Dejan Lovren was left frustrated by Liverpool’s 2-2 draw with Newcastle on Saturday, saying the Reds must start changing their mentality when ahead.
Jurgen Klopp‘s side dropped two points in sloppy fashion at Anfield, blowing a two-goal lead against Rafa Benitez’s relegation strugglers.
It was not the first time Liverpool have produced such a capitulation this season, with Sunderland and Southampton both coming back from 2-0 down against the Reds.
Lovren says his side must stop taking the opposition for granted when ahead, and believes Newcastle pounced on their slack mentality.
“At half-time we need to think like it’s 0-0. We started really [poorly] in the second half, so I think they deserved their point,” Lovren told Liverpoolfc.com.
“It’s like us against Dortmund, it’s the same thing, everything is in your head. If you want to, you can score another two goals.
“We had chances after that but we didn’t score. We are not satisfied. We had a good result at half-time, 2-0, and we didn’t concentrate for the [first] goal.
“We knew it would be tough because they’re fighting for their lives and at the end they had two shots at goal and two goals.
“We’re disappointed because we started very well, first half we played well and showed our qualities again, and I think we need to learn from this.”
The Croatian does, however, believe Saturday’s result will have no bearing on their Europa League semi-final first-leg with away to Villarreal.
“We will have a couple of lads who have been injured, they will come back, and also who didn’t play today,” he added.
“I think we will be in good shape, so we need to just move on and forget about today’s performance.”
It was Lovren’s weak clearance that allowed Jack Colback to equalise, with Simon Mignolet‘s error gifting Papiss Cisse a goal before that.
Individual errors have proven to be Liverpool’s downfall in recent seasons. Last season Lovren himself was among the most errors leading to goals, while this season Mignolet leads the Premier League in that statistic. It’s something Klopp is no doubt keen to eradicate, but the only way to do is replace those individuals making the mistakes.
Fan Comments