Andrew Robertson: ‘Deserve has got nothing to do with it’
A summer barbecue may be one of life’s simple luxuries but for Liverpool’s cult hero left-back Andrew Robertson, his first post-season meal 12 months ago was an occasion to forget.
Last season’s heartbreaking Champions League final loss to Real Madrid led Robertson, at a loose end and looking for distractions, to his local DIY store with his father Brian, where he bought a new BBQ and hosted a party for 27 family and friends which bordered on the funereal.
This weekend, with the city of Liverpool on tenterhooks and waiting to celebrate a first trophy since the 2012 League Cup, the party atmosphere chez Robertson could be a very different one if things go according to plan in Madrid.
“Hopefully, we’ve not got that nonsense again, but I’ve still got that barbecue, so I don’t need to go to Homebase this time,” joked the Scottish international.
“But, hopefully, it’s a lot better and it’s a lot happier feelings this time, because last year was a massive disappointment.
“There’s no hiding away from that. Hopefully, we’ll be feeling better this time, but we know what hard work has to go in to achieve that, and if we can do it, then it will be a much bigger party.”
That party would extend way beyond Robertson’s Formby home, such is the red half of Merseyside’s desire to beat Spurs and get their hands on a sixth European Cup, a first since that miracle night in Istanbul 14 years ago.
“Obviously, you have it in the back of your head but you can’t think about that,” added Robertson, whose marauding displays have made him such a firm favourite at Anfield.
“We’ve got a job to do to make these people happy and bring them out on to the streets.
"The only way of doing that is by winning it and we know how much hard work has to be put in to achieve that, and how good we have to be.
“We’re playing against a fantastic team who have that same dream, so you don’t really think about it. We’ll maybe think about it on the flight back if we’ve got the trophy with us.”
Social plans aside, the chance of ending Klopp’s personal drought of six successive cup final defeats is one that burns strong in a Liverpool squad that was widely lauded for its efforts in pushing Manchester City to the finishing line in the Premier League title race.
Liverpool’s 97 points would have been comfortably a title-winning tally in any Premier League season excepting two — last season and this — while their style of play earned them a new set of admirers.
It also led to a school of thought that a season without Liverpool silverware would be something of a football tragedy although the pragmatic Robertson quickly refutes such suggestions.
“I’ve heard a few people say that, but we don’t deserve anything,” he said. “At the end of the day, I think the Premier League shows that.
“We got 97 points and a lot of people would say that deserves the Premier League title, but it didn’t, because Manchester City got 98 and they were better than us.
“Not a lot better, but they were better. So we deserve nothing — we only deserve what we put into the game, and we deserve what we get.
“If we put in 100% effort and have 100% and have a good game and play to our best, then if we get the trophy, we deserve it.
But we’re not going into this game thinking that because we got 97 points, and we played well this season, we deserve it, because it would be stupid of us.
In an age of Premier League excess, it is precisely that sort of sensible, straight-talking honesty that has made Robertson such a popular figure, and not just inside Anfield.
There are certainly no frills or pretence about a player who was playing lower league Scottish football with Queen’s Park when Liverpool last won silverware and was with struggling Hull as recently as two years ago.
In some ways, Robertson’s persona embodies Klopp’s Liverpool and, certainly, there lies a ruthless streak in the defender that his team has displayed on its run to face Spurs in Madrid.
“We have been ruthless this season but it’s about being ruthless again; we need to take it into Saturday,” he said.
“You know, I’ve watched Tottenham over the past three or four years under (Mauricio) Pochettino and they are a ruthless team, the way they go about their business and the way they win games and the way they just destroy teams at times in the Premier League. They’re ruthless.
“They did it to us last season and if they perform like that, then we’ll be in for a hell of a game.
“I think at the top end of the Premier League, you have to be ruthless, even to finish in the top four.
“Both of us have been ruthless in our own way this season, and we need to try to take that into this game, and if we do, then I believe we’ve got enough to win it, but we have to prove that. We have to show that team that’s played the past 10 months this season.”
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