He's in Gary Neville's team of the season, along with Salah and Firmino.
Nice that he's getting some recognition.
Dec 2017"The reason why we are talking like this is because we are talking about Liverpool winning the Premier League and the Champions League. That's the measure of the club historically.
"So if you look at that and you say, 'Do I want Moreno at left-back?
Do I want Robertson at left-back? Do I want Klavan as my centre-back playing at Real Madrid away or Barcelona away?' You can't. You can't have those players in those games. It's impossible.
So they've just got to go."It's sad and you don't like saying that because they are probably good pros and they'll have great careers.
They are good lads but they shouldn't be playing here at this level at a club that is trying to win the league.9 March 2018"We comment a lot on players in this job, and I actually made a – not a derogatory comment about Robertson – but I said I didn't think he was good enough really earlier on in the season," Neville reportedly said.
"I have to say that, in the six months – and he's still got a long way to go – he has proven me, not wrong, but I do feel as though I have to correct myself. He has impressed me a lot and has done better than I ever imagined he would, in both sides of the game.”
20 March 2018“Maybe he [Neville] hadn't seen me play enough,” Robertson told the Daily Mail. “Maybe he just thought it's a signing from Hull.
“I don't know what his thought process was but it's one man's opinion. If he thought I wasn't good enough, no problem.
“But these are the people I want to try to prove wrong. You want to make your fans and your family proud. But it's the people who doubt you who motivate you more.
“I’m quite good at dealing with it. I was confident in my ability that if I could get a run of big games, I would build on it.”
30 April 2018“I did a lot of the opposition analysis, so I’d watched a lot of Robertson in terms of what his weaknesses were,” Neville said.
“We saw him as a weakness going back. We saw him as a massive threat going forward but were unconvinced by his defensive work. That was proved actually in one of the Scotland games.
“So when he got to Liverpool I thought he started bright, he looked busy and good going forward but I felt that he would be found out come the big games, the big moments in a defence and goalkeeper that certainly earlier on in the season you weren’t convinced by.
“I thought that he would falter. However, he has done a lot, lot better than I ever imagined.”
On Alonso being in the PFA team of the year ahead of him
“You look at the goals and it’s an absolute no-brainer there because Alonso has scored more goals,” he added.
“But when I look at the assists, the clean sheets, Robertson’s played a lot less games so his clean sheet ratio is a lot better.
“More touches in the game, obviously Robertson plays more mainly left-back and Alonso plays as a left-sided player.
“I am going to go with Robertson because ultimately I think Liverpool are having a fantastic season and he’s probably been the best left-back and I’ve not been wholly convinced by Alonso.”
I think Robertson accrediting, even in some small way, the words of his critics as a big reason for his improvement is really important in how opinions shift on him. Instead of insisting he was always a good player (he was) and Neville hasn't a fucking clue with his opinions wrapped in bias, he makes Neville buy into the idea that he has actually improved and in part, that was down to Neville. I am not sure whether that is intentional of Robertson, or just a consequence of him being a humble motherfucker.
But in contrast, look at how Karius deals with the criticism from Neville and other pundits. He clashes with them, insists they are wrong (they were). This makes people less inclined to change their point of view. Because you can't say Karius has improved and proven you wrong, you have to instead state you were always wrong, he was always good and you have no fucking clue what you are talking about. That is unlikely to happen. So instead they will lie in wait for every mistake to jump on them to justify their "he's shite" stance.
If you are a very self confident, attractive German goalkeeper telling pundits they have no idea what they are talking about - prepare for a hard battle in ever getting them on side. If you are a modest Scottish full back who tries to win over the pundits by giving them credit for your improvement - the battle is already won. They are then as invested in your success as us fans are. Genius is our Robbo!
