Liverpool squad never doubted Premier League would resume, says Dejan Lovren

Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren
Liverpool FC via Getty Images
David Lynch8 June 2020

Liverpool’s first-team squad always believed that they would get the chance to win the Premier League title on the pitch, Dejan Lovren has revealed.

The Reds’ pursuit of a first championship since 1990 was thrown into doubt in March as football across Europe was suspended due to the spread of coronavirus.

The possibility of a null and void campaign has been mentioned regularly since, but the sport’s governing bodies finally ruled that out late last month as a resumption date of June 17 was confirmed.

And Lovren has revealed that he and his teammates were always focused on keeping themselves physically prepared for the return of football, despite the threat of a curtailment.

He told the club’s official website: "To be honest, even without a date at the beginning, our main focus and goal was, 'Guys, let's finish the season. There will, of course, be a date back, but just stay in shape, be in shape when we come back. We will do it and then we can say well done.'

"That was our main focus from the beginning. All the time we have been working in the gym, we know what is our focus.

"Of course we still have two games [to win until] we can say, 'Yeah, we are the champions' but our main focus is to win all the games. That's the main target."

In Pictures | Liverpool train ahead of season return | 03/06/20

1/38

One thing Lovren admits he did find difficult to cope with, however, was the initial uncertainty over when the remaining fixtures might be played.

"The last two weeks before we came back together, to be honest, I was a little bit struggling with not knowing when we will start and when we will be back together," he added.

"You put so many questions in your mind, 'When will everything be back to normal?'

"But this is a great challenge for yourself and to show to everyone that you care about yourself, you care about your team.

"So we did it and we did an amazing job. We came back in a great shape. We did some physical tests and I think it says a lot about the team.

"Everyone respected all the planning and programmes that we got. And this is what's important for this team.

"It's about togetherness and we did it. There's still a lot of time in front of us.

"But we have in our cars our boots, our towels, our balls there, equipment – it's like a little gym in our car. But it is what it is and we accepted it. So you come home, you take a shower, that's it.

"We play football, it's not about the other things. We care about playing and winning."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT