Andy Robertson sends clear message to Liverpool players after Brentford defeat | OneFootball

Liverpool Response Required After Brentford Setback

Liverpool suffered a fourth straight Premier League defeat at the Gtech Community Stadium, losing 3,2 to Brentford. Goals from Dango Ouattara and Kevin Schade gave Brentford control, Milos Kerkez briefly reduced the arrears, and an Igor Thiago penalty restored the two goal cushion. Mohamed Salah struck late with a powerful finish, however it was not enough to prevent another disappointing result for the champions.

Andy Robertson, introduced in the second half, shared an honest appraisal of Liverpool’s current situation. His words felt like a squad reminder of what standards must look like for a club with such ambition and expectation.

Robertson’s Call for Greater Work Ethic

Supporters heard a clear message from the vice captain, who emphasised that improvement starts from within the dressing room.

“We’ve got to work harder, it’s as simple as that,” he told Liverpoolfc.com. “In training and games; recovering better. All of us have to.

“When you’re at this football club, people demand results. The fans travel up and down, I guarantee quite a lot of them in the away end were in Frankfurt as well. They spend a lot of money to come and support us.

“In a difficult moment, the only way to get out of it is work even harder, run that bit more and look after yourself that bit better. That’s what we’ve got to do, because the results have been nowhere near good enough over the last five, six games, and we’re the only ones who can get us out of it.

“We know that and starting Wednesday again, there’s no rest. There’s no time to regroup, we’ve got games, games, games. Sometimes it can be a good thing that you have got such a quick turnaround and we can go again.

“But we need to start playing better and we need to start showing a lot more consistency in our game.”

The fixture list offers little respite and Arne Slot now faces the task of lifting intensity and morale quickly.

Photo: IMAGO

Brentford Challenge Highlighted

Liverpool arrived in West London buoyed by a 5,1 Champions League win away to Eintracht Frankfurt. Brentford, however, provided a stern test, something Robertson felt his side were not fully ready for.

“I just thought we didn’t do enough off the ball,” said the Scotland international. “On the ball, first half we created a couple of moments and kept the ball quite nicely.

“But you can’t come to Brentford away and just expect to play them off the park because they’re always going to be ready to fight, they’re always going to be ready to put bodies in the box when it comes to set-pieces, put the balls in behind, pick up second balls.

“You know what you’re going to come [up against] here, they’re always the same and they’re so good at it. It felt to me as if we were just a yard off it in terms of that.

“They picked up so many second balls and then the ball is in behind and our back line are running back to head the ball, which is so difficult as it is. We know how good a set-piece team they are, we’ve worked on the long throw and everything. Five minutes in, you concede three long throw-ins, one of them you concede from. It’s not good enough and you play into their hands.

“You’ve got an uphill battle from there. We kept fighting but nowhere near good enough.”

Path Back to Control

Regaining control of matches has been a core feature of Liverpool’s success in recent years. Robertson acknowledged that asserting dominance requires far more than possession.

“You have to fight for the control. Nobody is going to just say, ‘On you go, you take the ball and we’ll try to defend.’ Nobody does that.

“They always have a game plan against us. All the managers in the Premier League are so talented, especially teams that have had a full week to prepare. They would have had a clear game plan and you’d have to ask their manager but I think they played theirs perfectly, and we didn’t play ours at all. That makes it so difficult.

“Like I said, if you just think they’re going to show up and all of a sudden they’re going to drop off, we’re going to have control and we’ll just wait until we score, [that] never ever happens. This is my ninth season and I think it’s only happened once or twice.

“If we expect that then we’re in big bother, you have to fight for that control, you have to fight first of all. You have to fight for the second balls, fight for the first balls and try to feel your way into the game. Then the quality will come through.

“I felt as if we never got a grip on the game at all. Had moments but not enough moments to go and really put them under pressure.”

Liverpool must now respond with greater urgency, discipline and cohesion. Robertson’s words offered both accountability and a blueprint, and Brentford might prove to be the reset moment required to refocus the champions.