If Liverpool finally decide against giving Southampton yet another huge cheque for one of their star players, in this case Ryan Bertrand, then they should look at Hull City’s Andrew Robertson.

Now I like Bertrand but believe Robertson could prove to be a smart piece of business this summer for Jurgen Klopp.

Why?

Well the twenty-three year old has made a career out of rising to the occasion and proving himself.

After being freed by Celtic as a youth he went to Scotland’s bottom tier and joined amateur side Queens Park. After a season in the Spiders first-team where he showed that he was better than those around him and Dundee United picked him up for a nominal fee.

He would only spend a year at Tannadice, impressing in the Scottish Premiership with his thirty-six league appearances. Robertson would win Scotland’s young player of the year award before heading to Hull in a £2.85m deal.

The English Premier League didn’t phase the youngster and he would soon become Hull and Scotland’s first choice left-back. That’s one of his great positives, the full-back seems to meet every challenge head on and succeed.

Liverpool clearly need a new left-back, Alberto Moreno’s defensive contribution to the team is almost non-existent. Experienced midfielder James Milner has been moved to left-back for much of this season and while he’s done ok, you can see Liverpool need a more accomplished full-back to come in and fight for that spot.

In terms of price, Robertson will always come in for less than Bertrand and quite considerably less too. The price could be as little as £8m if Hull suffer relegation at the end of this current season.

Reports in January suggested that Burnley had a £10m bid accepted for the Scottish international before new Hull manager Marco Silva vetoed the deal.

So if the Tigers were to be relegated this term and with the player only having a year left on his contract, I can only imagine his value would go down this summer.

The Glasgow born left-back would offer a more rounded option for Klopp. He’s as equally adept at defending as he is going forward. He also a footballer who plays to his strengths and isn’t easily flustered.

He’s not scared to put a foot in or track an opposing winger that bursts forward. This season Andrew has made on average 1.7 interception per game and that’s more than Milner has managed.

While in attack, Robertson runs directly at opponents and he can also supply a quality cross into the box. Klopp would hope that he could improve on his 76% pass completion ratio.

I believe that Andy Robertson would only get better playing with top-class players around him. With Liverpool on the verge of Champions League qualification for next term they will need a few extra faces in the squad to help fight for places.

They can’t go out and splash the cash in every position, so why not bring in a great talent like Robertson who has already proven himself in the Premier League and have him vie with James Milner for the starting jersey?

Then having more money to spend on other vital positions.

 

Posted on May 9th, 2017 by scott
Filed under: Article