Dejan Lovren has intimated that he has no regrets about quitting Liverpool this past summer.
The Croatia international ended his six-year spell as a Reds player by joining Russian giants Zenit St Petersburg in a £10 million deal.
Lovren, who joined Liverpool from Southampton for double that fee originally, had just won the Premier League title under Jurgen Klopp at the time of his exit.
But the 31-year-old played a bit-part role in the success, only starting nine league games for the Anfield outfit as Klopp preferred a combination of Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez in central defence.
And although Lovren is happy to have left Liverpool as a Premier League champion, he has revealed that he wasn’t happy with his status as a squad player.
“Fortunately, because that’s how I left as a champion,” he told Kicker. “Playing because others are injured – that’s exactly what I didn’t want anymore. I want to be important for a team, and that’s me here at Zenit.”
Lovren has already started 19 Russian Premier League and Champions League games combined so far this season, meaning he has landed on his feet.
Ironically, his most recent game was one that he was dropped for, only playing 23 minutes of last night’s defeat by Borussia Dortmund in Europe’s elite competition.
Some Liverpool fans were lamenting his exit earlier this season and that’s because Van Dijk, Gomez and Joel Matip were all sidelined at the same time at one point.
Klopp didn’t sign a replacement for Lovren when he went and although the Reds are back to winning ways now, it did look like a mistake when three of their best defenders were out.
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