Brendan Rodgers says Dejan Lovren can be the Liverpool's new Jamie Carragher

The £20m signing from Southampton has made an instant impression

Dejan Lovren heads in his goal against Borussia Dortmund

(GETTY IMAGES)

Brendan Rodgers says that new signing Dejan Lovren can be Liverpool's new Jamie Carragher.

Lovren didn't take long to impress the Anfield faithful on his Reds debut yesterday, scoring in the 14th minute against Borussia Dortmund in the 4-0 friendly victory.

Rodgers described the Croatian centre-back's performance as "perfect", and compared him to Carragher, who retired in 2013 after 737 appearances in all competitions for the Reds. Only Ian Callaghan (857) has made more for the club.

"Dejan was perfect," Rodgers said. "He is exactly what I’ve been looking for since Jamie Carragher left.

"He is a dominant, No 1 centre-half, who reads the game well, offers good guidance to the back four and the rest of the team – and shows his qualities of range of passing too. You saw with the pass to [Philippe] Coutinho in the build-up to the first goal.

"Just like he showed against us last year he's dominant in the box – both in ours and the opposition's – and I thought he was excellent."

The £20m buy from Southampton added to Daniel Sturridge's opener to make it 2-0 against the Germans in the Reds' final pre-season warm-up before the Premier League season begins.

Jamie Carragher after his final Liverpool appearance

(Getty Images)

Coutinho and Henderson also scored in the rout.

"It was an amazing game," Lovren told liverpoolfc.com after the match.

"We're talking about Dortmund, who are in the Champions League every year and first or second in the German league.

"They are a quality team. We showed a quality style of football, with four goals and a clean sheet. It was amazing for us."