Dejan Lovren Praises ‘Greedy’ Liverpool Squad

With even players from their closest rivals admitting they’ve given up on catching Liverpool this season, the Reds could be forgiven for taking their foot off the gas pedal down the stretch, particularly with a potential repeat in the Champions League on the cards. However, despite being 22 points up on Manchester City with 13 games to go, meaning even Roy Hodgson would be able to produce enough points to win the league from here on out, the Merseysiders have no intention of slowing down.

“We are still hungry, still greedy and this is what makes us special to be honest,” Dejan Lovren told Sky Sports on Tuesday.

”I think many other teams would go easy now with a 22-point lead but we don’t look at these 22 points. We are just focused game-by-game and this I think is the simplest way to be the best.

“It is a good experience also for the younger ones, to understand that even if you are on top you still need to work as hard as if you were in the middle of the table or in last position.”

It’s all very sensible, slightly dull, and perfectly parrots the party line set by Jürgen Klopp and Jordan Henderson throughout the season. Liverpool take it one game at a time and will tally up the points at the end of the season, the next game is the most important, and so on.

It wouldn’t, however, be a Dejan Lovren interview without some reckless ambition thrown in.

“I’ve been there from the beginning with Jurgen and it took quite a while, two or three years to build everything up,” the Croatian continued.

“Let’s say, we clicked this year - maybe even last year - but we missed out by one point.

”Now we understand each other, what we need, what we want. And I especially want, that we are remembered maybe like the Barcelona team that won in four years [something like] 20 trophies.

“Why should we not do that? I think we can do it and I want that we are remembered as one of the best teams that have played - not only for this year, but for many, many years.”

For clarity, that is referring to Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering Barcelona side of 2008-2012, winners of three La Liga titles, two Champions Leagues, two Club World Cups, two Copa Del Reys, and an assortment of miscellaneous trophies.

That is just about as ambitious as one can get, and, without wanting to encourage Lovren’s worse instincts, we can’t say it’s entirely inappropriate. Klopp’s Reds are undefeated in European knockout competition in four years, having reached three finals in that time, winning one, are on pace to set a points record in the league this season, and deservedly had four players in the top seven of this year’s Ballon d’Or list.

At this point, it appears the current iteration of Liverpool are one of the greatest sides of all time. Hopefully, when it’s all said and done, they will have the trophies to prove it.