Dejan Lovren Says He 'Started from Zero Again' at Liverpool After Injury

Dejan Lovren has said he is happy to have earned a spot back in Liverpool's first team after starting from zero again following a difficult 2018-19 campaign.

Last season was largely superb for the Merseyside giants. They accrued a club-record tally of 97 points—a point behind Manchester City—and they also won the UEFA Champions League:

Croatian Lovren, though, played only a bit-part role. In total across the Premier League and Champions League, he made only 13 starts in 2018-19 due to a combination of persistent injuries and loss of form.

He remained on the fringes at the start of the 2019-20 campaign, but he has recently come back into the fold after Joel Matip's injury, starting four of the Reds' last five Premier League games.

The 30-year-old explained he had to have patience while he was out of the Liverpool side, per Sky Sports News:

"I started from zero again to prove that I deserve to be in the first XI, but that's football. When you've been out for months in the last season and didn't have so many minutes on the pitch, it's about restarting. In pre-season, I did hard work behind the scenes, and again maybe it didn't start as well as I thought it would, but I've been speaking with the manager, been patient, and sometimes it's easy to say that but not to do. I did it in the end, and everything came back. ... It's good to feel that you're important here again, and this is what matters for every player."

After years of struggling with weak defences, centre-back is a very competitive position under Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool.

Virgil van Dijk is possibly the best defender in the world:

Meanwhile, Matip was superb at the start of 2019-20 before picking up a knee injury:

When fit, current form means the Dutchman and Cameroonian are arguably Liverpool's best centre-back pairing. Lovren, though, has done his best with recent performances to stake a claim to be the best back-up option after previously being fourth in the pecking order last season behind Van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Matip.