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Andrew Robertson


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13 hours ago, moof said:

Was thinning the same thing during yesterday’s game. If it weren’t for Virgil he would be a shoe in for player of the season. It’s almost inconceivable just how good he is 

The thing about normal, human full-backs is that some of them are great going forward - y'know, the kind who can get 11 assists in 37 games - while others are great defensively - the kind who can be an ever-present in a defence that only concedes 22 in 37 games (including 20 clean sheets).

 

Normally, you can have one or the other.  And you'd have to pay top dollar for him.

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1 hour ago, No2 said:

Have we ever had a better left back? In the 33 years I've been watching no one comes close. Steve Staunton probably the best in that period and he's twice as good as he ever was.

In terms of footballing technique than Aurelio was better. Whereas in terms of just pure defending, Carra just edged it. The complete package? Well since I started following us (1996), I haven’t seen better, no.

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13 hours ago, viRdjil said:

Matip ‘legit’, whilst Lovren ‘wank’? Have you forgotten the CL final where he was our best defender and arguably MoM. Whilst Matip has been decent, Lovren’s ceiling is far higher IMO.

Whoops

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Steve Nicol was superb at left back and even scored plenty of goals with it. Alan Kennedy was a superb attacking outlet at left back and chipped in with some extremely important goals and was similar to Robbo in that he could run all day. All Robbo needs to match them is goals on a consistent basis and he's right in the argument. People mentioning Steve Staunton obviously didn't see enough of him play,he was often solid but was equally a bit shit on a number of occassions. Did score a hat trick as a centre forward once v Wigan in a League Cup game.

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33 minutes ago, VladimirIlyich said:

Steve Nicol was superb at left back and even scored plenty of goals with it. Alan Kennedy was a superb attacking outlet at left back and chipped in with some extremely important goals and was similar to Robbo in that he could run all day. All Robbo needs to match them is goals on a consistent basis and he's right in the argument. People mentioning Steve Staunton obviously didn't see enough of him play,he was often solid but was equally a bit shit on a number of occassions. Did score a hat trick as a centre forward once v Wigan in a League Cup game.

I mentioned Staunton as the best prior to Robbo on the last 30 years. To be fair I don't remember Nicol ever playing left back, only seen him at right full.

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14 hours ago, Joey8FrogsLegs said:

 

Good to see you bring him up! Did you watch him play?  

 

Yes. He was part of the team when my dad  started to take me. My mum thought the Kop was dangerous, so we’d go into the Anfield Road end where you were mixed in with the away fans, albeit separated either side of them. So completely less dangerous.....

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He is absolutely incredible, I thought he was going to be a stop gap.  He could play for anyone and will only get better.

 

I think the next stage in his development is to add a few goals.  This is not a criticism at all, it is just amazing that someone so good has the chance to improve.  That's what I love about Klopp and this current team

 

This is the first season with a decent keeper and cb and we are on 94 points.

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On 05/05/2019 at 06:16, sir roger said:

Love me a bit of Robbo , and a bit of credit in that Barca video for whichever Red got back as well to cover the pass right ( can’t make out who it is - Gini? )

Virg 

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On 06/05/2019 at 05:20, No2 said:

I mentioned Staunton as the best prior to Robbo on the last 30 years. To be fair I don't remember Nicol ever playing left back, only seen him at right full.

Nicol was the 1st choice right back and back-up left back from 85-87 after Kennedy left and Beglin became 1st choice. Lawro (with Gillespie playing CB) or Venison would then cover RB. After Beglin broke his leg in early 87 Nicol moved over LB full time for 6 months until Lawro retired in late 87. Ablett then became 1st choice LB until then end of that season and Nicol played RB.

Nicol only played a handful of games at LB after this as Staunton started 88-89 as 1st choice LB and Burrows was purchased half way through that season during an injury crisis. Nicol played in most outfield positions that season, winning player of the year.

However he did play the 2nd half and extra time of 89 cup final as Venison came on for an injured Staunton at half time and Nicol went to LB, setting up our 2nd and Rush's 1st. 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Long read but truly incredible. I think Andy Robertson is one of my favourite people ever, let alone players. What a guy

 

 

https://www.theplayerstribune.com/en-us/articles/andy-robertson-liverpool-champions-league

 

The Players’ TribuneThe Players’ Tribune
SUBMITforward.png
 
 
 
 

This Is for Liverpool

BY ANDREW ROBERTSON
MAY 29 2019
PHOTO BY
SIMON STACPOOLE/OFFSIDE/GETTY IMAGES
 
I

need to start with a confession. Not many things bug me, but if there’s one thing that does, it’s the idea that my story is a football fairy tale.

I know when people say I’m some sort of Cinderella Man that it’s meant as a compliment. I appreciate that, but to be totally honest, it doesn’t feel like one, because it isn’t true.

No magic wands have been waved in my direction, I didn’t win some kind of lottery to land a spot on one of the biggest clubs in the world. The reason why I’m a Liverpool player is the same reason why I’m captain of my country: I’ve worked my bollocks off to get where I am, and by doing that, I’ve been able to make the most of whatever talent I have.

Why does this matter? In truth, it doesn’t matter to me as an individual. It probably doesn’t matter to my family, either. It only matters because there are God knows how many little Andy Robertsons out there. Kids who are struggling to convince people that their talent deserves an opportunity. Kids who just need a break to get to wherever they deserve to be.

Kids who might give up if they start believing that only a fairy tale can save them.

I’ve never wanted to be a poster boy, but if I’m going to be a poster boy for anything, it should be this ― if you don’t give up, and if you carry on believing in yourself when others are doubting you, you can make it. You can show that you are good enough.

Now I’ve got two kids of my own, that message is more important than ever. I don’t want them to think that their dad got a lucky break. I need them to understand that whatever potential they have can only be fulfilled if they put their minds to it. Fairy tales? That’s bedtime stuff.

ea0807e7-t190522pg_andyrobertson_p1991_0Paola de Grenet/The Players' TribuneOne of the best things about football is that there are loads of people like me. Most players get to the top because they are so driven. The Liverpool team that I’m a part of has no shortage of players like that.

Take Virgil van Dijk, for example, the best centre back in the world. How many coaches and scouts looked at him and thought he wasn’t destined for the top? He’ll tell you himself that there were plenty.

Mo Salah, one of the best finishers in the game today, was once discarded as not being good enough for a top Premier League side.

Jordan Henderson must have lost count of the times he has had his ability questioned – although never by anyone who has been fortunate enough to work with him – and here he is on the brink of captaining Liverpool in a second successive Champions League final.

I could go on and on, I really could. If these were all fairy tales, we’d have more than Hans Christian Andersen. They’re not, though. They are all examples of hard work and commitment making the difference.

The same applies to us as a team and to Liverpool as a club. We are where we are because of our work ethic and our belief that pretty much anything is possible. That’s the reason we were able to come back from 3–0 down against a great Barcelona team. We didn’t wait for fate to play its hand and hope that it would go in our favour, we forced fate to go our way and not even Lionel Messi, the best player I have ever set eyes on, could stop that.

Maybe there were those outside Liverpool who didn’t believe we would make it to the final. To be fair to them, they had more than enough reasons, especially after we had our arses kicked in the Nou Camp. There was something about that first leg, though, that gave us belief. We had seen enough to know that we could compete against Barcelona. The problem was that all of the decisive moments had gone against us, and we knew that with Anfield behind us, that momentum could be reversed.

If I was a sympathetic type, I’d probably feel sorry for opposition players coming to Anfield on European nights. What they’re up against is almost unfair. That intoxicating mix of history, passion and unshakable belief is a hell of an advantage to have, and that’s why Liverpool have beaten the odds on many occasions, and that’s why our supporters turn up convinced that the seemingly impossible is possible. They’ve seen it before, so why shouldn’t they expect it?

If I was a sympathetic type, I’d probably feel sorry for opposition players coming to Anfield on European nights.

We knew that we had a chance when we were in the dressing room waiting to run out. We knew that the manager believed in us because he had told us. We knew that the supporters believed in us because we could hear them. My God, we could hear them. And, probably most important of all, we knew that we believed in ourselves and in each other.

That’s why when Divock scored in the seventh minute, I didn’t just believe. I knew. I knew what was coming — what Anfield was going to create. I hope that doesn’t sound disrespectful in any way, because I couldn’t have more respect for Barcelona, but on that night it wasn’t about them. It was about us. We were fired up by the fans and our hunger was on another level.

It hadn’t been easy to feel like that in the minutes after Messi had worked his magic in the first leg. At that stage, we felt flat, which was probably unavoidable. Although we were in Barcelona, Madrid couldn’t have felt further away. Then the manager came into the dressing room, bouncing and wearing his trademark massive smile.

 

“Boys, boys, boys!” he says, “We are not the best team in the world. Now you know that. Maybe they are! Who cares? Who cares! We can still beat the best team in the world. Let’s go again.”

It might have taken me a second, or maybe the entire flight back to Liverpool to believe him, but in hindsight that was the moment that changed everything for us. In football, everyone always talks about belief. Every team says they had it after a comeback. But that’s not the case at every club. It’s just not. The manager, he starts it all. He lights the touch paper and then Anfield does what it does.

I remember in the warmup, the place was jumping. It felt like everyone was on top of us, so God knows what it was like for the Barcelona lads. When Div scored so early, you could just see it in their eyes. The fans went insane. I couldn’t hear a thing. I just remember looking at Hendo, Milly and Virgil — those boys barely cracked a smile.

They just waved their arms at the crowd, as if to say, “We’re gonna go again.”

 

89af83f7-andrewrobertsonc-quotecard16x9aShaun Botterill/Getty ImagesI suppose that night will go down in history. Anybody who loves this club will remember where they were, and who they were watching with. For me personally, what made it even more special was where I had come from to get there. I knew how hard it had been and I knew how, if I had listened to others, I wouldn’t have made it anywhere near Anfield that night — except maybe as a fan who wanted to understand what all the fuss was about.

I had grown up going to Celtic Park with Mum, Dad and my brother. We had four season tickets. My brother and I had Henrik Larsson posters everywhere. Legend. Absolute legend. I even had green wallpaper. Celtic was a part of our family. That’s just the way it was and the way it still is. I joined the youth team as a wee lad, just bombing around the pitch pretending I was at Celtic Park.

At the start, I actually played up top for a bit. Dad even paid me two quid a goal. I think I made £75 one season — unlike now, when I’d probably end up owing himmoney, seeing as I’m not exactly Salah in the scoring stakes. Over time, I found my way into midfield, and in my last season with Celtic I bounced between the middle and left side quite a bit. They’d brought in a new technical director that year and apparently I just wasn’t in the plans for whatever reason.

At my end-of-year interview, the coaches let me know they wouldn’t be bringing me back. I was 15. One year away from getting a pro contract. One year from being a proper Celtic player. But it was over, just like that, and it hurt like hell.

Mum hated to see us cry. Still does. But she saw me shed more than a few tears that day. I remember she grabbed me a takeout curry from my favourite place to try to cheer me up. It was midweek, too. I almost never got midweek curry. I couldn’t even eat much of that. That’s how she knew how bad I was hurting.

d1cb9c3c-190522pg_andyrobertson_p1991_00Paola de Grenet/The Players' Tribune

It was just gutting, but thankfully my family really had my back. They let me keep chasing my dream, even when it might have felt unrealistic to keep going. We decided to give it another go at Queens Park in 2010. Bit of a smaller club in Glasgow, to say the least. Life was different there. I was making six quid a night. It was a working-class type of club, and most players were coming from jobs they worked during the day. It was no different for me.

I did all sorts of jobs to scrape by. I got set up with landscaping gigs, I cleaned up after the first team, and I even worked down at Hampden Park during Scotland matches. My parents told me if I didn’t start to find my game that year, it’d probably be best to start looking at Uni options. So I just put everything I had into getting better every day. That was real work, real pressure.

People always ask me about the pressure of playing for Liverpool. And it’s there, trust me, I feel it. But there’s that pressure, and then there’s the pressure of playing for your life — knowing that if you can’t figure it out, you have to give up on everything you love. That’s the harshest pressure I’ve ever felt. And in that situation, I began to truly believe in myself — maybe for the first time in my life. I didn’t really have another choice.

Dundee United approached me a few years later, and that allowed me to train every day while making enough money that I didn’t need the side gigs. But I think in the end it was good for me to see what people deal with day to day, outside of the bubble of football. When I got the chance to play in the Premier League with Hull City in 2014, I had lived a lot of real life. My ambitions were always to be a solid SPL player. When I was landscaping and emptying the bins, I didn’t think I’d ever be playing Champions League football, especially for Liverpool.

It’s funny, actually … a few clubs called when I was in preseason with Hull in 2017, but I wasn’t really that interested. My missus was pregnant, and we were in the process of getting everything ready for our big arrival — that was our top priority, like any expectant parents.

Then I heard Liverpool wanted me.

Liverpool.

When you hear Liverpool want you, you call your agent back in about five seconds. I couldn’t sign the contract fast enough, to be honest.

 

I got a dose of reality pretty quickly, though. The medical took two days, and it was brutal. My diet was weird because the medical staff had to do so many tests to make sure I was fit and was going to stay fit. After I passed those tests, I had to go to Melwood to do a lactate test. I was running it with Danny Ings, and after a few laps around the pitch, I felt something going on with my stomach. I knew things were going to get bad, but what can you do? I just kept running. A few minutes later, I’m on my knees, puking my guts out on the Melwood pitch.

This hallowed ground. This place where all these legends have trained. King Kenny. Rushie. Stevie Gerrard. And here I am, some wee lad from Glasgow, spewing up in front of the Liverpool medical staff.

If first appearances count, God knows what they thought about me.

The next day, I met the manager and I heard his laugh from a mile away. He’d obviously heard about my test. I turn around and he’s walking toward me, rubbing his belly and pointing at me. The staff behind him are having a laugh, too.

Then he gave me a big hug. After that, I relaxed a bit.

The whole squad made me feel welcome that week, but honestly, it took a really long time for it to sink in that I was a Liverpool player. I wore the red shirt. I wore the club tracksuit everywhere we went. I was wearing it around the house. But I still didn’t feel like a Liverpool player.

I was in and out of the lineup for quite a few months. And the system we play is so complex, I was working so hard in training to learn it all, to understand what the manager wanted from his fullbacks. When I wouldn’t see my name on the teamsheet, my belief in myself started to dip. It did. But all my experiences in life, and the tough times I went through at Celtic and Queens Park, it taught me to be patient.

So I would just come back to training every day and try to catch the manager’s eye by working harder than everyone else. Eventually, he noticed. I think he was just waiting for me to get it — to feel like a Liverpool player and have that confidence. And when I slotted into the lineup, I was ready.

Our supporters have been incredible to me since I got here. And last year they really carried us all the way to the final whistle and beyond in Kiev. That night was hard, and I don’t think you ever really get over a match like that. You just live with it. That night, I remember the silence in our dressing room, I remember the painful flight home. And I remember hearing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” after the final whistle.

The supporters still sang their hearts out, and that sticks with you.

We got back to Melwood at four in the morning, and the manager gave us all a hug and told us how proud he was of our team. And he also told us that we’d be back. Somehow, after a very long road … after being down 0–3 to bloody Barcelona … he was right.

We are back.

 

92099d80-gettyimages-944395356.jpg?widthLaurence Griffiths/Getty ImagesIt’s not lost on any of us what this opportunity means. This has been an incredible season, full of so many ups and downs and emotional moments. But for me, it’s also been a chance to take a step back and see the full picture. From being released by Celtic and sobbing over my curry, to making six quid a night grinding away in Scotland, to signing for Liverpool and putting on that red tracksuit, barely believing it.

It feels good to have another crack at this final. Nobody deserves it more than our supporters, who have backed us through the good times and the heartbreak. But like us, they will know that we are up against a top side in Spurs. Mauricio Pochettino and his players will be just as determined as we are to do something special in a final like this.

The thing that matters most is that our fate is in our hands. We know that. And if there’s one thing I can guarantee about this team, about this group of players, it’s that we will stop at nothing to try to make our supporters’ dream come true.

If that does happen, it won’t be a fairy tale.

It’ll be because we deserve it.

 
 
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Danke

 
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Just ordered a T shirt from the site I've gone for a Klopp one with the quote on it before the 2nd leg against Barca but it was a close thing I nearly opted for the Andy Robbo one , imo he's a fan who through sheer  hard work has made it big fabulous player and a fantastic attitude to boot 

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"I don’t think you ever really get over a match like that. You just live with it. That night, I remember thesilence in our dressing room, I remember the painful flight home. And I remember hearing “You’ll Never Walk Alone” after the final whistle.

The supporters still sang their hearts out, and that sticks with you."

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48413180

 

BBC Sport Insight banner
The Barracks housing estate in Maryhill
'The Barracks' housing estate in Maryhill, Glasgow

The sun beats down on a small patch of grass. Its rays turn the windows of the surrounding high-rise flats into sheets of gold. The midday heat shimmers. Nothing moves.

This is Maryhill, a working-class district in the north of Glasgow. Fifty years ago, this housing estate was known as 'The Barracks'. It is a place rich in Scottish football history.

Charlie Nicholas, one of the best Scottish footballers of his generation, who played with distinction for Celtic and won the 1987 League Cup with Arsenal, grew up here. Next door lived Jim Duffy, an elegant defender who impressed at Greenock Morton, Dundee and Partick Thistle.

As kids in the 1960s and 70s, Duffy and Nicholas dominated football matches in The Barracks. But there was another conspicuous youngster on the scene. Andy Robertson's father Brian, or 'Pop', lived a corner-kick away in a third-floor flat overlooking their makeshift pitch.

'Pop' was a goal poacher with a tenacious streak the size of Hampden Park. He never missed a game, and never shirked a tackle, despite his huge physical disadvantage.

After sustaining a spinal injury at a young age, he was forced to wear a metal brace stretching from his waist to his neck whenever he kicked a ball around with his childhood friends.

Duffy recalls: "Andy has got his determination, that never-give-up attitude, from his dad. That working-class attitude of rolling your sleeves up, making the most of things and seeing where it takes you.

"There's something in his DNA which has pushed him to his limits."

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Andy Robertson is an affable guy. Ask anyone. The Liverpool fans who stop him for selfies in the street. The media department at Liverpool FC who find him to be the most obliging of footballers. The former team-mates and coaches who he works hard to remain in touch with. Look closer, though, and there is a cold-blooded glint in those brown eyes. It hints at an awesome toughness.

John Gallagher coached Robertson at under-14 and under-15 level for Celtic. "As a kid, if someone went over the top on Andy, he would chase them down," he says. "He will not shy away from confrontation. He can do the public face, he always speaks very well. But he is a beast on the pitch."

"Wise, and streetwise," is how former Dundee United team-mate John Rankin puts it.

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Robertson began his professional career with Queen's Park, making his senior debut in 2012

This is, after all, a 25-year-old who had the temerity to clip Lionel Messi around the back of the head on a night when Liverpool pulled off one of the most dramatic comebacks in Champions League history, in their semi-final second leg against Barcelona.

The gesture may not have intimidated the greatest player in the world, but it did perhaps help set the tone for what was to come. It certainly spoke to a strong sense of self that stretches all the way back to Robertson's Maryhill roots.

This Saturday, 'Pop' Robertson will settle into his seat at Atletico Madrid's Wanda Metropolitano to watch his son play for Liverpool in his second successive Champions League final. Robertson's grandparents, meanwhile, will watch the final on television in their flat overlooking that patch of grass in The Barracks.

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Rugby Park, Kilmarnock, December 2013. Stan Ternent, Hull City's head of recruitment, has travelled north to take a closer look at Dundee United's stellar cast of young players, including Ryan Gauld, Gary Mackay-Steven and Stuart Armstrong.

Ternent and Hull boss Steve Bruce are piecing together a team capable of holding their own in the Premier League. Harry Maguire, scouted from Sheffield United, will arrive in summer 2014. Tom Huddlestone and Jake Livermore have already checked in from Spurs.

Kilmarnock play on a synthetic pitch. It is an unforgiving surface that demands players be able to pass and control the ball efficiently. Ternent's eye drifts to the sylph-like youngster leaving scorch marks up and down United's left. He feels his heart beat faster. He has just set eyes on Andy Robertson for the first time.

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Robertson's form for Dundee United saw him called up by Scotland for the first time in March 2014, aged 19

Ternent drives home immediately after the match and speaks to Bruce the next day. He explains that he has seen a player he likes very much but the game was on a synthetic surface and he wants to watch him on grass. On his next trip north, Ternent takes in Hibernian v Dundee United. After 20 minutes, he shuts his notebook. At half-time, he leaves Easter Road. As he heads for the car, he phones Bruce.

"We have to sign this kid."

"Are you sure?"

"100%."

If you were to do a pencil drawing of an old-fashioned football scout, it might resemble Ternent. A man who has spent a lifetime driving up and down British motorways chasing those precious moments when his back suddenly straightens, his blood pressure rises and he knows in his bones that he has just spotted a footballer.

"I wouldn't watch players that many times. I would know inside, fairly quickly," he says.

Ternent speaks of Robertson with an almost paternal pride. He accepts no credit for discovering him - "Nowt to do with me. I was lucky. I fell on him. Great family, great agent. Knows where he comes from. It's all down to Robbo" - and instead emphasises the role played by Bruce and his coaching team of Steve Clemence, Steve Agnew, Keith Bertschin and Gary Walsh in developing him into a top-class player.

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Robertson challenging against Liverpool forward Sadio Mane, playing for Hull

Hull was an important staging post in Robertson's career. After joining for £2.85m in July 2014, he made 115 appearances over three seasons. In that time the side club relegated from the Premier League, promoted straight back up from the Championship via the play-offs and then relegated again.

Ternent used to drop in on training to watch Robertson's progress.

"He did his own runs at the end. He would set off at the near post, building up as he crossed the 18-yard line; at the halfway line he'd still be gathering speed and by the time he got to the other end of the pitch he'd be flying - 100-metre runs. And he would do six or eight of them. He just built up and built up until he reached the levels you see now."

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Much has changed at Liverpool in the past 12 months. The fall guy of 2018's Champions League final defeat by Real Madrid, Loris Karius, has been replaced by Alisson, the Brazilian who arrived for £66.8m, then a world-record fee for a goalkeeper. Central defender Virgil Van Dijk also joined for a world-record fee in his position - £75m.

The financial might of Liverpool, and the Premier League clubs, is now undeniable, but it does not tell the whole story of the club's recruitment. Robertson's move from Hull City was different.

The Scot was signed in the summer of 2017 for £8m. The sort of money you suspect Premier League clubs might find down the back of a sofa in the players' lounge, but Liverpool are open-minded on fees, large or small. Robertson's arrival was the product of an enlightened scouting department which has been pivotal to the success of the Jurgen Klopp era.

Liverpool's owners, Fenway Sports Group, have introduced an analytics-based approach into all decisions ranging from tactics to recruitment. The system has been refined greatly under Ian Graham, Liverpool's director of research, who has a doctorate in theoretical physics from the University of Cambridge.

He has built a database that tracks 10,000 players around the world. His data analysis heavily influenced the appointment of Klopp in 2015, as well as key signings such as Mohamed Salah and Naby Keita.

Yet, while the Liverpool scouting department have comprehensive data sets on all their signings, human judgement is firmly at the core of their operation, led by sporting director Michael Edwards.

Liverpool scouts watch potential signings in 15- to 20-game blocks. In doing so, they aim to achieve a more comprehensive picture of a player's character and how they cope with a variety of situations over a longer period of time.

Liverpool, including their head scout Barry Hunter, had compiled a season's worth of scouting reports on Robertson before making their move.

Ternent took a game and a half. Liverpool spent 10 months. Two contrasting approaches. Both successful.

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Robertson grew up as a Celtic fan and played in the club's youth system until the age of 15. In hindsight, his release at that age was a mistake, but youth football is the most inexact of sciences.

The then Celtic youth coach John Gallagher used to cite the example of former Celtic captain Tom Boyd. Boyd experienced rejection as a youngster before becoming one of the first players to earn a professional contract - with Motherwell - through the government's Youth Training Scheme.

Boyd went on to enjoy a decorated career at Motherwell, Chelsea and Celtic. He also won 72 caps and represented Scotland at the World Cup in 1998.

"I always said to the boys: 'Where was Tom when he was 14 or 16?' My point was that careers don't follow linear routes," Gallagher says.

Robertson's certainly didn't. At the end of his under-15 season, Gallagher lobbied unsuccessfully for his retention. He then had to break the bad news to the player and his family.

He says: "I played at lower leagues in Scotland for 15 years and I came across all those guys whose upward trajectory stopped at 16. They might have played for Scotland Under-16s at the World Cup but they'd end up playing for Albion Rovers part-time and working as a security guard in a shopping centre.

"It can be very hard to handle. But Andy just got on with it. I felt he took it on the chin."

Gallagher recommended Robertson to Queen's Park, the famous Glasgow amateurs who back then, in 2010, played in the fourth tier of Scottish football. Geographically, it suited the family and would prove a crucial phase in his development.

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The Queen's Park Under-18 squad on tour in Turkey in January 2012. Robertson is in the centre in the second row

In Queen's Park's youth set-up, he was nurtured by key figures such as head of youth David McCallum and technical director Andy McGlennan, who encouraged Robertson's switch to left-back from a more advanced position, in order to harness his defensive instincts, outstanding pace and exceptional crossing ability.

A full campaign in the first team during 2012-13 led to interest from Dundee United, whom he joined in the summer of 2013, aged 19.

According to Robertson, it was United midfielder John Rankin who won him a move to Hull City the year after. Rankin was an experienced midfielder for the Tannadice side when a "skinny schoolkid" appeared in the dressing room during 2013 pre-season.

Rankin had just had a cartilage operation and was on a watching brief only during the club's summer trip to Germany. In their first match, against Union Berlin, he noticed that United manager Jackie McNamara had started the 'schoolkid' at left-back.

Five minutes into the game, a winger tried to run Robertson, who outsprinted his opponent and expertly used his body to ease him off the ball. Then he did it again. And again.

Rankin says: "Near the end of the game Andy was still doing overlaps and I'm thinking: 'What the devil have we got here?'"

Robertson soon forced himself into the first team and ploughed incessantly down United's left-hand side. Whenever he disappeared into the opposition's half in a cloud of dust, Rankin used to conscientiously drift over to cover the spaces he left. On the pitch, he spoke to Robertson constantly. Tactical instructions, words of encouragement. Mostly, his young charge listened. Not always.

"I remember Motherwell away in December 2014," he says. "It's a difficult place to go to at the best of times. We won 4-0 that day, but I remember looking at the score and [at that point] it was 3-0.

"Andy used to always bomb forward and I'd cover for him. I turned to him and said, 'Don't go anywhere. There's only eight minutes to go, I want you to sit in'. I once played in a game where we were 6-2 up at Fir Park and it finished 6-6. Motherwell never know when they are beaten.

"Anything I told him to do, he usually did. But then Brian Graham robs the Motherwell left-back and cuts it back to me. Next thing I hear: 'YEEESS RANKS!' Without looking I've rolled the ball into Andy's path and he's rattled one into the top corner. The boys are all celebrating but I must have given him about five or six digs in the ribs:

-'What did I say to you?'

- 'But I scored, I scored.'

- 'And what would have happened if my pass hadn't been right and they'd scored at the other end?'

"He wants to go all the time and I think that's what helps him against pacy wingers because they don't want to track back with him. He's taken that confidence from League Two in Scotland to the Premiership in Scotland to the Championship in England and now into the Premier League and Champions League.

"That fearless streak is why he is where he is now."

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At the age of 25, Robertson has made 279 senior appearances, 77 for Liverpool

Klopp has a mantra for his Liverpool players, particularly new recruits. 'Are you here for five months or five years?' It speaks to the physical demands and tactical acuity needed to play his brand of football. Players must learn and adapt constantly. It takes time and superhuman levels of commitment.

Robertson signed in the summer of 2017 and made his debut in a 1-0 win at Crystal Palace on 19 August. He won the man of the match award, but that doesn't tell the whole story.

After that game, Robertson featured only twice more before early December. He had been used to a man-marking system at Hull. He had to adapt to Klopp's zonal-based system and co-ordinated pressing style.

In the intervening months, he watched and learned. When he got a run in the team, starting with a 5-1 away win at Brighton on 2 December, 2017, he exploded. He has been a permanent fixture ever since.

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'OH ANDY, ANDY...'

The chorus fills the evening air at Anfield on 14 January, 2018. It starts in the Kop, and spreads quickly.

'...ANDY ANDY ANDY ANDY ROBERTSON.'

The home side are 4-1 up on league leaders Manchester City and Robertson has just arrived as a Liverpool player.

He has man-marked Raheem Sterling out of the game - the disconsolate winger has been substituted minutes before - and has just got his breath back from a lung-bursting 70-yard dash that saw him chase down four City defenders and their goalkeeper.

'The Run' would go viral on social media the next day. And Robertson now has his own song. The match ends 4-3 to the home side and immediately enters the pantheon of all-time great Premier League games.

"The chant started there," says Neil Atkinson, host of the Anfield Wrap podcast.

"It had been brewing across a couple of away games before that but the moment a chant goes 'home-game viral' is when it is massive. The Robertson chant is an absolute belter.

"There are lots of reasons why people have warmed to Andy: his ability first and foremost, but the fact that he's sound, the fact he's a Scot, these are cherries on top. Fans want to feel a kinship with players.

"When we sing Andy's name, it's almost as if we are singing Liverpool's name. It's like we are saying: 'You are the centre of all this.'

"You can only have so many super-humans like Virgil van Dijk. The Scottish fella that's stood beside him… you can at least kid yourself for one second that it could be you."

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Robertson has provided 13 assists in his 47 matches for Liverpool this season
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Robertson celebrates after Dundee United reach the Scottish Cup final of 2014. They would lose 2-0 to St Johnstone.
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Robertson was made Scotland captain in September 2018 and has played 28 times for his country
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