When Andy Robertson signed for Liverpool – four years ago this week – few people could have foreseen just how successful the transfer would prove to be.
Since the start of 2017/18, the Scotland captain has recorded 35 Premier League assists, as many as Gary Neville accumulated in his entire career. Exclude players who also featured in midfield, and only four defenders have more than 35 in the modern history of English football.
Were it not for the incredible performances by his colleague Trent Alexander-Arnold on the opposite flank, Robertson would also hold the record for the most Premier League assists by a defender in a single season, after he got 12 in 2019/20.
Liverpool’s flying full-backs have been at the forefront of redefining what it entails to play the position these days, with spectacular results.
However, in terms of their pure creative output, neither player was at their best last season. They each recorded seven assists in the Premier League, their fewest in any of the last three campaigns.
It’s fair to say that they were both victims of random variation – in this case, the finishing capabilities of the players for whom they created chances.
Per FBRef, Robertson provided 6.9 expected assists, so to have created seven goals obviously falls in line with that. Yet he had an identical underlying figure two seasons prior and picked up 11 assists for his trouble in that campaign.
Nonetheless, while assists are determined by the player taking the shot putting the ball into the back of the net, the fact Robertson didn’t have one between Christmas and the penultimate match of last season is cause for the tiniest inkling of concern.
After all, he was six behind Alexander-Arnold when it came to creating clear-cut chances in 2020/21, and while the following players had much less time on the pitch, on a pro-rata basis the Scot lagged the likes of Curtis Jones, Joel Matip, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Xherdan Shaqiri.
There’s no need to go overboard at this point. Nobody would suggest that Robertson isn’t worthy of his spot in Jurgen Klopp’s starting XI when the Reds travel to Carrow Road in three weeks’ time.
It’s interesting that the competitor for his left-back berth appears to be tearing things up in pre-season though.
Kostas Tsimikas got very few opportunities to play during his first season in English football, thanks to a combination of injuries and Klopp’s understandable preference for fielding his first choice full-backs when the centre of the defence had to be changed so often.
Not only did the Greek left-back not provide an assist, but he also failed to create a chance in his 137 minutes in the league and Europe last season.
And while it would be foolish to go overboard on anything Tsimikas achieves as the squad prepares for 2021/22, he set up Liverpool’s equalising goal in the 1-1 draw in the mini-friendly with Stuttgart on Tuesday.
He also scored the best goal in training the next day too, at least according to Pep Lijnders. "During Wednesday morning’s session, the volley of Kostas smashing it in with his left foot probably won the most spectacular goal award,” he wrote in his latest diary entry on liverpoolfc.com.
Where some players wouldn’t like to be outshone by a positional rival in the squad, the emergence of Tsimikas as a potentially realistic option for Klopp can only be a good thing for Robertson.
It will enable him to get a breather, in a season when he will surely need one. Robertson played 4,320 minutes last season, the most of any player in the Liverpool squad, and had to deal with the physical and mental exertion of leading his country to their first major tournament for 23 years this summer too.
The threat of losing his regular place – while that remains a remote possibility at present – should also drive the Scot on to bigger and better things.
Some pre-season highlights for Tsimikas may seem largely insignificant now, but they may ultimately lead to gains on the pitch for Robertson, the whole Liverpool team and their supporters.
