Dejan Lovren has delivered a brutally honest assessment of Liverpool’s performance against Queens Park Rangers on Sunday, saying that he took little satisfaction from their 3-2 win at Loftus Road, and he has called for a vast improvement against Real Madrid on Wednesday.
Liverpool were deeply unimpressive against the Premier League’s bottom club and Lovren admitted his side cannot afford to defend so poorly in their daunting Champions League encounter with the European champions at Anfield. Carlo Ancelotti’s squad, including the attacking might of Cristiano Ronaldo and James Rodríguez, are unlikely to be as charitable with their finishing as QPR were on several occasions.
“I was glad it was over because I think one minute more and it would have been 3-3,” Lovren said. “It’s the first time in my career I was unhappy after the game even though we won because we didn’t play good. We need to improve and play more like a team. This was not an easy game but one that we should have seen out comfortably, especially after taking the lead. We need to be better and in our next game against Real Madrid we need to show more.
“We knew it would be a difficult game at QPR but I thought we would show a little bit more and that we would be a bit stronger, but we weren’t. The first half was as bad as we’ve played in the opening eight games. The second half was much better but when you are 1-0 up you need to calm things. We had a chance for 2-0 and if we had taken it then it’s a different game.”
Liverpool have made a stuttering start to their Champions League campaign and lie third in Group B after losing their previous match to Basel. However, Lovren expects a positive reaction against Madrid.
“We will not play like that against Real Madrid, you can be sure of that,” the defender said. “We will be better. We cannot play like this because we know what we can expect from Real Madrid. Their players, we know who they are and we will prepare a little bit different.”
Lovren said that Liverpool have no special plans to deal with Ronaldo, rather that they have to start playing as a team again. “No, we need to be more compact, to run more, we need to be like one player on the pitch, all together, to breathe the same,” he said. “We have amazing individual players but we need to show it like a team.”
Liverpool have only kept one clean sheet this season and have conceded in each of their past eight games. “A lot of things are not right at the moment but it will come,” Lovren said. “We didn’t play with so many new players against QPR, so that’s not a reason.”