The career of Andy Robertson should be an inspiration to any young person trying to make it as a professional footballer.
He was released by Celtic, the club he supports, at under-15 level for (in their words) “being too small” and famously tweeted back in August 2012 that “life at this age is rubbish with no money.”
But he made his debut for Queen’s Park around that time and later worked his way up via Dundee United and Hull City to Liverpool and becoming a champion of everywhere.
It’s safe to say the Scot isn’t satisfied to have ‘only’ achieved what he has so far though, as he explained in a video interview on the Reds’ official website.
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Asked how he keeps motivated after accomplishing everything he has, Robertson’s answer is unlikely to surprise anyone who has watched him closely over the years.
“For me, it’s just trying to improve every day,” he said.
“Trying to get better but also… one trophy is great but it’s not enough. There’s always more to come, more to achieve and in different areas.”
“We always want more, and you always just try to continue to improve and always try to see the next challenge, not the challenge that has already been,” Robertson added.
Ahead of the 2021/22 season, the trials facing Liverpool’s first choice left-back clearly extended beyond the standard expectations of aiming to win the Premier League and the Champions League.
Like many of his teammates, Robertson didn’t have the best season last term. After providing 11 league assists in 2018/19 and 12 during the Reds’ title winning campaign, he only set up seven goals last season.
He also had a very busy summer captaining Scotland at their first international tournament for 23 years, and suffered an ankle injury in pre-season which kept him out of Liverpool’s opening weekend win at Norwich.
Robertson’s biggest individual challenge arguably came from a teammate though. Having taken time to acclimatise to English football, Kostas Tsimikas demonstrated both in the warm up friendlies in the summer and the early weeks of 2021/22 that he was capable of meeting the high demands Jurgen Klopp places on his full-backs.
The response made by Liverpool’s number 26, particularly in the last two months, has been simply phenomenal.
After missing the 4-0 win over Arsenal through injury, Robertson returned to the starting XI for the 4-0 victory against Southampton and assisted the opening goal for Diogo Jota.
Arguably more impressive was the value of the four chances he created that day. They were collectively worth 1.4 expected assists ( per Understat ), his highest total from any of his 148 league matches for the Reds.
In the following match, a Merseyside derby at Goodison Park, Robertson again set up the first goal of the game – this time for Jordan Henderson – and assisted a second goal when playing in Jota for Liverpool’s fourth.
Skipping ahead to the Reds’ last match, Robbo once again set up two goals. In this instance Virgil van Dijk and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were the beneficiaries as Liverpool won 3-1 at Crystal Palace.
This means the Scot has provided two assists in two of his last seven league games for the club, having done so three times in total prior to that.
And in between those two particularly creative matches, he scored and set up a goal (as well as getting himself sent off) at Tottenham.
The only previous instance of Robertson scoring and assisting in the same league match occurred on the final day of 2017/18, when he broke his duck in front of goal in a 4-0 win over Brighton.
In short, in the last eight league matches Robertson has ticked off several impressive feats he had rarely done in his whole Liverpool career, never mind all within a very short period.
As he’s a man of his word, and always looking to improve, this bodes very well for the Reds’ assault on four trophies over the next four months.
