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His was the name that stood out on the teamsheet, and pretty soon was trending on social media.

Dejan Lovren hadn’t completely come in from the wilderness to start against Leicester City in Liverpool’s most important Premier League game of the season so far, but he had just come in from Milton Keynes. And well… they aren’t too dissimilar.

When the Croatian was seen for the first time this season in that Carabao Cup third round tie amongst a shadow side in Buckinghamshire 10 days earlier, he did so with something of the Ghost of Christmas Past about him.

MK Dons were viewed as perfect opponents to give Joe Gomez match practice just in case anything happened to Joel Matip, the man who has risen to the rank of Virgil van Dijk’s deputy. Lovren was just there .

He could just as easily not have been. Summer moves to AC Milan and Roma were discussed but never materialised, as a shift in many fans’ perceptions saw the Croatian enter the territory of yesterday’s news.

(Image: Getty Images)

Lovren hasn’t actually done anything majorly wrong for a while, it’s just that the performances of Gomez in the first half of last season and Matip in the second had overshadowed him.

This coupled with his frequent and baffling absences through illness had stretched patience, while the exits of Simon Mignolet and Alberto Moreno meant that the finger of past disappointments had to be pointed at someone new.

You can only get a certain amount of leeway for being Mo Salah’s best mate after all, and such is Lovren’s life that he’ll always be the man many first look for on the scene of even the most minor defensive crime.

(Image: Wyscout)

Could he have got tighter to Sergio Aguero in January? If he had would Aguero have scored? If Aguero hadn’t scored would Liverpool have won the league? These are the fine, ridiculous margins the brilliant top two are dealing with, as any blip feels catastrophic.

But while Gomez looked rusty and sometimes a little passive against Red Bull Salzburg on Wednesday, one thing you can never accuse Lovren of is being backward in coming forward.

(Image: Action Images via Reuters)

In hindsight, the clue that he would play came in Klopp’s pre-match press conference on Friday, when the German launched into the latest of what have been many auditions to be named Jamie Vardy’s biggest fan.

“In general he is an incredible player, for years already, and if he gets the service he will be a proper threat and we have to make sure that will not happen that often,” he said.

“We know about his speed obviously, but it is more about timing, so we need to be in the right place at the right moment to defend him. There is no alternative to that.”

(Image: Wyscout)

No alternative, and so no doubt in Klopp’s mind that he was going to prefer the front foot, aggressive defending of Lovren over Gomez’s better ability on the ball and speed on the cover.

For Lovren the job was to snuff out the Vardy problem before it became one, and more often than not he did that.

In a throwback to the latter half of his 2017/18 season when he helped Liverpool to the Kiev Champions League final, the Croatian made eight clearances and won five of six aerial duels, and while Vardy did get in once he was already struggling for space as Adrian came out to block.

(Image: Getty Images)

“I have never seen a team defend Jamie Vardy better than today,” said Klopp after his side’s 2-1 win, and he’s such a fan of Vardy that you’d imagine he’s watched a lot of them.

Lovren was a key part of that effort, and while fortune might have smiled on the Reds at one end, his efforts at the other deserve highlighting.

He’ll bow out for Matip or maybe even Gomez at Old Trafford in two weeks’ time, but this was a reminder of how much he absolutely loves a battle, and how that can still be of use to Klopp.