Dejan Lovren’s disastrous performance in Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat at Watford reminded Tony Cascarino of Loris Karius’ horror show in the 2018 Champions League final.
The Reds suffered their first loss in 44 league games while Ismaila Sarr scored twice and Troy Deeney scored a third to ensure the struggling Hornets have the biggest upheaval in the Premier League season so far.
It was Deeney’s intimidation of Lovren that turned the match in favor of Watford, while the Croatian defender struggled to cope with the striker all evening.
Sarr’s first goal came after Lovren completely missed the ball as he desperately tried to contain Deeney – which happened many times throughout the match.
After the match, Deeney even confirmed that he was deliberately targeting Lovren, saying to Sky Sports, “You are trying to choose the weaker of the two – without disrespecting Lovren.
“He tried to fight me from the throw-in and I drove him. He tried to beat me and didn’t even look at the ball and it worked perfectly because we scored from him. “
Such displays have not been common on a Liverpool jersey in the past two years – perhaps not since Karius offered the Champions League title to Real Madrid in May 2018.
Reds fans won’t want to recall the German goalkeeper’s clumsy mistakes that led to two of Madrid’s 3-1 victory goals.
Cascarino said at talkSPORT’s weekend sports breakfast: “Lovren had a day that looked like Karius in the Champions League final.
“He had a” Lovren Day “- because he already did.”
Lovren replaced the injured Joe Gomez, who established himself as Virgil van Dijk’s first choice partner in a streak of ten white sheets in 11 league games between December and February.
And not only did Lovren point out the missing quality of Gomes, Cascarino argues that the Croatian could have helped teammate Jordan Henderson before the end of season awards – because his absence made the midfielder more beautiful than he really is.
“He [Lovren] probably won Jordan Henderson the soccer writers player of the year, possibly the PFA player of the year, “added Cascarino.
“Sometimes when you don’t play you get even better.”
Listen to Tony Cascarino on talkSPORT, above…