Lovren: Defeat is a smack in the face

DEJAN LOVREN described the loss of Liverpool’s unbeaten run as a smack in the face and said the players were ashamed of their display. Liverpool’s attempt to emulate Arsenal’s Invincibles came crashing down at Vicarage Road as they produced their worst collective display since Tottenham beat them 4-1 at Wembley in October 2017. Their unbeaten sequence ended on 44 games. Lovren, who started his first Premier League game since December 7, did not attempt to make excuses. ‘We know there is always an end for everything,’ said Lovren. ‘It is here where our unbeaten run ended. We will not look at this result and think it was a bad season because of losing here. One performance won’t ruin everything. But this is always a learning process. ‘We will look forward and, until the end, we can still make this a perfect season (by winning the title) but it is a wake-up call. The last couple of games hadn’t been the best performances but we still won. This one, it didn’t happen. This one was like someone hit us in our faces and we deserved it. ‘We are calm. Everyone knows it is something that we should learn from. The manager looked at us when he came into the dressing room and he knew that we knew it wasn’t our best performance. We felt a little bit ashamed, you know? We should have done better. There is no excuse.’ Lovren admitted performances have lacked fluency since the squad returned from their winter break, but the Croatia international hopes this experience provides a jolt. ‘It hurts, it really hurts,’ said Lovren. ‘But this was a proper wake-up call. I don’t want to say it is good but it can be a benefit for the rest of the season. We need to remember how it should be.’