren’t made overnight and at the age of 25, Lovren has time on his side.

Don’t just take my word for it though, Jamie Carragher has been singing plaudits for Dejan.

The former Liverpool vice-captain told ECHO:

“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.”

“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.

“At Old Trafford in particular he was communicating so well and hopefully he’ll bring that to Liverpool and I think that is certainly something that is needed.

“He did suffer with a few injury problems in the second-half of the campaign and that coincided with Southampton tailing off a touch but definitely in the first-half he was playing as well as anybody in his position.

“The game we highlighted on Monday Night Football was at Old Trafford and he was coming up against Wayne Rooney and Robin Van Persie, two world class strikers and he more than held his own – in fact he came out on top.

“He was aggressive and he was organising and that’s exactly what you want in a centre-back.”

It won’t be easy for Lovren but he can redeem himself at Liverpool. The first thing will be to get the fans back on his side and the way to do that is put in a visual effort in games – like what we see from Jordan Henderson and Adam Lallana – and a few decent performances to top.

The most difficult aspect will be getting Brendan Rodgers convinced to include him in team selections over players like Mamadou Sakho and Martin Skrtel… even Kolo Toure could make a claim to be ahead of him in the pecking order. To further exemplify this, an out-of-position Emre Can has been preferred to the Croat in a back three with Skrtel and Sakho.

With Liverpool still in the Europa League and FA Cup, I’m sure there will be plenty of chances for him if Rodgers doesn’t fancy chancing it on a Premier League match.

I’m not saying Lovren is going to be the next Sami Hyypia but give him a bit of time. Like Lucas we may see that he could (arguably) become an integral part of our squad in the future, especially with Skrtel just turning 30 and Toure turning at 34 in March.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m frustrated with Lovren. I do though feel he is being used as a scapegoat for our entire defence’s issues this season. Nonetheless, I will stand behind Dejan until the day he departs our club. What’s our club’s motto again? ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’, that’s right. Prove it.

I leave you with a video of Lovren scoring an absolute screamer for Croatia. Not the most important thing for a defender but, still, nice to watch:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3biZcVNVZ8

Now, please, I believe I’m promised some rotten tomatoes.