Topic: Dejan Lovren

[Severely]

Clearly, Klopp sees him playing a part next season, although the persistent links to Van Dijk suggest it might be in a diminished capacity. Either way, it makes sense - he's coming into his prime years as a centre back, and hopefully, he can put the injuries behind him and become a reliable option. He's certainly shown that when he has a partner with a cool head beside him like Matip, he's more than capable of doing a job, and no one can question his commitment. He's improved year on year since that first, terrible season and I think this is a logical move.

[Eeyore]

Now on the same wages as Harry Kane. LFC the gift that keeps on giving.

[Samie]

I can't wait for the fume from most on here. 

[Carra-ton]

Good if he is third choice centre back. Can do a job, if he plays half a season. Not good for the regular grind. Good luck to him.
I really miss Sami and Carra, but they were better protected in Rafa's system.

For our system we need a freak of nature to sense the danger and have the physical attributes to cover the large space we leave behind. Henderson and one more DM, will be good protection if we can achieve that. I have lesser concerns with Lovren in that setup.

[Caston]

Now on the same wages as Harry Kane. LFC the gift that keeps on giving.

What a pointless comparison

[Zoomers]

I think he's a good defender so it's nice to have him here longer.

[Chris~]

Now on the same wages as Harry Kane. LFC the gift that keeps on giving.

Harry kane should hire Jesse Lingaard's agent.

[Medellin]

I can't wait for the fume from most on here. 

..which will also show lack of trust in Klopp.

The 'can't see the wood for the trees brigade'. 

[Cpt_Reina]

Lovren is fine, I'd be looking to retain him and to upgrade.

Half of that is done, the summer should bring the second element of it.

[sms1986]

Great news, some will moan but think it's a good idea to have Lovren in the squad.

[LallanaInPyjamas]

£100k seems overboard I have to say but I'm glad we're keeping him around. By and large he's been good for us since that disastrous first few months at the club, which a section of our fanbase can seemingly never forgive/forget.

He clearly loves this football club, is a fantastic athlete and gives it his all every day unlike a certain defender who the same section of our fanbase remain obsessed with.

He can play both sides of the defence too which would make him a fantastic 3rd choice to have if we sign the number one centre back we clearly require this summer.

[sms1986]

What a pointless comparison

He probably had a look at every player on 100k and decided Kane was the most outlandish comparison he could make.

[rafathegaffa83]

On a note unrelated to his contract extension, the mini-documentary on his life as a refugee during the Yugoslav Wars is one of the best things ever produced by the club's channel. Kudos to Lovren for having the strength to talk about it.

[DangerScouse]

Fine as a squad player, not good enough to start every week. We can certainly do better.

[Eeyore]

Great news, some will moan but think it's a good idea to have Lovren in the squad.

I agree with Lovren being part of the squad but 100k a week for a centre back who should be a squad player going forwards is nuts.

[tubby]

Assuming we get another starting centre half in this summer then I'm fine with this.  The wages in the league are going to get more and more ridiculous over the next season or so.

[Funky_Gibbons]

I agree with Lovren being part of the squad but 100k a week for a centre back who should be a squad player going forwards is nuts.

We should try and do it on the cheap instead and have the likes of Lucas and Klavan as back-up instead, that's worked well for us this season.

[mrantarctica]

He's a decent defender on his day. The club is short of good quality CB's in the ranks. We have Lovren, Matip, and Klavan as senior pro's with Lucas able to fill in. Matip has had his problems with injuries and unavailability, Klavan hasn't been that great and Lucas is firmly an emergency option and may be on his way out. We still have to assess Sakho, Wisdom, Lloyd-Jones who are all on loan, and also Gomez who is totally untested and inexperienced at this level. I think most would see Sakho being sold and Wisdom probably being sold also. I imagine Lloyd-Jones is much further down the pecking order than Gomez. So really, we have one decent CB committed because we've just signed him (Matip) and a lot of question marks. Makes sense to sign Lovren up who's been reasonably consistent, even though he's not the best in the league. Signing him on a long contract doesn't necessarily mean we won't be in for another CB in the transfer period. 

[JackWard33]

I know it's just PR spin but it's funny to see Klopp say 'he has all the assets you need in a modern centre half' when he doesn't. He's bad at the modern stuff (zonal positioning, being comfortable on the ball , passing) and good at the old school stuff (heading, grock work)

[HeartAndSoul]

Ok fair enough signing a new contract, he's a great squad option to have next season but what's with these wage increases. Does signing a new contract automatically mean a wage rise even though you've been pretty average for 3 years. Kudos to his agent for getting him on a 100k

[Eeyore]

We should try and do it on the cheap instead and have the likes of Lucas and Klavan as back-up instead, that's worked well for us this season.

In the last accounts our wage bill was £208m. Yet people talk about us spending smart it's a joke. For the same period Spurs wage bill was £110m. Spurs finished 3rd we finished 8th.

Spurs will had the joint best defensive record last season and the best record this season only conceding 22 goals. 

[Dodge City]

Not a bad option for League Cup/early rounds of the Europa League I suppose. Decent backup if we have an injury crisis at CB (like three or four first team CB's out etc).

I would also make it illegal for Lovren to leave the 18 yard box. Pass an act of Parliament - something like that. Outside the box he is a total liability.

[clinical]

Lovren £100k. Football is turning into a joke. A defender who can't defend on £100k a week

Then you see Eriksen for spurs on £70k...

[Narwin Dunez]

Rewarding mediocrity.

At least we got a nice documentary out of it.

I agree with something I read in the guardian today.

"Klopp should spend every precious pfennig of his summer pot on a replacement for the woefully erratic dejan Lovren"

[clinical]

Yet if we sign a 10m centre half in the summer on 50k a week you'll hammer the lack of ambition

Not if that defender is good. No lack of ambition being shouted when we got Matip on a free was there?

[Funky_Gibbons]

In the last accounts our wage bill was £208m. Yet people talk about us spending smart it's a joke. For the same period Spurs wage bill was £110m. Spurs finished 3rd we finished 8th.

Spurs will had the joint best defensive record last season and the best record this season only conceding 22 goals.

Spurs' defensive record is better because a) they play more balanced than us and b) don't have Lucas and Klavan as their back-up.

If we're going to continue to play gung-ho football with little protection to the centre-backs then you need to make sure our have depth to your centre back positions, we don't have that.

[Chris~]

In the last accounts our wage bill was £208m. Yet people talk about us spending smart it's a joke. For the same period Spurs wage bill was £110m. Spurs finished 3rd we finished 8th.

Spurs will had the joint best defensive record last season and the best record this season only conceding 22 goals.

http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=314337.4680

[clinical]

I'm sure I could find complaints from you Rashid.

As usual such a mature response from you party popper

[PhilV]

He had a really poor game against Palace, but has been much better this season especially when alongside Matip.
I'm happy with this, although we could do with another strong CB that we can pair with either of them.

This.

Saying it's poor timing because he was bad in the last game is a bit silly, can't judge his award of a new deal off the back of our latest game.


He has improved a lot under Jurgen, has forged a good relationship with Matip and I hope he will improve further, he seems committed and hungry to me, so we will see, if we get VVD or another CB he might become a bench option and Lovren off the bench is actually a pretty damn good option.

[Red Viper]

Bodes well for the summer this. If there's one thing FSG love doing it's giving out bumper contracts to lads who are expected to be squad players going forward.

[Eeyore]

Yet if we sign a 10m centre half in the summer on 50k a week you'll hammer the lack of ambition

If we end up with an aging journeyman like Klavan then yes I would. The thing is though if you look at our best centre backs in the recent past then it shows if you can scout then you can bring in quality players for very reasonable prices. Matip, Sami, Carra, Agger cost peanuts.

Look at Spurs Alderweireld and Vertonghen as a pair cost Spurs £21m and currently earn 50k and 40k a week.

It's not about price tags it's about having the nous to be able to judge a players ability and to bring in top quality players.

[Johnnyboy1973]

In the last accounts our wage bill was £208m. Yet people talk about us spending smart it's a joke. For the same period Spurs wage bill was £110m. Spurs finished 3rd we finished 8th.

Spurs will had the joint best defensive record last season and the best record this season only conceding 22 goals. 

You should have just gone with the Toby Alderweireld comparison who is twice the player whilst reportedly on £50k a week although is lined up for a new deal which will put him around parity with Lovrens reported wage.

The difference is they have Levy but his Sissoko signing for £100k a week has jeopardised his wage structure as evidenced by the slew of new contracts at the beginning of the season.

But, even at those reported figures for both centre halves, it's clear who is getting the better deal.

[Cpt_Reina]

I agree with Lovren being part of the squad but 100k a week for a centre back who should be a squad player going forwards is nuts.

2010 would like this opinion back.

[paul211b]

100k a week, 4 year deal i assume.  £21m deal..  Gulp!!!!

[Father Ted]

We've a habit of announcing new long term deals straight after a player's had an absolute  'mare.

[Jookie]

Lovren £100k. Football is turning into a joke. A defender who can't defend on £100k a week

Then you see Eriksen for spurs on £70k...

£100k seems overboard I have to say but I'm glad we're keeping him around.

I reckon we are at the start of seeing exponential increases in wages and transfer fees across the Premier League. 30M transfer fees will be what you need to pay for a slightly above average Premier League player. It'll pretty much be equivalent to 15M a couple of seasons ago.

Like wise, you are seeing a jump in wages across the board. £100k p/w is a ridiculous amount of money for a footballer but it'll be the going rate for 1st team player at a Top 6 club. If the top players are getting paid £300k p/w then £100k p/w seems in line with this. Put it this way. It wasn't long ago that 100k p/w was reserved for the very top players in the league. At the time a decent Premier League player would be getting 30k p/w. All that has happened is that with the new TV deals the wages have shifted in an upward direction very quickly. The difficulty is that many of us are in the mindset that 100k p/w gets you a top end player. It doesn't anymore. It gets you a good Premier league player.

I've seem some people say certain Spurs players are on lower wages than Lovren. That's great for Spurs at the moment but I just don't see them keeping players on that wage level for long. What you are seeing from other clubs is that the market rate has gone up. It'll catch up to Spurs relatively soon. Either they'll be giving out higher value contracts or their players will be getting itchy feet.

None of this dictates whether Lovren should have been given a new contract or if he is good enough for a Top 4 club. However, people moaning about the monetary value of his new contract need to apply the appropriate context rather than plucking a random figure out their arse for a player at Spurs.

[Eeyore]

I agree, I find it hard to believe all these clubs have to apparently spend zillions on centre backs to find a good one but I reckon there will be utter chaos on here if we sign some unheralded guy for 10m and Dijk goes to City or whatever. Most won't give the new lad a chance to be our Alderweireld.

Alderweireld wasn't unheralded though he was superb for Southampton on loan he had already shown he could play in the Premier League. We paid £25m for Lovren and look prepared to pay £50m for Van Dijk whereas Spurs paid £11m for Alderweireld.

[JackWard33]

In the last accounts our wage bill was £208m. Yet people talk about us spending smart it's a joke. For the same period Spurs wage bill was £110m. Spurs finished 3rd we finished 8th.

Spurs will had the joint best defensive record last season and the best record this season only conceding 22 goals. 

Spurs are run by wizards though
Not a joke the wage bill there is genuinely amazing

[Jookie]

I know it's just PR spin but it's funny to see Klopp say 'he has all the assets you need in a modern centre half' when he doesn't. He's bad at the modern stuff (zonal positioning, being comfortable on the ball , passing) and good at the old school stuff (heading, grock work)

I agree with this. What I would say is that in Klopp's system you need to be good at zonal positioning, on the ball and being comfortable defending when being pulled into wider positions than in a standard flat back 4. I think Lovren is OK in these regards not great. In a different league I'm not sure Klopp would value Lovren as much as he does in England. In England, teams go long and put a lot of emphasis on set plays. That plays to Lovren's strengths in the air. Klopp's system with a high press in England means teams just go long more often against you. You need centre backs who can win that physical battle. If you don't have that it completely negates the high press tactics.

Like I said I don't think Lovren is perfect for Klopp's system. I don't think Matip is either by the way. However, I think aerial ability is an absolute must in this system in the Premier League. That's why I think Klopp likes Lovren. The ideal centre back in this system is someone like Rio Ferdinand. Or someone with his attributes. Basically someone who is brilliant at the fundamentals but also great on the ball. Not many centre backs knocking around at that level so we need to compromise with the likes of Lovren and Matip.

[Eeyore]

I reckon we are at the start of seeing exponential increases in wages and transfer fees across the Premier League. 30M transfer fees will be what you need to pay for a slightly above average Premier League player. It'll pretty much be equivalent to 15M a couple of seasons ago.

Like wise, you are seeing a jump in wages across the board. £100k p/w is a ridiculous amount of money for a footballer but it'll be the going rate for 1st team player at a Top 6 club. If the top players are getting paid £300k p/w then £100k p/w seems in line with this. Put it this way. It wasn't long ago that 100k p/w was reserved for the very top players in the league. At the time a decent Premier League player would be getting 30k p/w. All that has happened is that with the new TV deals the wages have shifted in an upward direction very quickly. The difficulty is that many of us are in the mindset that 100k p/w gets you a top end player. It doesn't anymore. It gets you a good Premier league player.

I've seem some people say certain Spurs players are on lower wages than Lovren. That's great for Spurs at the moment but I just don't see them keeping players on that wage level for long. What you are seeing from other clubs is that the market rate has gone up. It'll catch up to Spurs relatively soon. Either they'll be giving out higher value contracts or their players will be getting itchy feet.

None of this dictates whether Lovren should have been given a new contract or if he is good enough for a Top 4 club. However, people moaning about the monetary value of his new contract need to apply the appropriate context rather than plucking a random figure out their arse for a player at Spurs.

Only if you are stupid enough to pay the premium prices though. It is only in England that we are seeing these stupid kinds of wages across the board. We pay ridiculous transfer fees and astronomical wages and then see our teams being out classed in the Champions League it's a joke.