Topic: Dejan Lovren

[PeterTheRed ...]

Which raises the question why we are giving Lovren who has had 8 injuries this season and 5 last season a massive long term deal. He is probably at the peak of his physical powers at the moment but misses too many games. What is he going to be like in his thirties.

Maybe FSG have read your posts and decided to start spending 

[Lycan]

He said that Lovren is the least of our problems. Do I think he's the biggest problem? No. Which is why I didn't say it.

You kind of did say that though in a round about way. You replied he couldn't be more wrong.

[MolbyLovesGravlax]

We've dabbled with three at the back this season, as have plenty of teams, I would expect us to play it at least at times next season which helps justify three top choice CDs, even more so when our seem at least 'niggle prone'.

[Funky_Gibbons]

Which raises the question why we are giving Lovren who has had 8 injuries this season and 5 last season a massive long term deal. He is probably at the peak of his physical powers at the moment but misses too many games. What is he going to be like in his thirties.

What are these 8 injuries he's had this season?

[Eeyore]

We've dabbled with three at the back this season, as have plenty of teams, I would expect us to play it at least at times next season which helps justify three top choice CDs, even more so when our seem at least 'niggle prone'.

If you are going to play three at the back though then ideally you want the central centre back to be comfortable on the ball and able to break the lines with the ball at his feet. So for me Matip is the best choice to play in the middle of the three. Lovren is at his best within the width of the penalty area, getting tight and physical with forwards. Drag him out wide and he gets exposed so playing him on the left of a three would accentuate his weaknesses and minimize his strengths.

If Lovren had some versatility and could play as a holding mid or full back then giving him a massive deal would make more sense.

[Eeyore]

What are these 8 injuries he's had this season?

Dejan Lovren Injury History
Injury    Club    Date Injury Reported
Back Injury    Liverpool Injuries    2017 March 10th
Knee Injury    Liverpool Injuries    2017 January 31st
Hamstring Injury    Liverpool Injuries    2016 December 11th
Illness    Liverpool Injuries    2016 November 5th
Groin Strain    Liverpool Injuries    2016 October 1st
Viral Infection    Liverpool Injuries    2016 September 22nd
Eye Injury    Liverpool Injuries    2016 September 9th
Knock    Liverpool Injuries    2016 August 6th

[sms1986]

Dejan Lovren Injury History
Injury    Club    Date Injury Reported
Back Injury    Liverpool Injuries    2017 March 10th
Knee Injury    Liverpool Injuries    2017 January 31st
Hamstring Injury    Liverpool Injuries    2016 December 11th
Illness    Liverpool Injuries    2016 November 5th
Groin Strain    Liverpool Injuries    2016 October 1st
Viral Infection    Liverpool Injuries    2016 September 22nd
Eye Injury    Liverpool Injuries    2016 September 9th
Knock    Liverpool Injuries    2016 August 6th

To be fair, two of those are illnesses and one was caused accidentally by a teammate in training.

[Eeyore]

To be fair, two of those are illnesses and one was caused accidentally by a teammate in training.

Which you would expect a big strong centre back to shrug off and play. Players are rarely 100% but some manage to play week in week out and some don't. We tend to collect the latter.

[Funky_Gibbons]

Dejan Lovren Injury History
Injury    Club    Date Injury Reported
Back Injury    Liverpool Injuries    2017 March 10th
Knee Injury    Liverpool Injuries    2017 January 31st
Hamstring Injury    Liverpool Injuries    2016 December 11th
Illness    Liverpool Injuries    2016 November 5th
Groin Strain    Liverpool Injuries    2016 October 1st
Viral Infection    Liverpool Injuries    2016 September 22nd
Eye Injury    Liverpool Injuries    2016 September 9th
Knock    Liverpool Injuries    2016 August 6th

So thats five injuries, one black eye and two sicknesses.

[Funky_Gibbons]

Which you would expect a big strong centre back to shrug off and play. Players are rarely 100% but some manage to play week in week out and some don't. We tend to collect the latter.

Yeah I'm ready boss, I can play honestly.

I assume you also know how bad his illnesses were.

[PeterTheRed ...]

Which you would expect a big strong centre back to shrug off and play. Players are rarely 100% but some manage to play week in week out and some don't. We tend to collect the latter.

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11667/10852372/jose-mourinho-again-criticises-cautious-injured-duo-chris-smalling-and-phil-jones

[Eeyore]

Yeah I'm ready boss, I can play honestly.

I assume you also know how bad his illnesses were.

Bert Trautmen and Gerry Byrne sympathize.

[Funky_Gibbons]

Bert Trautmen and Gerry Byrne sympathize.

Fucking hell, the games moved on a bit since then.......

[sms1986]

Bert Trautmen and Gerry Byrne sympathize.

You're just being an arsehole towards Lovren now. Trautmann didn't know his neck was broken during that game, whilst Byrne had a collar bone break during the game but insisted he didn't want to come off.

[sms1986]

Also, Lovren had a black eye, do you really think he could have played whilst unable to see out of one of his eyes?

[deFacto please, you bastards]

Al how do you manage to hijack every thread mate?

[rob1966]

Yeah I'm ready boss, I can play honestly.

I assume you also know how bad his illnesses were.

Mourinho would expect him to play with both eyes like that.

There's no way the club doctors would allow him to play with that eye like that, never mind Klopp.

[Narwin Dunez]

I don't think Lovren is good enough but to expect him to play half blind... you're trolling Al.

[Narwin Dunez]

Hoping that's not a response for me from this morning? Thought I elaborated and made it clearer that I wasn't saying what you thought. Your bolded bit makes me think we're on the same page.

Nah it wasn't, nor the two below you (too far gone to multi-quote now) - tends to be the less eloquent that were throwing the shit at those they disagree with.

[LFCEmpire]

Hope he nets the winner for us tomorrow.

[Samie]

Dave Whelan would've played with a broken leg in the FA Cup final if he was allowed to.

[Vorg]

Either me or the highly paid professionals at our club are getting it wrong, but to me Lovren's new £100k/week contract borders on insanity. He's not even the best defender in the club, let alone one of the top defenders in the Premier league or the world, as his new salary would suggest.

Lovren always has a good attitude, but he is inconsistent, prone to poor decisions, often poorly positioned, and not very good at 1-on-1 situations. He loses more tackles than he wins (an anomaly among the top-6 team defenders). One of his two strengths is the aggressive defending where he aims to cut moves short from in front of the attackers, but if he misses those, there's a huge hole in the middle of our defense. He is also quite good in the air, but that's often undermined by his poor positioning, meaning that he is often not where he should be to make the challenge for the ball in the first place.

Just to elaborate the point, I thought Škrtel and Lovren were pretty much on a par with each other; yet one was ousted and the other is offered a king's ransom. Škrtel was part of the defense that leaked only 27 goals in 2008/09, and 28 the year before that and 35 the year after; we have not conceded less than 48 during Lovren's tenure. This comparison is of course completely unfair and arbitrary, and yet I don't think any team can win the Premier league with Lovren as a first-choice defender. I will be ecstatic if I'm proven wrong.

EDIT. Just to clarify: in my opinion our current horrid defensive record is not the sole fault of our defenders. We currently lack protective DM (Lucas is one, but very seldom played as such, and Henderson can also offer adequate protection even if he's naturally more box-to-box midfielder thanks to his relentless workrate / endless running, but his Achilles' heel may limit his contributions severely in the future as well). As has been pointed out by others, our current playing style (high line, attacking mentality) and the lack of covering DM exposes defenders time and time again in a very demanding manner. If we'd want to improve that, we'd need a world-class DM to replace Can as a starter.

[deFacto please, you bastards]

Either me or the highly paid professionals at our club are getting it wrong, but to me Lovren's new £100k/week contract borders on insanity. He's not even the best defender in the club, let alone one of the top defenders in the Premier league or the world, as his new salary would suggest.

Lovren always has a good attitude, but he is inconsistent, prone to poor decisions, often poorly positioned, and not very good at 1-on-1 situations. He loses more tackles than he wins (an anomaly among the top-6 team defenders). One of his two strengths is the aggressive defending where he aims to cut moves short from in front of the attackers, but if he misses those, there's a huge hole in the middle of our defense. He is also quite good in the air, but that's often undermined by his poor positioning, meaning that he is often not where he should be to make the challenge for the ball in the first place.

Just to elaborate the point, I thought Škrtel and Lovren were pretty much on a par with each other; yet one was ousted and the other is offered a king's ransom. Škrtel was part of the defense that leaked only 27 goals in 2008/09, and 28 the year before that and 35 the year after; we have not conceded less than 48 during Lovren's tenure. This comparison is of course completely unfair and arbitrary, and yet I don't think any team can win the Premier league with Lovren as a first-choice defender. I will be ecstatic if I'm proven wrong.

Skrtel was also apart of us conceding goals left and right in the last five six seasons, before Lovren arrived. We're not cocneding goals because of Lovren, we're conceding goals because of our inability to defend as a unit in certain situations.

Lovren did fine when he played in a different system under Pochettino, he also had two defensive midfielders in front of hiim. Just like Skrtel did under Rafa, when we had Alonso/Mascherano/Sissoko sitting in front of the back four.

If Chelsea can win the league with Cahill and Luiz, a team can win the league with Lovren as one of the defenders as well. It's a matter of learning how to defend as a unit. He has the ability to do so. yes he makes mistakess, but so do Cahill and Luiz, however they also have Matic and Kante in front of them

You're rewritting history. You make it seem like Lovren is the reason we have conceded goals in the last 8 years.

[Eeyore]

I don't think Lovren is good enough but to expect him to play half blind... you're trolling Al.

Alan Hansen's nickname within the squad was the panda because he ended up with so many black eyes. Don't remember him missing too many games.

Lovren has been unavailable for selection on 8 occasions this season and 5 last season. He got a snack in the kipper last week and ended up coming off. Let's face it he is a decent centre back with a pretty crap injury record. People go on about his record with Matip but the brutal reality is that they haven't played together for almost two thirds of our games. That simply isn't good enough.

[Suareznumber7]

That centre backs are the one position where you don't want rotation. You want to have a settled centre back partnership.

Based on the number of injuries that our CB's are prone to get we need at least 1 more top CB. 

[Vorg]

That's why there was the "This comparison is of course completely unfair and arbitrary" disclaimer. Of course it's not as simple as that. That we have never been defensively solid with Lovren as a starter is a fact. But whether we would have been with any CDs we'll never know. I edited my post to make this aspect clearer.

[deFacto please, you bastards]

That's why there was the "This comparison is of course completely unfair and arbitrary" disclaimer. Of course it's not as simple as that. That we have never been defensively solid with Lovren as a starter is a fact. But whether we would have been with any CDs we'll never know. I edited my post to make this aspect clearer.

We were never defensively solid before Lovren either for the last 7 years, or whatever amount of time elapsed since rafa's departure. That was the last time we were cohesive at the back. Lovren or no Lovren, that has been an issue for a long time, which is why i said it's a collective issue rather than just an individual issue.

[-HH-]

People go on about his record with Mario but the brutal reality is that they haven't played together for almost two thirds of our games. That simply isn't good enough.

I always thought Mario's natural partner was Luigi anyway.

[kingz]

http://eplindex.com/79855/liverpools-lovren-sized-problems.html?utm_content=buffercbadb&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

[Frizzo]

Which you would expect a big strong centre back to shrug off and play. Players are rarely 100% but some manage to play week in week out and some don't. We tend to collect the latter.

Fucking hell. Ok Jose.

[thejbs]

Sorry, but I have to laugh at people (or a person) expecting Lovren to play with one eye completely occluded. A centre-half without depth perception is going to be great in set pieces.

[classycarra]

Alan Hansen's nickname within the squad was the panda because he ended up with so many black eyes. Don't remember him missing too many games.

Lovren has been unavailable for selection on 8 occasions this season and 5 last season. He got a snack in the kipper last week and ended up coming off. Let's face it he is a decent centre back with a pretty crap injury record. People go on about his record with Matip but the brutal reality is that they haven't played together for almost two thirds of our games. That simply isn't good enough.

Using last week as an example is daft. It was clear Lovren didn't want to be subbed off. But Klopp wanted to hurry someone onto the pitch in his place to play rather than wait for the all clear from Doctor.

It took so long that it ended up looking a bad/panicked decision when we ended up making another substitution two minutes later (and the same again after that). But that's one where you can blame the boss rather than Lovren.

[ggcc14]

A centre-half without depth perception is going to be great in set pieces.

And then imagine him with one eye!

[YerBaldyHead]

Quote from Lovren the other day:

"Mentally, we have to be prepared, even though it's not like playing Man City, where you'll find motivation without reason."

That basically explains this season. Couldn't believe my eyes when i read it. So the team has to search for motivation? How about playing in the Champions League next season you fucking idiot? Is that motivating enough?

Not the biggest fan of Lovren but also think some of the flack he gets is overboard. I'm genuinely angry about that quote though. Shocking mentality to have.

[sms1986]

Quote from Lovren the other day:

"Mentally, we have to be prepared, even though it's not like playing Man City, where you'll find motivation without reason."

That basically explains this season. Couldn't believe my eyes when i read it. So the team has to search for motivation? How about playing in the Champions League next season you fucking idiot? Is that motivating enough?

Not the biggest fan of Lovren but also think some of the flack he gets is overboard. I'm genuinely angry about that quote though. Shocking mentality to have.

That's not all of what he said -

"“We are focused on our style of the game – we want to attack, we want to score goals, we have something to reach for,” said the centre-back, who signed a new long-term contract at Anfield last week.

“Mentally, we have to be prepared for the game, even though it’s not like playing Manchester City, where you will find motivation without any big reason.

“We have a big reason – it’s the final four games for the Champions League."

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/liverpool-trip-watford-must-win-12967932

[classycarra]

Quote from Lovren the other day:

"Mentally, we have to be prepared, even though it's not like playing Man City, where you'll find motivation without reason."

That basically explains this season. Couldn't believe my eyes when i read it. So the team has to search for motivation? How about playing in the Champions League next season you fucking idiot? Is that motivating enough?

Not the biggest fan of Lovren but also think some of the flack he gets is overboard. I'm genuinely angry about that quote though. Shocking mentality to have.

You could work for a red-top paper with that selective quoting!

[YerBaldyHead]

That's not all of what he said -

"“We are focused on our style of the game – we want to attack, we want to score goals, we have something to reach for,” said the centre-back, who signed a new long-term contract at Anfield last week.

“Mentally, we have to be prepared for the game, even though it’s not like playing Manchester City, where you will find motivation without any big reason.

“We have a big reason – it’s the final four games for the Champions League."

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/liverpool-trip-watford-must-win-12967932

My point still stands. Having to find motivation for games against the likes of Watford compared to already being motivated for games against the likes of City sums up where we've gone wrong this season.

[ollick]

My point still stands. Having to find motivation for games against the likes of Watford compared to already being motivated for games against the likes of City sums up where we've gone wrong this season.

I'm more motivated to go to the ground for the Derby than I am for say Stoke, think it's only natural.

[YerBaldyHead]

That's understandable as it's from a fans perspective. But when you look at results and performances that have turned a possible title challenge into scrapping it out for top 4, it's obviously due to a mentality issue (among other things admittedly). So hence why reading quotes like that is frustrating.

[The Istvan Kozma Fan Club]

I'm more motivated to go to the ground for the Derby than I am for say Stoke, think it's only natural.

But if that Stoke match was needed to win the PL you would rattle the stadium gates like a chimp on meth.