It's fair to say not many defenders in the Premier League are scrutinised as much as Dejan Lovren.

When the Croatian international made a £20 million move from Southampton, it seemed like Liverpool had made a really shrewd signing.

However, now in his fourth season at Anfield, the former Lyon defender has become almost famous for his errors at Anfield and tends to be the first name that springs to mind when people question Liverpool's defence.

With the emergence of Joe Gomez and the arrival of Virgil Van Dijk, it seems like any combination of those two players and Joel Matip are the likely centre-half partnerships of the future for Jurgen Klopp's men.

That means Lovren's days on Merseyside are potentially numbered, but the 28-year-old recently confided in The Times that he believes he takes far too much unfair criticism.

"Everyone makes mistakes, but I play one bad game in 18 and everyone says, 'Look, look, look.' Why? I don't deserve that," Lovren said. "People don't see me in the 'small' games. They see 5-0 against Porto but nobody sees my part.

"It's a challenge. A personality challenge. After a mistake, are you ready to move on? I did it straightaway after Spurs when I was in that record of 18 games unbeaten. Big players don't need six or seven games; big players in the next game prove you wrong.

"But some people don't care about that Dejan. They're just searching for the next mistake."

He added: "You know maybe, it's sometimes just that my self-confidence disappears in some moments. And he [manager Jurgen Klopp] believes in me, you know? And I believe in him.

"Sometimes, I'm a person who thinks 'Ah, I'm really good.' But other times I think, 'Ah, I did that. I'm not good enough.'

"He says always be level, but it's difficult. You have sometimes self-confidence, sometimes not; sometimes good moods, sometimes not."

To be fair, Lovren's ratio of bad games is not one in 18 - that would be generous to him. But, on his day, he is still a top-level defender with plenty to offer.

Unfortunately, his mistakes live longer in the memory than anything else. The sad thing is, it seems as though the mistakes have simply drained his confidence and they have led to other mistakes.

A vicious cycle for Lovren and Liverpool indeed;