Lovren: "With Time It Will Be Better" Under Klopp

Of the many things that are magical about Liverpool manager Jürgen Klopp, his turning Dejan Lovren back into something resembling the adequate-bordering-on-okay centre back that first caught Brendan Rodgers' eye might be one of his most unsung tricks so far into his tenure. Mamadou Sakho's unfortunate injury against Crystal Palace caused a collective sharp intake of breath on the Kop when Dejan Lovren suited up, but since that moment Lovren's improvement has been noticeable, something that is true team wide.

"We have only been working with him a short time, barely two months, and we have already had some good results with him," Lovren said in speaking with the official club magazine. "With time it will be better. With his methods and his way of working, I don't see how it cannot be better.  We are definitely working hard on the training ground but now it is all about the mentality. I think the English and the Germans are different in this aspect.

"When he shows us footage or talks us through an exercise, he will look at it in terms of the whole team and explain how we need to do something specific or how - as a team - we need to do something better. Of course, you know when he is talking about you, but usually it's within the context of the team. We have changed things so that we are defending a little bit higher now. That gives a little bit more element of risk but it also means we are more compact as a unit."

Despite Sunday's loss against Newcastle, it seems fairly obvious that Liverpool can only continue to improve under Klopp for the foreseeable future. One match isn't a setback, but there was enough talk of "reality checks" post-Newcastle that both Klopp and now Lovren aren't wrong to point out that things are still improving.