Hope you're right. I don't get to see many other games so I don't know what Lovren's like.
Have a look at this video posted by 7-King-Kenny-7 earlier in the thread - to be honest I hadn't taken much notice of him apart from reading some reports when he was on our radar before last year's transfer window. Since we have been linked with him again though I've seen some more footage of him and, in my view, he is almost exactly what we need (the only thing lacking being outright pace which Sakho should provide).
Skrtel is one of my favourite squad members and has done well to adapt his game to our requirements but his natural style isn't a good fit for us which has lead to mistakes being made. He plays almost like Carragher - but without the leadership/organisational qualities - in that he prefers a low block man-marking approach where his first instinct is to drop off - whether or not there are covering defenders behind him. This has created large gaps between the deepest lying midfielder (Lucas /Gerrard) and teh defensive line which he have seen exploited time and again last season.
Let's not forget that we need a balance of attack and defence to win the league - we had the best attack and the 8th best defence last season (normally you need to be the 1st/2nd best in each category to win the title).
Lovren is an organiser and very much a front-foot defender looking to step up, read play and get ahead of his man - which accounts for his high number of interceptions. He is a physical presence, competes in the air and has good distribution. I expect he will push up with Sakho and compress space making life easier for Gerrard but forcing Mig to come off his line more. On top of that he has good footballing skills being both physically intelligent and having good timing in the tackle.
The most exciting development with Lovren is that it opens up the possibility of playing a 1343 formation which other teams are not set up to compete with. it will take a fair amount of work on the training ground but if we can pull it off we might the same advantage that Mazzari's Napoli did or even Martinez's Wigan who managed to avoid relegation with it a couple of seasons ago.
All in all I think he will prove to be a great bit of business - though as I say, he might not be recognised for it.
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