Dejan Lovren believes that Liverpool can beat any team this season and wants to prove that against West Brom tomorrow.
Heading into the 2016/17 Premier League season there was a lot of speculation about what this crop of Liverpool players is capable of. From the very beginning, I said that Jurgen Klopp’s side are capable of challenging for the title and, after an unbeaten run of five games and one loss in eight, this premonition seems to hold some weight.
From the first eight games of the season, Liverpool is unbeaten in fixtures against Arsenal, Spurs, Leicester City, Chelsea and Manchester United. This ‘big-game’ mentality has set the Reds up for a season of battling for the top spots.
Liverpool’s only loss this season came against newly-promoted side Burnley. The Clarets frustrated the Merseysiders and it raised the question, once again, of whether or not the ‘smaller’ sides in the league will be Liverpool’s kryptonite once more.
Dejan Lovren, a player blossoming under Klopp’s guidance, is thinking positively and is enjoying being higher up in the table than he has experienced in his time at Liverpool.
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“It’s good when you are in the race,” Lovren told Liverpoolfc.com. “You have a better chance to finish well than if you are sixth or seventh. You know everything is possible.
“Every game is a ‘win’ game for us – we have the quality to beat everyone, when you look at the teams we have played already. It’s just about a winning mentality. If we can keep that, at the end of the season we can be proud.”
Despite pundits left, right and centre speculating if Liverpool can be title contenders this season, the focus remains on the next game against West Brom. The Baggies travel to Anfield and it offers the chance for the hosts to overcome a bogey – in the last 8 games against teams managed by Tony Pulis, Liverpool has won four out of 16.
Lovren is aware of the nature of games against West Brom, especially since Tony Pulis took over. The Croatian centre-back’s first game for the club came against WBA in 2014. “A tough game,” he recounted.
“It will again be a tough game, but I think we need to learn from our mistakes from last year when we played them here. We know what we can expect, but now it is a different situation.
“We improved a lot with Jürgen [Klopp]. We were really good last season when he came, but now we are flying. We just need to keep that winning spirit.”
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