Dejan Lovren targets unbeaten season for Liverpool

Alam Khan - Reporter 07:22 20/12/2018
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  • Dejan Lovren believes Liverpool can be the next ‘Invincibles’ on their way to fulfilling their Premier League title dream.

    The Reds visit Wolves tomorrow having gone 17 games unbeaten since the start of the season.

    And Lovren wants history, by not tasting defeat, to top off a campaign that could see the Anfield outfit lift their first top-flight championship since 1990.

    Only Preston in 1889 and Arsenal, after a 38-game league season, in 2004 have managed that.

    Lovren’s confidence soared after the 3-1 win over arch-rivals Manchester United last weekend – achieved despite a horrendous error from keeper Alisson.

    “It’s a good result I would say for us,” he said. “We knew it would be a tough derby.

    “You look back, always we’ve had difficult games against them. Five, six games we’ve played against them and we didn’t have a good result.

    “It was a little bit unlucky for Alisson, it happens to everyone. We managed to keep our nerve, to play our system again and be ready to be aggressive on every part of the pitch.

    “Hopefully we can be unbeaten until the end of the season.

    “Of course it will be a challenge but this is what we want, this is why we came here to Liverpool, because we know we can do it. Arsenal did it before so why not?”

    It was the Reds who ended Manchester City’s bid to achieve the rare feat last season with a thrilling 4-3 win at Anfield in January.

    The two sides, currently separated by just a point, also meet at the Etihad on January 3, and Lovren added: “I’m not sure that they have any weaknesses. Last year they won [the title] by19 points.

    “They know how to manage even when they lose. They also lost one or two games last year, but still they managed to be 19 points ahead. It doesn’t mean anything. There are so many games in front of us and in front of them.

    “It will be a tight race and it’s not only City. Tottenham are only six points behind. You cannot sit and enjoy and say: ‘We have five or six points in front of everyone’. It doesn’t work like that. Every game for us is a final.”

    After losing their only league game at Chelsea, City are now playing catch-up after leading the table for most of the season and the pressure is on for both sides to better each other.

    And Croatia centre-back Lovren added: “The pressure can be from both ways a positive thing. We will not look back, we will just look forward.

    “Look, there’s a competition. This is what we want [to win the title], but we don’t look at who is in front of us or behind us.

    “It’s just about us. It’s more about how we train, how we do on the pitch and the result will come. There are quite a lot of games still to go, but we go game-by-game.”

    In a Liverpool defence shorn of players such as Joe Gomez, Joel Matip and Trent Alexander-Arnold, Lovren impressed on his return to the starting line-up after a recent three-match absence through injury.

    Right back Nathaniel Clyne also played 90 minutes for only the third time since May 2017 as manager Jurgen Klopp called on the strength of his squad.

    “I think there are quite a lot of players who have been for a couple of seasons now with Jurgen,” added Lovren.

    “We know and he knows what we need to do so there’s not too much to say, especially for Clyney.

    “When you look back, he didn’t play for I don’t know how many months and he had a fantastic game.

    “This is important, and of course it’s important to keep this momentum and to enjoy this moment. Hopefully there won’t be many injuries because we need everyone. Today, even the 25th player is important.”

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