Liverpool comfortably dispatched of Fulham 2-0 at Anfield in the Premier League on Sunday, compiling more misery on the Cottagers with huge pressure on their manager Slavisa Jokanovic to come up with results. Mohamed Salah and Xherdan Shaqiri got the two goals but fans left the stadium with one person’s name on their lips.
Ten million pounds. That’s right. Ten. It’s pretty much classed as chump change in the modern game with the amount of currency being thrown across the domestic leagues in Europe, but Liverpool are rinsing the cloth of value and getting every last penny drop out of Andy Robertson who bought from Hull City at the beginning of last season.
The Scotsman has been an absolute revelation in the Premier League since his arrival from Humberside and has cemented himself as one of the best left-backs in the country. It may go down as one of Liverpool’s greatest signings, and Robertson has been rewarded with his form by becoming captain of his country, a huge honour for someone who would spill blood for Scotland.
His performance against Fulham was arguably his best since his arrival on Merseyside, and despite the quality of the opposition, Robertson shone through once again as he had a big say in his side’s 2-0 win against the Cottagers.
Here we will break down his match figures in full as we aim to digest, piece by piece, the root of the Scotsman’s successes on the left-hand side for the Reds.
Relentless
According to Squawka, Robertson completed 78 passes during the game which converted to an 87% success rate for the afternoon, which was almost double than his teammate Trent Alexander-Arnold on the right.
The duo revealed at after the full-time whistle that they have a healthy competition with each other as to who can put in the better performances during the season. Andy ‘Robbo’ is winning the fight so far with a match rating on Sunday of 8.17 and picked up the Man of the Match award for his troubles, according to Who Scored, which Trent reluctantly handed to him with a mischevious grin.
The level of Liverpool’s dominance was evident in the statistics as well as on the naked eye, but Robertson made the most interceptions for his team with three and also made just the two tackles in the game as well as one clearance, as the Reds were not required to fully utilise their defensive duties.
Jurgen Klopp had a clear vision in his mind of where his threat was going to come from all afternoon. His combined play with Sadio Mane once again came to the forefront of Liverpool’s offensive abilities as he gave his opposite number Cyrus Christie all sorts of problems from the first whistle to the last, beating him on eight different occasions.
He is operating at a world-class level, along with Chelsea’s Marcus Alonso and Manchester City’s Benjamin Mendy, easily fits in as one of the best left-backs in Europe. His consistency and his ability to find a pass from all ranges, particularly from his assist for the Reds’ second goal, optimises the sort of player that the Liverpool coaching staff and scouts spotted three seasons ago and who deserve a lot of credit for the signing.
At the age of 24 he already has 90 appearances for the club under his belt, at the age of 24, and considering he only joined in July 2017, that is a significant amount of games in the space of almost 18 months.
And as a result, has barged Alberto Moreno out of the first team picture for the foreseeable future, and rightly so as the new players are absolutely no comparison to each other in terms of performance levels.
However, and this with no disrespect intended towards full-backs of football teams as such that may be reading this and passing judgment, but other than Gary Neville, it tends to be the forgotten position on the pitch in terms of key figures. Robertson will go down as a legend in this Liverpool side if he went on to win the Premier League or the Champions League with the Reds, which was almost a reality in Kiev back in May.
But here’s a fun fact, and something which I cannot help but repeat, Moreno cost the Reds £16m, while Robertson was just £10m.
