Liverpool Seeking Leadership and Defensive Consistency with Dejan Lovren

Liverpool finished as Premier League runners-up last season and in their quest to improve for the 2014-15 season, opted to splash out more than £30 million on defensive reinforcements over the summer.

The biggest capture in that area of the pitch was the £20-million signing of Southampton centre-back Dejan Lovren, who has come in to be Brendan Rodgers' first-choice in a new-look back line.

Though it has been a slow start to the season for the Reds by comparison to their form of last year, opinion from within the side continues to be that improvements are being made and things will turn soon.

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Club captain Steven Gerrard believed there was a "big improvement" in the team's performance against Everton, while Lovren's fellow new signing Adam Lallana noted the better tempo and chance creation of the side in the derby, both per LiverpoolFC.com.

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Lovren and his fellow defenders were within 30 seconds of keeping a confidence-boosting clean sheet in the game before a shock long-range strike from Phil Jagielka salvaged a 1-1 draw for the blue half of the city.

Despite that, Lovren has spoken of his happiness at being at Anfield and how well he is settling in, on and off the pitch, playing his part in a recent club clothing-range launch.

He said: "It’s great to represent Liverpool Football Club, and like a model! It’s great and an honour for me. There are great things and I’m really happy.

"When I played here with Southampton against Liverpool, I said that one day I wanted to come here. I was doing everything, I had a great season last year. It was a dream that came true.

But I won’t stop here—I want to improve myself in every game and prove in front of the crowd and my teammates that I deserve to be here."

The Croatian defender is already feeling part of the squad and life and forging relationships with his new team-mates, adding: "I’m feeling great with this team—it’s like I’ve been here for a couple of years already. The guys are normal people, they accept me wonderfully, like the others.

"We have a lot of new players and that is a good thing, a new atmosphere. It’s really nice. There are a lot of games in front of us. We need to take the games step-by-step and not looking forward. We need to be calm, play our game and it will come.

"[I have spent time] of course, with Adam [Lallana] and Rickie [Lambert] because we were together at Southampton. But also with Lazar Markovic—we speak the same language. But I’m practically with everyone, making jokes, with Mario [Balotelli] especially. It’s great to be in the dressing room."

Those relationships with players are important not just in terms of them being his team-mates but far more importantly from a sporting point of view, because he is the man expected to come in and make Liverpool a far tougher prospect to deal with.

Liverpool were scintillating going forward last term but far too open at the back in conceding 50 goals over the course of the Premier League season.

Part of the reason for bringing in the new defenders over the summer was not just to increase depth and quality in the team, but also to try and bring a more solid overall organisation to the side.

Lovren himself acknowledges that this is one side of the game expected of him: "I think leadership. I’m a young player but I think I have it in me, I have the character to be a real leader one day. Now it’s a learning process and I’m giving my best for the team, trying to be better and better in every game and to lead the team."

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Boss Rodgers also alluded to those leadership qualities—a familiar word when describing him—from the new No. 6, per James Pearce in the Liverpool Echo, labelling him commanding and aggressive too.

With Lovren having partnered both Martin Skrtel and Mamadou Sakho in the early stages of the season, and the Reds having shipped nine goals in their six games so far, there is clearly still work to do to have the side jell and be as solid at the back as they'll need to be to challenge on all fronts this campaign.

That goes throughout the team though as the Reds bed in new signings and adapt to the twin demands of Premier and Champions League action.

Lovren, Rodgers and Co. remain confident that they will take strides up the table soon though, while a second Champions League group-stage win over Basel during the week would be another step in the right direction.

Lovren was speaking at the launch of LFC’s new autumn/winter fashion collection, Made For Liverpool. Available in all Official Liverpool FC Stores and online www.liverpoolfc.com/store with new items being added every week.

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