Tony Cascarino says Dejan Lovren’s weekend performance reminded him of his 2017 display against Tottenham.
Tony Cascarino has criticised Dejan Lovren’s performance up against Troy Deeney in Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat against Watford on Saturday.
In the Times, Cascarino said it was a mistake for Lovren to challenge Deeney in a physical battle and the Croatian’s performance reminded him of his 2017 nightmare against Tottenham.
He said: “It was a training ground victory. They will have worked and worked at keeping Troy Deeney and Ismaïla Sarr and their defence just 25 yards apart — and making sure those two were not just running straight for the ball. You could more or less have thrown a blanket over the whole Watford team at times on Saturday.
“When they got the ball, Deeney led the line and Sarr ran behind him, as was perfectly shown for the second goal. Deeney wanted a challenge, he wanted combat and Dejan Lovren made the mistake of giving it to him. And Lovren had a Lovren, by which I mean you just have to remember his performance against Spurs at Wembley.”
Lovren is just coming into the side and perhaps he was keen to remind Jurgen Klopp what he can do in terms of making a big statement against an awkward, physical striker like Deeney.
As Cascarino, who was a former striker himself, says, that played into the Englishman’s hands and he had a rusty Lovren exactly where he wanted him.
Whichever Liverpool centre back plays alongside Virgil van Dijk will always find themselves targeted to some degree as strikers try and avoid the Dutchman. It happened to Joe Gomez with Alvaro Morata against Atletico Madrid.
And if Cascarino has to go back to 2017 for an example of a poor Lovren display then perhaps they aren’t as typical as he is implying.
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