Jurgen Klopp didn't speak to Dejan Lovren after hooking Liverpool defender half-an-hour into Tottenham loss: 'I was angry... I was really angry'

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Jurgen Klopp insists Dejan Lovren is world-class, but admits that he was forced to hook the centre-back during the 4-1 defeat by Tottenham in October.

The Croat was all at sea as Spurs raced into a two-goal lead within the first 12 minutes at Wembley.

His afternoon lasted barely half-an-hour, with Klopp deeming he had seen enough and replacing him with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Dejan Lovren was hooked half-an-hour into Liverpool's 4-1 defeat at Tottenham in October

Spurs raced into a two-goal lead in the first 12 minutes with Lovren particularly culpable

And the German admits he was 'angry' with his players after the final whistle, and did not speak to Lovren.

'Two positions that are really, really difficult to play for Liverpool: goalkeeper and centre half, he said to The Mirror. 'It's like you can never been good enough, whatever you do, they still say 'we need a world class replacement'.

'The Tottenham game I was angry. It wasn't like I was saying, "Boys, never mind it can happen, forget about it". Not even one per cent of that. I was really angry.

'I took Dejan off after 25 minutes and I didn't speak to him afterwards.'

Jurgen Klopp described Lovren's performance as 'bad' and did not speak to him afterwards

The result left Liverpool ninth in the table with a negative goal difference, and Klopp reveals Lovren sought him out later in the week about the issue.

'But then a few days later I saw him waiting for my talk, so I said, come in. "You took me off after 20 minutes". Because you were bad.

'But I said to him - maybe this was the decisive moment when he got it - I think he's a world class centre half, 100 per cent.' 

Lovren sought out the Liverpool boss in the week after his first-half withdrawal