Former Premier League Golden Boot winner Kevin Phillips has advised Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren to “move on” from Anfield amid interest from two other clubs in the English top flight.
The Daily Express reported this week that Tottenham and Arsenal have shown an interest in signing the 30-year-old in the summer transfer window, with Lazio, AC Milan and Lyon also believed to be keen on the centre-back.
The Croatian came to Liverpool in 2014 and has made 184 appearances for the Reds, with only Jordan Henderson and Adam Lallana having been at the club for longer than him among the current senior squad. Phillips believes that Lovren’s career is in decline and he should leave Anfield for his own sake, although he feels the defender could still add value to whatever club he joins if he does move on.
Speaking to Football Insider, the ex-Sunderland striker said: “Lovren has been a good player at Southampton and Liverpool. He has probably not played as much football as he would like so he might be thinking it is time to move on.
“Tottenham, defensively, have got some frailties. It is an area that Jose will be looking at. You cannot go far wrong when you are looking at a player like that who is experienced in the Premier League and has played at the top level. He has experienced high-pressure situations so it could turn out to be a good signing. You look at David Luiz at Arsenal, he’s like him, these players can be picked up.
“I am not saying he is at the end of his career but his best years are behind him. I think that could be a really good signing for two or three years.”
In one sense, Phillips has a cogent argument for believing that the time may be right for Lovren to consider severing his ties with Liverpool. The Croatian made 22 or more Premier League starts in each of his first four seasons at the club, peaking with 29 in the 2016/17 campaign (as per WhoScored). However, that number dropped to 11 last term despite Joe Gomez missing several months due to a fractured leg, while he has had just nine league starts in the current campaign.
Virgil van Dijk has been Liverpool’s most-used player this season, featuring for 3,780 minutes, and it is no surprise that he is virtually guaranteed a starting berth given his status as PFA Player of the Year. Gomez has bounced back from his leg injury to make 14 league starts this season and accrue 2,567 minutes of game-time. Lovren has played more minutes this term than Joel Matip (1,173 to 942) but the Cameroon international was a regular starter until he suffered a knee injury in October that kept him out for three months.
Also, as Phillips has pointed out, the Croatian is now in his 30s and therefore may have already enjoyed his career peak. Performances such as the one in last month’s 3-0 defeat at Watford, where the Daily Star‘s Joshua Peck felt that he “struggled against [Troy] Deeney’s power and the pace of [Ismaila] Sarr”, aren’t likely to have helped his cause in terms of nudging past Gomez in the pecking order as the preferred centre-back partner for Van Dijk.
Lovren has given nearly six years of service to Liverpool and had some good moments, not least that stoppage time winner against Borussia Dortmund in 2016, but Phillips is justified in saying that a move away from Anfield might be the best decision for his career now.
Liverpool fans, what did you make of Phillips advising Lovren to move on from Anfield? Have your say by commenting below!
