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Dejan Lovren says he has Jurgen Klopp to thank for turning his Liverpool career around.

The Croatian centre-back admits he initially struggled to live up to his £20million price tag following his move to Anfield from Southampton in the summer of 2014.

However, since Klopp took over last season he has got the best out of the former Lyon defender. Lovren has gone on to form an impressive centre-back partnership with Joel Matip this term - the duo playing an important part in the Reds’ thrilling climb to the Premier League summit.

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“I have had ups and downs like everyone has in their lives,” Lovren said.

“The difference is I’m a football player and millions of people can see when that happens to me.

“It is a difficult time when you make a mistake. But I always believed in myself even when other people stopped believing.

“Everything happens in life for a reason so I think any mistakes have helped to make me stronger. It was a good school for me and I think I learned from it.

“When I started to play with Jurgen Klopp I think people were then able to see the difference between the first season and the second season here for me.

“He just believes in us and I think that has helped me to get back to the form I showed at Southampton or during the couple of years before that in France.

“I would say he works 24 hours a day on everything at the club. He knows everything that is happening, and he wants us to give that same 100% on the pitch.”

Klopp has got the Reds playing an exhilarating brand of attacking football. They have plundered 30 league goals in 11 matches so far to sit a point clear of Chelsea at the top.

Lovren believes the belief in the squad stems from the work done at Melwood.

“We play really quick football. We’re not a side who will go somewhere and just defend,” he told Liverpool’s official matchday programme.

“We cannot train differently and then come out on the pitch and play intensively. If you want to play intensively you have to train intensively. That’s our style of game.

“You cannot be an actor on the pitch and pretend to have no emotions at all.

“You look at how the manager is giving everything for the players. He wants that same attitude on the training ground and on the pitch. For me it’s the same. If I do something, I do it from the heart.”

Keeping clean sheets has been an issue for Liverpool so far this season with the stalemate against Manchester United their only shutout in the Premier League.

The Reds have conceded 14 league goals - more than 15th placed Middlesbrough - but Lovren says winning is all that matters.

“The way we play is not difficult for me as a defender,” he said.

“Of course if you are not prepared for the counter-attack at the right moment it can be difficult or if you are up against a top striker who is faster than Usain Bolt. But the way we play is good because you have more opportunities to score goals as a team and win.

“We are learning every day in training and can improve. In every aspect of football you can improve: tactically, physically, mentally. Every day you can learn something and I think that I can learn from the manager every day.

“I would say you cannot play perfect football. I have only rarely seen a team who could - maybe Barcelona a few years ago when they had so much possession, score three or four goals and not concede. “The majority of that side had played together for something like seven or eight years. That’s different. Other teams like us need time.

“We have many new players who came in this season and some players are still adapting to our style. I always prefer to get three points rather than not to concede.”

Klopp played down the significance of Liverpool going top after last weekend’s 6-1 rout of Watford and Lovren agrees. The 27-year-old says this isn’t the time to be making bold predictions about the title race.

“When you hear positive words about the team it’s encouraging or if people say we are playing well or are contenders, but it’s still a really early stage of the season to be talking about anything like that,” Lovren added.

“For me, the best scenario would be for people to be saying the same if there were three or four games of the season left and we could then see what happens from there.

“For now, let’s just say we are playing for something. We aren’t here to just be part of the Premier League.”