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Dejan Lovren is still adapting to life with Virgil van Dijk – and has vowed to help the defender cope with the expectation of playing at Liverpool.

Van Dijk has stepped straight into the Reds' first team following his club record £75million arrival from Southampton in January.

The Dutch international was partnered by Lovren in last Wednesday's 5-0 Champions League triumph at Porto, only the second game the duo have started a game together.

And while Lovren admits there is plenty of scope for improvement, he is keen to help Van Dijk avoid the pitfalls that hampered his own early Anfield career.

“I think he is doing quite well,” said the Croatian.

“He will do better and better every time (he plays) and he is a top defender.

“It's still fresh, everything for him is new. We are still adapting to each other.

“He has all the backup from us. We are helping him and we haven't had many times to play with each other and to be honest only had a couple of training sessions together (before the first game) so it's still an adaptation. But I think we have done it quite well.

“You need to have time for adaptation. Players are young, but expectation is big. It's difficult sometimes to cope with that.

(Image: John Walton/PA Wire)

“We need to support him and stick with him even in tough times like with me in the beginning.

“When I came here, it was a little bit rough but he is a big man, a big guy who believes in himself and that's the most important thing.”

Lovren is competing with Joel Matip and Ragnar Klavan for a starting role alongside Van Dijk, having been a first-team regular this season before the Dutchman's arrival.

But the defender acknowledges squad rotation has become the norm under Jurgen Klopp.

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“When you're fit you want to play every game,” he said. “But with the games week in week out, it's not possible to play every game at your best level.

“Some changes are important and the manager knows when a player is fully fit or he's a little bit tired. He has done it quite well with all these rotations.

“We learned from last year that you can't keep all the same players (playing). Somebody will break and we will have many injuries. This season we have managed it quite well.”

Lovren, speaking to LFC World, added: “I'm always in control of myself, of my form. Of course, it depends also on the team.

“If you play 18 games unbeaten then they will say you are one of the best centre-backs but if you don't defend well as a team then they will point the finger at you because they expect a defender to solve all the problems.

“When we play, we play like a team, we defend like a team, we attack like a team, and at the moment I feel really strong and confident.”