Lovren: Watford loss is a proper wake-up call for everyone 

Dejan Lovren says that the humbling 3-0 defeat to Watford on Saturday evening was a performance that the players should learn from.

While the performance on the day and end result was quite a shock for many football observers, in hindsight the performances in the lead-up to this fixture were not up to the high standard that the Reds had set for themselves.

Lovren came into the side for Joe Gomez who was held out as a precautionary measure.

Like many of his teammates, he had a match he would rather forget, losing a physical battle with Troy Deeney.

Despite not playing much of late, It was clear to Lovren that things were not up to standard.

The Echo reported the Croatian veteran as saying: 

“Right from the beginning until the end, it was missing the usual things that we have. 

“We deserved to lose. Maybe it is a wake-up call for us.

“If you look back at the last couple of games, the result was there and we got the performance that we needed but… I think this was a proper wake-up call to everyone.

"I don’t want to say that it is good but you know what I mean? 

“It can be a benefit to help us get to the end of the season. We need to remember how it should be.

"Yes, we are nearly there [for the title] but the performance means [the assessment] was simple. 

“We didn’t deserve anything.”

Despite the below-par performance, Lovren says that the players know exactly what is required to get back on track.

“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 for that performance."

But Lovren said the end of the unbeaten streak will not define the group in the long term.

“We know there is always an end for everything.

"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 look forward and until the end, we can still make this a perfect season, but it is a wake-up call.”