It’s poetic that Dejan Lovren and Adam Lallana, who arrived at Liverpool in the same month (July 2014) as one another, from the same club (Southampton), are now set to depart Liverpool within days of one another. And due to the elongated season, the two former Saints will be on the move in the month of July again.
Aside from their career paths though, the pair’s time at Liverpool has been similar in many respects. They both had very difficult starts, plagued by injury, poor performances and heavy price tags, before becoming integral parts of the team under Jurgen Klopp, though have been upgraded on in recent years. Both have been praised for their roles both on and off the pitch in Liverpool’s rise to stardom and both are leaving on good terms, with four trophies under their belts.
Source: https://www.liverpoolfc.com
Let’s start with Lovren. There was understandable excitement around his signature after an excellent debut year at Southampton, which included goals at Anfield and Old Trafford. Lovren was recognised as one of the best centre-backs in the league in 2013/14 and so it wasn’t just Liverpool going after him – Manchester United were keeping them company in the race too.
The Reds got the deal done though. Many felt that Lovren was the final piece in the jigsaw for a side that came so close to winning the Premier League the season before but had ultimately fallen short because of a leaky defence. Excitement grew even further when he put in am imperious and commanding display in a pre-season friendly victory over Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund, banging in a bullet header in the first half.
It was a difficult start to competitive life in red though. Lovren struggled to produce a consistent level of performance and barring a late winner against Swansea in the League Cup, the first half of the season was nothing short of a disaster and found himself dropped by November. After a truly calamitous performance at Old Trafford, he didn’t start another Premier League game until the end of February. The nadir came in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley, Lovren choosing to take a shot from 40 yards out in the dying moments when other options were available.
Jurgen Klopp’s arrival in October of the next season was huge for Lovren. Though he missed the manager’s first two games due to injury, he soon became a mainstay of the team. Though he missed the League Cup Final through injury, he was an ever-present in the latter stages of the run to the Europa League Final and produced the best form of his time at Liverpool so far. The pinnacle of his Liverpool career came in the second leg of the quarter-final against Borussia Dortmund, a team he had already scored against, but this time he did it in a match that meant oh so much. Lovren’s late winner was the seal on one of Liverpool’s all-time great comebacks. Though the Reds lost the final, Lovren’s stock had risen dramatically among fans and was arguably the club’s best player in the second half of that season.
2016/17 saw a change of partner for Lovren. The departure of Mamadou Sakho, who had formed a superb partnership with Lovren, meant that he would now play alongside either Joel Matip or Ragnar Klavan. One of the main problems for Lovren in his early days on Merseyside had been a constant changing of partners (Kolo Toure, Martin Skrtel, Mamadou Sakho, even Emre Can) which meant it was hard for the players to establish an on-field relationship which is so important at centre-back. He had a solid enough season, barring the odd mistake, helping Liverpool to 4th place.
Klopp still found it hard to trust Lovren to produce a consistent level of high performance though, and so targeted Virgil Van Dijk in the summer. That move didn’t come off though and Lovren started his fourth season at the club. It all went horribly wrong at Wembley against Tottenham, where he put in a shambolic performance and was subbed off inside half an hour, after one of the worst individual displays to ever grace a Liverpool shirt. He recovered superbly though and after the arrival of Van Dijk in January, helped take the team to the Champions League Final in Kiev. Lovren was by far Liverpool’s best performer on that disappointing night and rightly got plenty of praise. Six weeks later, he was competing for football’s biggest prize, the World Cup, as Croatia were beaten by France 4-2 in the final.
Lovren returned from the World Cup with an injury which ruled him out of the start of 2018/19. He only made 18 appearances in all competitions last season, though got his hands on the Champions League trophy, his first piece of silverware at Liverpool. It has been a similar story this season. Injury and not being in favour have limited him to 15 appearances this campaign.
He’s had ups and downs. Lovren has often struggled with consistency and the main problem Liverpool have found has been that in ten games, he’ll have eight or nine good ones, but the occasional poor performance is a disastrous one. He’s a man who plays on emotion and this can lead to rash and erratic play. Injuries too haven’t helped (he hasn’t made more than 29 appearances in any Premier League season at Liverpool) and this has meant that he has rarely had a long, uninterrupted run in the team. However, Lovren’s commitment and passion on the pitch can never be faulted. 185 appearances is a good tally and he has been a very good servant to the club, even if he has never quite been good enough for long enough to be fully convincing. It is a measure of his ability and standing in the game that he is able to be attractive to a club like Zenit, with European football, despite his age and lack of gametime recently.
Source: https://www.liverpoolfc.com
Lallana was sensational as a number ten for Southampton in 2013/14 under Mauricio Pochettino and was courted by a number of clubs. Liverpool won the race but Like Lovren, Lallana’s first season at Anfield was a tough one, disrupted by injuries. He was ruled out of the start of the season with an injury sustained in pre-season, which set back his development on Merseyside. There were glimpses of promise though, with a man-of-the-match performance at home to Swansea in December, as well a match-winning strike in the FA Cup fifth round at Crystal Palace.
Klopp becoming Liverpool manager was a godsend for Lallana. The manager wanted players who would impress with their work-rate and pressing ability. Lallana was soon given the role as ‘leader of the press’. He was the best player on the pitch in Klopp’s first game in charge – a draw with Tottenham. He developed well under Klopp, making 49 appearances in all competitions, usually deployed on the right of a 4-2-3-1 system, and coming up with a few highlights, including a famous late winner at Norwich and the third in the 3-0 win over Villarreal in the Europa League semi-final.
2016/17 brought about a surprising change of shape – Klopp went with 4-3-3, abandoning his 4-2-3-1. Lallana was reinvented as one of the more advanced midfielders in the three and absolutely shone in the role. The first half of this season saw Lallana’s best form for the club and for that period from August to December, he was by far Liverpool’s top player. The Emirates on opening day was the scene of Lallana and Philippe Coutinho ripping Arsenal apart. The high-pressing, high-intensity play that was now becoming Liverpool’s DNA was bringing out the best in Lallana.
Though injury and a slight dip in form meant that the second half of the season wasn’t quite at the same level, it was still Lallana’s best year by far. The Middlesbrough away performance will live long in my memory as one of the best individual displays I’ve ever seen from a Liverpool player. Unfortunately, the midfielder spent most of 2017/18 and 2018/19 injured, meaning he couldn’t kick on from his terrific 2016/17.
Despite most expecting him to leave at the end of last season, he stayed and has finished his Liverpool career on a high. Klopp once again redefined Lallana’s role this campaign, using him as a deep midfielder in pre-season. This has been the Englishman’s job en route to the Premier League title, being used as a substitute to bring a calming presence onto the pitch in the latter stages of matches and to help see results out, in the same way James Milner has previously been deployed. In the fourteen times he was used as a substitute this season, Liverpool saw the result out – or bettered it – on all fourteen occasions. He has shown leadership and maturity in his game and this has also been displayed in his performances in the cups, being one of the elder statesmen in young Liverpool teams. He has more than played his part in Liverpool’s run to the title this year and his move to the ambitious and exciting Brighton is a good one.
So, that’s it. Except it isn’t. Because there is a third former Saint who has now waved goodbye to the North-West.
Source: https://www.liverpoolfc.com
Nathaniel Clyne’s exit was much more low-key and less broadcasted than Lallana or Lovren’s (he didn’t even get a farewell interview) but it’s another long-standing squad member moving on. Clyne arrived from Southampton a year later than Lallana and Lovren, after a couple of solid years on the South Coast (including a goal at Anfield in 2014/15 on Lovren’s Liverpool debut). He was an instant hit and was the most consistent performer in the side in 2015/16, making the right-back position his own and appearing 52 times in all competitions en route to the finals of the League Cup and Europa League.
2016/17 was much the same from Clyne as Liverpool booked a return to the Champions League. While he wasn’t the most adventurous player going forward, he was very solid defensively and hardly made a mistake. He appeared in all but one Premier League game that season and looked set to be Liverpool’s right-back for a long time. Unfortunately for him though, a major injury occurred in pre-season, meaning he missed a large chunk of 2017/18. As a result, Trent Alexander-Arnold came into the team and has been there ever since. Clyne has made just ten appearances in the last three years and hasn’t put on a Liverpool shirt since December 2018.
Still, he was one of the most reliable performers in the early days of Klopp’s time at the club and deserves thanks for that. It’ll be interesting to see what he does next. With so little football under his belt in the last three seasons, he may not find offers to match his talent.
Between them, Lallana, Lovren and Clyne have played 466 times for the club. All three former Saints have played a part, in their own ways.
Daniel Daykin
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