'We're in big bother' - Andy Robertson fumes at Liverpool teammates and names what must change
Liverpool weren’t at the races against Brentford and Andy Robertson was fuming with what he saw from his teammates.
Arne Slot cut a frustrated figure in the Liverpool dugout watching his side huff and puff against Brentford with not too much to show for it.
On paper, it was a difficult game and so it proved with the Anfield outfit barely laying a glove on Keith Andrews team. It was always going to be a physical encounter against a team that is well organised and direct. They play to their strengths, and it is down to other managers to break them down. It is also down to the players to implement what they have been told to do with Andy Robertson far from happy with what he saw from his teammates.
Andy Robertson fumes at Liverpool teammates
In a scathing interview with Liverpool TV, the vice-captain didn’t miss: "You have to fight for the control. Nobody is going to just say, 'On you go, you take the ball and we'll try to defend.' Nobody does that,” Robertson said about his side losing too many duels. "They always have a game plan against us. All the managers in the Premier League are so talented, especially teams that have had a full week to prepare.
“They would have had a clear game plan and you'd have to ask their manager but I think they played theirs perfectly - and we didn't play ours at all. That makes it so difficult. Like I said, if you just think they're going to show up and all of a sudden they're going to drop off, we're going to have control and we'll just wait until we score - [that] never ever happens. This is my ninth season and I think it's only happened once or twice.
"If we expect that then we're in big bother - you have to fight for that control, you have to fight first of all. You have to fight for the second balls, fight for the first balls and try to feel your way into the game. Then the quality will come through. I felt as if we never got a grip on the game at all. Had moments but not enough moments to go and really put them under pressure."
Robertson epitomises what Liverpool lack
Robertson is right. Steven Gerrard hasn’t had a hugely successful managerial career but he took one mantra from his playing days into his time on the other side of the whitewash. As a combative midfielder, he understood that a player had to win their personal battles and earn the right to play. It was a principle he wanted his players to follow as a manager. Win the battles first, then get the ball down and play.
For each of Brentford’s goals, Liverpool players were culpable individually. Ibrahima Konate and Milos Kerkez in particular should have done an awful lot better. There wasn’t a want or desire to stop Brentford from scoring, there was no desperation and the home side simply bullied the champions. Slot can set up his team however he wants, change formations and tactics, but if his players don’t compete on a physical level, they will continue to drop points against teams like Brentford and Crystal Palace. Robertson might not be the player that he once was, but he has the aggression and leadership that has been sorely missed on too many occasions this season.