Named Player of the Month by Liverpool fans after he received death threats aimed at his family, Dejan Lovren was clearly able to see a few idiots don’t represent an entire fanbase.
While his performances on the pitch haven’t exactly been the best, there’s been a lot of stuff going on off it, namely people trying to break into his house and a complicated court case back in Croatia, that would affect anyone in their professional life.
It’s easy to say “ignore it and perform”, yet most people will have been in a situation where personal problems affect performances at work.
Either way, the Liverpool defender is now far away from Merseyside, at least for the next two weeks, as he was called up to represent his country as Croatia prepare themselves for World Cup qualifying playoff fixtures against Greece over the coming week.
Arriving at the team hotel, despite many of his teammates refusing to, Dejan Lovren stopped to have a chat with the local press, including 24Sata, about the upcoming games, but also himself.
He said: “Let’s say there have been better days. You simply cannot change what has happened in the past. I would just love to finally get that black cloud away from me, so things can get better. It’s not easy for me. Maybe it’s interesting for everyone else, but I guess it’ll be better soon.”
Despite this, the Liverpool centre-back is ready to try and help his country advance to next year’s international tournament in Russia, and will hope to draw on his previous experience against Greece in 2011 to achieve that.
The 28-year-old came on for three minutes at the weekend as the Reds beat West Ham 4-1 at the London Stadium.