Liverpool’s Dejan Lovren names the three centre-halves he thinks are as good as him… and Sergio Ramos doesn’t make the list
The World Cup finalist thinks only one man at Real Madrid is his equal and the Galactico's captain will not be happy to hear who it is
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DEJAN LOVREN has found game time hard to come by this season but doesn't seem to have let it dent his self-belief - or his hatred of Sergio Ramos.
A pelvis injury, and the impressive form of Joe Gomez and Virgil van Dijk, has limited the Croatian to just three Premier League starts since August.
However, those three starts have been in Liverpool's most recent games and the Croatian seems to be there to stay.
Having reached the final of the Champions League and the World Cup this year, Lovren humbly described himself as one of the best defenders in the world.
Copa90 pressed him on this in a recent interview and asked which defenders he considered to be in the same bracket as him.
The first was the friendly but perhaps predictable inclusion of his Reds team mate: "Virgil (Van Dijk), I would say."
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Then came the scathing swipe at Ramos - the man who ruined the Reds' Champions League dreams. He said: "I would say (Raphael) Varane. I like Varane, he deserves a lot of credit but I think he doesn't get it as much as (Sergio) Ramos gets it and I don't agree with that."
Lovren did not leave it there.
He added: "Is Varane better than Ramos? Definitely. I think in this moment and in previous years. He won the Champions League, he won the World Cup. So he should be voted the best defender in the world. I think they chose Ramos (at the FIFA Best Awards) but that's a decision you cannot change."
Before naming his third equal, Lovren could not resist one final jibe at the Spaniard, adding: "If you look, Ramos has many more mistakes than me but he's at Real Madrid."
Lovren's final inclusion was not as damning as he named PSG star Thiago Silva as the third player he believes to be on his level.
He said: "I would always consider Thiago Silva. He's really good, experienced, he's not so tall but he jumps quite high."
A modest evaluation as ever from Lovren but his attack on Ramos surely won't go unnoticed by the Galactico's captain.