Robertson: My first training session at Liverpool was unforgettable for all the wrong reasons

Andy Robertson has spoken about his extremely eventful first training session after signing with Liverpool in 2017.

The left-back was certainly not prepared the sort of intense training regime that Jürgen Klopp had implemented with the head of fitness and conditioning Andreas Kornmayer.

Robertson recalled his memories of the fateful day with Peter Crouch on his podcast (via the Echo).

“The day I signed we got the tour of the stadium and stuff and that is when it really hits home.

"But I remember my first day, there was only six or seven of us because it was pre-season, so only a few of us in and Danny Ings was just coming back from long-term injury.

“So he stayed behind and we had to do the lactate test that the Germans love, it's basically running to your maximum.

"I remember running alongside Danny Ings and I was just sick everywhere! Actually physically sick.

"[With the test] they set up poles around the pitch and you have to make each pole on the whistle but then it gets faster and faster.

“My medical took two days so I didn't really eat, so I put it down to that and I was tired.

"Ingsy was talking to me on the way round and I could just feel it, I knew something wasn't right. 

I tried to hold it in my mouth and I just had to let it go. It was terrible. Day one!

Luckily the gaffer (Klopp) wasn't there and I thought I'd got away with it and he returned three days later and introduced himself, blah blah blah, and then he called me Mr Sick Boy or something like that. I was gutted!"

Robertson said that kind of banter is common between Klopp and players and makes him such a special man to play for.

But he also is able to put things in context after a win or loss and Robertson described a special moment after the Champions League victory against Tottenham last season.

After the win, Klopp spoke individually to every player and it is something that the Scottish captain recalls with pride.

“ I’ve seen that video – I think that is one of his biggest strengths, he adapts to different situations and people around him.

“He knows the people who need an arm around them, the people who maybe need a bit of tough love.

“Some managers kind of put on a front for the cameras but what you see is what you get with him. What he is in front of the cameras and in the press conferences is exactly what he is like. 

“He doesn’t change for any situation.”

While Robertson admits that Klopp has a very sharp edge at times, he is just a individual that the players do not want to let down.

 “I’d love to have a microphone on him when he's out on the pitch, that would be an entertaining watch.

“He does everything for you, he’s like a father figure for you, then he’s like the manager.

“He’s everything for us and so then when you let him down you don’t really want to go and see him, you can’t look him in the eye any more.

“You don’t want to let any manager down, but when you have a good relationship with them, a personal relationship, then it gets a wee bit tougher to look them in the eye when you make a mistake.

“ If four or five of us are having a conversation before training then the manager will sometimes come in and join the conversation, that’s the kind of guy he is.

Some managers have been renowned for stripping wallpaper off the walls with their half time rants, but Robbo says that Klopp is completely analytical and speaks in a measured way.

“At half time he is very calm, and then at full time he always takes a day to think about what he wants to say, and then we have a meeting the day after,”
 

“So in fairness he’s not that annoyed. He takes it out on you more when you’re on the pitch, and then when you get off he’s okay, very calm.”