Arne Slot has spilled beans on his Scottish left back who is struggling to find his rhythm this season. They have already claimed their spot at the top of the points table following their 2-1 against Brighton.
While they now gear up to welcome Xabi Alonso’s Bayern Leverkusen for the Champions League showdown on November 6, Slot has opened up on their stalwart player Andy Robertson’s prospects and current stage in the team.
The Scottish international did not play against Brighton, with Kostas Tsimikas preferred and the Greece international put in a solid display.
Arne Slot have cleared out the situation of their stalwart player Andy Robertson within the squad. The Dutch football manager underscored that Robertson is currently adapting to slightly different positional expectations as a left-back, causing him to overthink his movements on the pitch.
However, the coach believes that he will perform at his best once the latter becomes more instinctive and settles into this new style. Despite missing pre-season, Slot sees him progressively regaining the dynamic, up-and-down style he’s known for and is optimistic about his continued improvement. Here is what he had to say as quoted by the Guardian:
“Then, when you start to play, maybe he thinks a bit too much because there are not many things different but in some situations we ask for a bit different positioning from a left-back. For me, he is a bit in that period of time where he is thinking: ‘OK, I’m here now, should I be here or there?’ The moment he stops thinking but is just acting on what we expect he will be fine. That, combined with the fact that Robbo has always been a great player for this club especially because he went up and down, up and down all the time. Therefore he needs to have some time because he missed out on pre-season to come back to that up-and-down, up-and-down full-back. I see him getting there more and more; that’s the good thing.”
Despite having two good players in the left-back position, it cannot be denied that Robertson’s chances are on the decline. It can be understood from the fact that the 30-year-old has made a total of nine appearances in Liverpool’s ten Premier League games so far, although not all have been as a starter.
The Reds’ current manager is more focused on balancing the chances of the players in his squad, to maintain healthy competition and keep the consistency of each member.
Joining Anfield in 2017, Robertson has proven himself to be an important asset for his current employers in the initial years. He has made a total of 311 appearances for the Premier League giants across all the competitions.
It is worth noting that his contract with his current club expires next year, and let’s wait and see how the negotiation talks play out.