- Dejan Lovren claims he is in excellent physical condition
- Croatian has often played through injury
- Lovren also assesses Virgil van Dijk’s start to Liverpool career
- SEE MORE: Nicol: long-term Liverpool target is ‘going nowhere’
Dejan Lovren insists he is in superb condition amid one of his better periods of form for Liverpool.
The Croatian revealed earlier in the season he had been taking five pills before every game in an attempt to conquer long-term back and achilles injuries he had been playing through.
Lovren later endured a torrid afternoon in October’s 4-1 defeat to Tottenham, in which he was largely at fault for the hosts’ opening two goals before being substituted after 30 minutes.
He has since responded in admirable fashion to assert himself as a leading contender to become a long-term partner for Virgil van Dijk.
Lovren told LFC World: “I’m always in control of myself, of my form. Of course, it depends also on the team,” as reported by the ECHO.
“If you play 18 games unbeaten then they will say you are one of the best centre-backs but if you don’t defend well as a team then they will point the finger at you because they expect a defender to solve all the problems.”
“When we play, we play like a team, we defend like a team, we attack like a team, and at the moment I feel really strong and confident.”
Despite his early season troubles, Lovren has been deemed by most as the frontrunner in the battle for a starting spot with Joel Matip and Ragnar Klavan.
The 28-year-old’s career on Merseyside has been stricken with a frustrating lack of consistency and arguably faces a defining year with Joe Gomez edging closer towards his transition into a central defensive role.
Lovren also explained how he has been working to help Van Dijk settle in on Merseyside following his £75million move from Southampton.
He added: “He has all the backup from us. We are helping him and we haven’t had many times to play with each other and to be honest only had a couple of training sessions together (before the first game) so it’s still an adaptation. But I think we have done it quite well.”
The Dutchman was superb in Liverpool’s 5-0 Champions League win over Porto, following his dominant display in the win away to Southampton the previous weekend.