Jurgen Klopp blasted critics of Dejan Lovren as being like rubberneckers as the Liverpool defender's form and fitness continue to attract derision. 

Reds boss Klopp substituted Lovren after half an hour in last weekend's 4-1 loss at Tottenham after a string of errors from the 28-year-old.

The German boss was critical of the former Southampton man after the game at Wembley but adopted a different tact ahead of this weekend's visit of former colleague David Wagner's Huddersfield Town.

"I don't wish on one of you that all your mistakes are discussed in public," he said. "You cannot even imagine, you have not even an idea about how it feels. The boys, in the first case, are still human beings.

"It's kind of like watching an accident and there are people standing around with smartphones instead of helping – I am not this kind of person.

"We had a normal week and, of course, it was not the nicest week in Dejan's life, but at the end, it's only football. We have to know about this and people don't become a better or worse person after making a mistake in a football game

"If I think about Dejan, I have much more positive things that I can think about than negative things, still.

"He is a player of Liverpool and that's how I treat him, as a member of this family, and it is clear that I will help him if I think I have to help him."

Lovren removed reference to his employers on his Instagram profile in the week after Liverpool's thrashing at the hands of Spurs, which left them mired in mid-table mediocrity.

But Klopp put little stock in that apparent act of rebellion, suggesting Lovren could be involved at Anfield on Saturday.

He said: "It's up to you what you make of stories like this – if you celebrate yourself and are happy with having stories like this or if you cool down because the world of social media is difficult enough to handle. That's why I am not on it, I have no idea why people are doing it to be honest. 

"Everything is okay, Dejan had a good training week, we will see what we will do for the game. It's not about the last game in general, it's about the next one. For Huddersfield, we will go for what we think will be the best line-up."