Liverpool legend Jan Molby heaped praise on defender Dejan Lovren but revealed the problem that plagued the in-form player.
The 55-year-old who spent 12 years at Anfield and racked up 218 appearances for the Reds shared that Lovren’s past poor form and past mistakes was a problem for him as people can’t easily forget about them.
Molby shared this was the case despite the centre-back being in excellent form as of late and even shining during the recent 0-0 draw with Premier League title rivals Manchester City.
“Dejan Lovren was excellent against Manchester City on Sunday, but it’s been an awful long time since he hasn’t played well,” wrote the Anfield legend in his column for the Liverpool Echo.
“He’s been in really good form for quite a while now and was important to both Liverpool and Croatia reaching the Champions League and World Cup finals.
“It’s obviously been a big benefit for him to have Virgil van Dijk alongside him and now he has Alisson behind him too, but he’s been in excellent form.
“The problem for him is, he is unfortunately one of those players where people are going to find it difficult to forget the poor form and mistakes but he’s been in excellent form for a long time now.
“He’s showing the kind of form that we saw at Southampton – the type of performances that convinced Liverpool to spend £20million on him over four years ago.
“It’s taken a while but the form is there and it’s been there for a fair bit now, so maybe now is the time to cut him some slack and accept he has been playing well and had a good game.”
OPINION
This is a very good assessment of how the world views Lovren as Molby is correct with everything he writes. The centre-back, who rakes in £90,000-a-wk (Source: Spotrac) at Anfield, will always be plagued by his past poor form and mistakes as they had a tendency to grab the headlines. Lovren always seem to submit shaky performances when his side needed him at his best and due to his high-profile errors, he will also be seen as an unreliable presence. For example during the game against Man City at the weekend, the centre-back had two uncomfortable moments in the game where he looked likely to aid his opponents cause. The only reason why fans feared the worst in this moment as they can remember the countless times Lovren had let their side down. Yet Molby is absolutely right, since the tail-end of last season the centre-back has improved his performances for the better. The Croatian international even shone at the World Cup and looked a very capable centre-back yet his past issues clearly plague him and other’s perception of him as even when he does excel, it seems out-of-character even when it become the new normal.
