Jurgen Klopp has saluted Dejan Lovren for transforming his Liverpool career since his Wembley nightmare.

The Reds boss admits the Croatian centre-back was devastated after being taken off after just half an hour when the Reds were routed 4-1 by Tottenham back in October.

Lovren endured a torrent of criticism after suffering at the hands of Harry Kane, but he has forced his way back into Klopp’s line up ahead of Sunday’s Anfield reunion with the prolific England striker.

“How I assess it is obvious because Dejan has played pretty much constantly since that game,” Klopp said.

“All this discussion is opened from the outside: ‘He’s not good enough, he’s that, he’s that.’

“He’s played a few fantastic games since Tottenham and before as well. Tottenham was a very bad game of the whole team.

“He was not good that day that’s true but after the game I said I could have changed five or six players at least in that moment but we decided for Dejan.

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“We had a few talks afterwards. I thought it was a normal thing. He obviously thought different so we had a few talks. I have to make a lot of decisions and not all of them I explain afterwards to the players.

“Sometimes I leave them alone, that’s part of the deal. They are out there, it’s quite an intense fight all the time and it’s not that you will be prepared for all of that by giving hugs through the week.

“It was not an easy moment in the world of football to do something like that in public before half-time. It causes a story, but he has responded fantastic so all good.”

From the wreckage of that humiliation at Wembley, Liverpool embarked on a spirited 18-game unbeaten run, which was ended by a shock defeat to Swansea last month.

Klopp believes lessons were learned from how poorly the Reds defended against Spurs when they conceded twice inside the opening 12 minutes.

Klopp on facing Tottenham again after the defeat at Wembley

“The formation was not good,” he said. “You should win the header, it was a completely normal ball. Dejan lost the header challenge, Joel (Matip) was not close enough and no clue where Alberto (Moreno) was at that moment.

“I don’t think that happens really often that we get counter attack goals against us after a simple long ball.

“We had that before at Newcastle, but it was a different goal, two centre halves and the ball goes through. We have been much better in those situations since.

“It is one of the big strengths of Tottenham. Harry (Kane) is always on the shoulder waiting for balls in behind.

“When they defend deep, Harry is ready and is a target for these balls, Son (Heung-Min) as well. That day it was a big problem but I don’t think it was a problem afterwards.”

Klopp must decide whether to persevere with the centre-back partnership of Lovren and Matip or hand a recall to Virgil van Dijk, who was rested for the midweek win at Huddersfield.

The manager says the £75million January signing, who struggled in last weekend’s FA Cup defeat to West Brom, is still adjusting to how differently Liverpool defend compared to Southampton.

(Image: (Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images))

“It’s much higher,” Klopp said. “We protect differently, for example for header challenges you need to always be in a triangle. A lot of teams go for these balls and if they don’t win it, they want a foul and a free-kick from wherever.

“We should not make fouls in these situations so you have not to fight for these balls like crazy, if you don’t win it the only job then is for the opponent to control it and the rest can pick the ball then.

“It feels like a long time but he has only been here a month, he has played most of the time.

“Giving him all the information is what will happen but step by step and not: ‘Here is the Liverpool book, read it and then you should be ready for it.’

“All of the information goes here (points to head), but he needs to play from here (points to feet). That means it takes a little bit of time.

“The West Brom game, usually we don’t get outplayed. It’s not like you can play four passes and be alone in front of our goal. Against West Brom that was twice the case. They were probably as surprised as we were.

“It was a bad day, deserved defeat, but it is nothing we have to care too much about it.

“We know how to defend these situations, they will not happen. There are plenty of other situations they can score from unfortunately, especially Tottenham who use each angle you can score from.”