Mocked by the Belgian press when he first arrived at Anderlecht on loan from Liverpool, Lazar Markovic has made them eat their words with his recent performances, as Hein Vanhaezebrouck starts trusting more and more in the Jupiler Pro League playoffs.
Lacking match fitness, the Serbian winger has reportedly worked extremely hard to get back up to the level required by the Belgian manager, doing so alongside the club’s staff as well as his personal trainer, as revealed by his agent to DH on Tuesday.
As for why the Liverpool loanee hadn’t played, that’s a mystery.
Milos Malenovic said: “Only the manager knows why he didn’t play sooner. He continued to work. Lazar is a clever guy, and knows he just needs to work to convince”.
Unable to do just that under Jürgen Klopp, the Serbia international rarely featured under the German manager, but, as hard as that was, he never let it completely bring him down.
The agent continued: “We didn’t talk that much about it, as he’s a fighter. Lazar went through some difficult moments, he wasn’t 100% happy, but he didn’t let it affect him. He listened to the manager, and I feel like they understand each other more and more”.
Described as a player who feeds off the manager’s confidence in him, Malenovic feels his client will be able to play ‘twice, maybe three times as well’ if he continues to feature under Vanhaezebrouck.
Maybe that’s why it didn’t work for him at Anfield, as Klopp never appeared to believe in him.
While a future at Liverpool for Markovic seems very difficult these days, his ability to impress both his new manager and his teammates is a good sign for his career going forward.
If Anderlecht don’t make the transfer permanent, someone else is likely to come knocking in the coming months.
