Top three villains as defeat hit in February

Dejan Lovren

Is there a man who wears the shirt more heavily than Dejan Lovren? Every time he comes into the side, it feels like people are waiting for him to make a mistake so they can pounce.

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Lovren never seems like he’s able to catch a break. Even when the Croatian did manage to make the side for a prolonged spell, ahead of Joe Gomez on form, he only played a handful of games before injury ruined that.

And you suspect that Jurgen Klopp did him no favours by taking away the chance to get 90 minutes against Shrewsbury at home, either.

But this isn’t an article that’s supposed to talk about that, so I won’t. Dejan Lovren only featured once in February but that was enough to land himself on the villain of the month list.

Put bluntly, he wasn’t great against Watford and had Gomez played you can almost be sure the result would have changed – or, at least, the amount of goals conceded would have.

And whether it’s real or imagined, there does seem to be a sense of instability and impending crisis when Lovren plays. It’s almost like the fear spreads from the stands down the players, who made uncharacteristic errors at Vicarage Road.