Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren reflects on duel with Man Utd striker Romelu Lukaku

Posted Monday, April 02, 2018 by squawka.com

Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren wouldn't change the way he played against Manchester United centre forward Romelu Lukaku in the recent defeat.

Reflecting on March's 2-1 loss at Old Trafford in the league, the Croatia international maintains he made the right moves despite appearing to struggle against the United striker, who assisted Marcus Rashford's opener by beating Lovren to a headed flick-on.

"[Lukaku] is a strong guy, physically one of the toughest," Lovren told the Times.

"The Premier League has all these challenges. For his age he is huge, unbelievable. He is a monster, what can you say? And this is the challenge. Sometimes you are doing it right – and many games I have won against him. But sometimes you lose. I tried everything. Mistakes happen."

Jurgen Klopp is said to ask his defenders to keep a high line and win the ball as far into the opponent's half of the pitch as possible, which often requires Lovren to gamble on winning individual duels. It can be a risky strategy but this is something that the Croatian defender understands.

Lovren explained: "If [Jurgen Klopp] wants me to be high, I am high. Everyone has their opinion of football but this is what we do. It is a risk. But when you see the record in the last 30 games, how many goals we score after winning the ball.

"I have to win the ball as quickly as possible. The perfect way is if you can come in front of the striker, so you win it or so he cannot control the ball, and someone can come in with a tackle. It's difficult, it's intensive, because you know if somebody is quicker than you they can run away from you – and Lukaku is one of the quickest guys in the league."

Against United, Klopp had asked Lovren to apply as much pressure as possible high up the pitch but the defender was unable to get in front of Belgium international Lukaku, creating a dangerous amount of space between the Liverpool defence and Loris Karius in goal.

"You need to read the game and you need to apply high pressure. And high pressure means more than the halfway line," Lovren continued.

"[I needed] to win the challenge. Simple as that. Could I do anything better to win the challenges? No, I don't think so. The rest what happens next, the flicks… that is for the other lads, who are protecting me."

Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren reflects on duel with Man Utd striker Romelu Lukaku

Do Liverpool need Lovren to take risks?

Klopp regularly rotates his centre-back pairing, with Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip starting the 1-2 win at Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Of those three, Van Dijk is the most active at engaging in one-on-one duels: he contests 7.38 on average a game, whereas Lovren's record is next best among the Reds' central defenders, 5.47, while Matip lags behind on 4.13.

But Lovren is most involved in clearing Liverpool's lines in terms of defensive actions.

On the subject of errors, Lovren did concede that Liverpool must be smarter while also noting that they improved greatly in the second half against United: "[Klopp] wants us so high because if we win the ball we are already in their half. Know what I mean?

"If you are deep you have to start the move in your half. It makes sense what he wants – but sometimes we need to maybe do smarter. In the second half we were smarter. We played even higher, but in a different way. Emre [Can] got in front of Lukaku and then suddenly someone was in front of him and he found it more difficult.

"We should have done that from the beginning and worked it out. As players we needed to see that situation and work out the solution. I think that will improve as the team matures."

Liverpool are currently third in the Premier League and face Everton at Goodison Park in the Merseyside derby next Saturday. Before then, though, they will play the league leaders, Manchester City, in the opening match of their two-legged quarter-final tie in the Champions League, which takes place at Anfield.