Slaven Bilic has condemned the treatment Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren has received from fans after his spell of poor form.
The Croatian, who was handed his international debut by Bilic during his time in charge of the national side, was withdrawn before half time during the Reds’ 4-1 loss to Tottenham after mistakes against Harry Kane and has since revealed he received death threats from some fans.
Bilic though, who is preparing to face his compatriot and Liverpool at London Stadium on Saturday evening, has backed the former Southampton man to bounce back.
"I'm very, very disappointed with the treatment he has received," said Bilic.
"He's a very good player. He's more than a centre-back. He never hides on the pitch. He's always there.
"A lot of mistakes, sometimes he's making up for somebody else's mistakes. It's not easy to play centre-back at Liverpool because of where they stand.
"Take Real Madrid against Spurs, and they have probably the best centre-back in the world in Sergio Ramos.
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"But when he's exposed on such a big space against Dele Alli and Harry Kane, he doesn't look good. It's very hard to play centre-back.
"Lovren's a really good lad, an honest lad. He never asks for any excuses.
Lovren has had spells of the form he showed at Southampton which convinced Liverpool to pay £20m for him in 2014, and Bilic thinks it will just take another moment of magic from him to become a hero once more.
"I hope it isn't going to be on Saturday but sooner or later he's going to score a goal like he scored against Borussia Dortmund and he's going to be a hero again,” he added.
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"That's the nature of society. The people want it straight away, that want it now and they want it tomorrow. But I think Lovren is very strong in his head."