• Premier League

A lot of things aren't right at Liverpool, says Dejan Lovren

Dejan Lovren admits "a lot of things are not right" at Liverpool at the moment and says too many people are playing for themselves rather than the team.

The defender took little satisfaction from the 3-2 Premier League win at bottom club QPR on Sunday because it was such a poor performance and warned Liverpool must improve greatly against European champions Real Madrid in their Group B match at Anfield on Wednesday.

"A lot of things are not right at the moment but it will come," Lovren told reporters. "We need to be more compact, to run more, we need to be like one player on the pitch, all together, to breathe the same. We need to improve and play more like a team.

"We have amazing individual players, but we need to show it as a team. QPR was the first time in my career I was unhappy after the game, even though we won, because we didn't play good. I was glad it was over because one more minute and it would have been 3-3."

Liverpool lie fifth in the league, having won four of their opening eight matches, but have managed just one clean sheet in all competitions and have rarely looked solid defensively.

Despite being one of nine players brought into the club over the summer, former Southampton defender Lovren did not see the vast squad turnover as an explanation for their display at Loftus Road.

Richard Dunne's own goal gave Liverpool a second-half lead at QPR before a crazy finish that brought four goals in the closing few minutes.

Eduardo Vargas equalised in the 87th minute, then did so again in injury time after Philippe Coutinho had restored Liverpool's lead, only for Steven Caulker to score a 94th-minute own goal to hand the points to the visitors.

Lovren said: "This was not an easy game but one that we should have seen out comfortably, especially after taking the lead. We need to be better and in our next game against Real Madrid we need to show more.

"We will not play like that against Real Madrid, you can be sure of that. We will be better. We cannot play like this because we know what we can expect from Madrid. Their players, we know who they are and we will prepare a little bit differently."

Dejan Lovren was signed from Southampton to help organise Liverpool's defence © PA Photos

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