Jurgen Klopp says he's proud of how far Andy Robertson has come at Liverpool after the Scotland captain claimed the record for the most assists of any Premier League defender.
The left-back put a ball on a plate for Mo Salah in his side's 3-1 Boxing Day win against Aston Villa, a game in which Scotland U21s international Ben Doak made his Reds debut. It was his 54th assist, seeing him reach the most assists of any defender since the reformation of the English top flight in 1992/93.
He didn't hit the ground running though when arriving from Hull City in 2017, and Klopp says a frank conversation on what had to improve set Robertson on the right Liverpool track. The German explained: "He is a great guy. I am not so much into stats, but what came first to my mind was the guy we bought from Hull. We knew he was an exceptional talent, but personality [and] character makes you the player you can be.
"He obviously really had a good basis for that. He was a real talent offensively; defensively he was not that good and I remember when he came into my office after half a year because he didn’t play a lot [about] what he has to change.
"I explained to him how he has to defend again and I said, ‘I am disappointed I have to tell you again because I told you a couple of times, that is the thing you have to change and everything is fine.’ Now he obviously [is] a proper defender and still sets up balls. I have so many balls in my mind where he missed the free player in the middle; imagine he would have been there, more accurate as well, then the number [is] even crazier. It’s a great number and really special."
