Dejan Lovren Display Underlines Lack of Quality in Liverpool Defence

Liverpool suffered defeat at Newcastle on Saturday, as Ayoze Perez capitalised on more woeful defending from Brendan Rodgers' side to score the only goal of the home team's 1-0 victory.

“The way we played was probably the best we've played all season," Liverpool assistant boss Colin Pascoe said after the League Cup win over Swansea on Tuesday night, per Phil Kirkbride of the Liverpool Echo. But Saturday's performance was arguably the worst Liverpool has played since Rodgers took over in 2012.

Speaking after the game, Rodgers once again cited a lack of coaching time as a reason why his side isn't performing. It's a weak excuse—one that leaves you wondering just what is going on during training because the Reds are getting worse by the week.

This game revealed Liverpool's weaknesses this season, of which there are plenty. They are turgid in attack and miserable at the back.

It was the same problems we've seen the last two months: a persistence with the 4-2-3-1 formation, wasting Raheem Sterling out wide, isolating Mario Balotelli in attack and playing inept defenders such as Glen Johnson and Dejan Lovren.

The problems in attack are understandable, given the sale of Luis Suarez and absence of Daniel Sturridge. But the defensive issues are intolerable because Rodgers has spent over £60 million on defenders in the last 16 months.

Rodgers was quoted by Craig Hope of the Mail On Sunday as saying after the game:

"

We made a mistake and that has unfortunately cost us the game and that is the biggest disappointment.

If you can’t score goals to win it, then it’s important you don’t concede goals to lose it. Up until that point we were solid.

"

Liverpool's back line and goalkeeper against Newcastle cost a combined £66 million and three of them were signed by Rodgers. For that much money, they should be a lot more effective at stopping their opponents than they have been.

Dejan Lovren

Stu Forster/Getty Images

The man signed by Rodgers this summer and talked up by the manager as being the leader the Reds required—a replacement for Jamie Carragher—put in another poor performance Saturday.

While Alberto Moreno's mistake gifted Newcastle a goal, it's worth noting that the Liverpool back line committed several other errors during the sequence leading up to Perez's strike. Where on earth Lovren was going as the ball went across his own six-yard box is something only he can answer. It was truly bizarre decision-making and positioning from the Croation.

It wasn't the only mistake Lovren made. There were signs during the early stages that Gabriel Obertan was about to be made to look like Cristiano Ronaldo, just like Bobby Zamora was made to look like Karim Benzema two weeks ago. However, the winger picked up a thigh injury, which saved Lovren from being run at and outpaced for a full 90 minutes.

A 33 per cent tackle success rate, per Squawka, tells the story of Lovren's game. His timing was poor, his positioning was wrong and his tackling was reckless.

Seemingly, Lovren's role on Saturday was to play long diagonal balls to 5'6" Raheem Sterling. As you can see from the FourFourTwo Statszone dashboard below, it didn't work.

FourFourTwo Statszone

Was this an actual tactic from the manager or Lovren's own doing?

Glen Johnson

Shaun Botterill/Getty Images

Lovren's performance wasn't the only cause for major concern. Glen Johnson was recalled to the side at right-back despite two solid performances from Javier Manquillo in the last week.

The England international was constantly outmuscled, outpaced and left trailing behind whichever Newcastle player chose to run past him.

For the Newcastle goal, it was Johnson's shot from 25 yards out—his trademark "if in doubt, cut inside and shoot on the left foot despite the almost non-existent likelihood of it hitting the target"—that resulted in Liverpool losing the ball and Newcastle taking advantage with a counter-attack.

"

Let's take a moment to appreciate Glen Johnson thinking shooting here was a good idea. pic.twitter.com/70jTB8AOmT

— Matt Ladson (@mattladson) November 1, 2014"

Johnson's performances have been below par for well over a year now, yet his place still appears guaranteed under Rodgers. It's another mystery of Liverpool's porous defence.

Brendan Rodgers

Brendan Rodgers' failure to address Liverpool's defending is a huge concern. This was the same back four that played against Queens Park Rangers two weeks ago—bar Moreno in for Jose Enrique—and it looked just as vulnerable.

A rare clean sheet against Hull City last week pointed at improvements, but those improvements seem to have arrived at the cost of an attacking edge, something that was equally evident in this defeat.

Real Madrid and Chelsea are up next for Rodgers' side. If the defensive issues are not resolved swiftly, this could be a very long week against such attack-minded teams.