By the time the architect of much of Liverpool’s recent success took the field, Jurgen Klopp’s side were 3-1 up. Philippe Coutinho has contrived to acquire a reputation as the Pete Best of Klopp’s Liverpool, the man who left before the glory years; if, that is, Pete Best had been sold for a transfer fee that enabled the Beatles to buy a new rhythm section.
As it was, Coutinho’s reunion with Liverpool came in a match when Alisson and Virgil van Dijk offered another illustration that the £142million proceeds of his 2018 sale to Barcelona was well invested.
For Coutinho, part of the chastening element was that Liverpool fared far better when they did not replace him. Not directly, anyway. As he took the field with a few minutes remaining, his search for a first assist of Aston Villa’s league season extending into 2023, a left-footed creator had already set up a goal for Liverpool. And not just Mohamed Salah, either, but the man who provided his opener at Villa Park.
In a sense, Andy Robertson had outstripped Coutinho long ago. His latest feat was overtaking Leighton Baines. His 54th Premier League assist was not merely 16 more than the Brazilian has mustered, but one more than the old Evertonian. He is out on his own now, the defender who has set up the most goals in the division’s 30-year history.
It is a personal achievement for one who is very much a team player. “I’m not into individual things but when you put that in the Premier League against some unbelievable defenders it is always nice to see yourself at the top,” said Robertson. Given his annual competition with Trent Alexander-Arnold, perhaps there is one defender that, if only jokingly, he takes particular pleasure in seeing beneath him on the leaderboard. Alexander-Arnold’s creativity is more celebrated, his passing range more remarkable, but there is an efficiency to Robertson, a reliability that means, in a campaign when the right-back’s strangely long wait for a first assist continues, the left-back has eight in all competitions.
Robertson is part individual phenomenon, part a sign of Klopp’s tactics, part an indication of a wider trend. “Full-backs have evolved a lot, it is about going forward as well as defending,” he said. “It is a big part of my game.” The tactical tweak Klopp implemented when Coutinho left was for the full-backs to run past his midfielders; he is a final third to final third player. Of Robertson’s 54 assists, four were for Hull, one for Liverpool before Coutinho’s sale to Barcelona, 49 since. He is on course for a fourth season in double figures.
But, even in an era when full-backs are more attacking, he is the exception, not the rule. Among those who have spent the majority of their career in the position, there is a gap after he and Baines to Alexander-Arnold and Graeme Le Saux, with 45 and 44 respectively, and another to the long-retired set-piece specialists Ian Harte and Andy Hinchcliffe, twinned on 36. To put it another way, only three full-backs get within a third of Robertson’s tally.
Klopp can show a breezy indifference to the numbers but Robertson, signed from relegated Hull, is a testament to his scouting and coaching. Yet an £8m fee did not just buy Liverpool a left foot that could be trained to cross, but the sort of man with the commitment to improvement to make the most of his attributes.
“He is a great guy,” his manager said. “I am not so much into stats but what came in my mind is the boy we bought from Hull, we knew we had exceptional talent but personality and character make the player you can be. He was a real talent offensively but defensively he was not the player he could be.” They had a couple of heart-to-hearts in Klopp’s office, discussions about his duties without the ball, and over the last five years, Robertson has been outstanding. “He is a proper defender and still sets up goals,” Klopp grinned. “It is a great number and really special.”
The greatness of the number is reflected by his peers, and not merely Baines. Coutinho, Cristiano Ronaldo, Gianfranco Zola and David Ginola are far behind him. Those 54 assists take him ahead of Robin van Persie, put him level with Mesut Ozil and Eden Hazard, one behind Paul Scholes, only two off Eric Cantona.
Each might fit the image of an inventive player more than Robertson, the running machine haring up the wing and crossing time and again.
Yet if Coutinho can seem the anachronism, the throwback to the day when the creator in chief could be a specialist No.10, Robertson feels the ultra-modern figure. If Coutinho was Steven Gerrard’s attempt to turn back time, Klopp forged a post-Coutinho future with Robertson.
And, with another year of his expert deliveries from the left flank, Gerrard may be the only player to have made more Premier League goals for Liverpool than the most creative defender of all.
