Departing defender Andy Robertson is confident Liverpool's future is in safe hands as he prepares to play his final game for the club at Anfield on Sunday. The Scotland captain, who has enjoyed a trophy-laden nine-year spell, will make his 378th and final appearance against Brentford, with Mohamed Salah also signing off.
Liverpool spent £450 million on a squad rebuild last summer, signing the likes of Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong, and Milos Kerkez. However, the team has endured a poor season, never coming close to defending their Premier League title. Despite this, Robertson is confident the new generation will deliver.
“In terms of the club that I am leaving behind, I think we are not at the 2017 stage; we are at the transition stage,” said the left-back, who has won eight major honours, including the Champions League and two Premier League titles. “When we started out, Mo Salah didn’t sign as the best player in the world, Virgil van Dijk had the potential but wasn’t the best centre-back, Alisson wasn’t the best goalkeeper, and Trent wasn’t the best right-back.”
Robertson added: “We bought players that we all got excited about, and they will all have an unbelievable career at Liverpool. I have no doubt about that. But they are also young. I have seen more than enough in training and in games and their attitude that they will be successful.”
The defender acknowledged the pressure on head coach Arne Slot but pointed to an emotional factor that outsiders may not fully understand: the death of team-mate Diogo Jota in a car crash last July. “It is not an excuse, but what we went through in the summer no team will ever go through. I hope they never go through it because the devastation we went through… football didn’t matter,” Robertson said.
“We didn’t care about football for weeks. None of us wanted to train. That was the reality. As footballers we have a duty to move on, and we managed that. The Bournemouth game was ridiculously emotional with all of Jots’ family being there. I think in the 20th minute you saw a real dip in performance after that because of the emotional impact.”
