ReactionAndy Robertson explains 'pleasing factors' in Frankfurt - but gives Brentford warning
Andy Robertson explained what he felt were the most pleasing factors of Liverpool's performance in defeating Eintracht Frankfurt.
The Reds produced a strong response to a run of four defeats in a row with a comprehensive 5-1 victory in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
After falling behind in the first half, Arne Slot's men moved through the gears to take the points as Hugo Ekitike, Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai each scored.
Vice-captain Robertson came into the starting XI at Deutsche Bank Park, and post-match he spoke to Liverpoolfc.com about the positives to take from the display and the next challenge ahead.
Read the interview in full below...
On the importance of the win and also the goals, attitude and fightback...
Yeah, of course. When you're on a bit of a losing streak, which we were, it's important to try to get the win come what may. But we got the performance as well. That was the manager's message before the game: focus on the performance, focus on doing things right, and if you do that then the result will come. I think we did that.
Obviously then falling behind, I thought the reaction was really good in terms of not panicking, which a lot of teams can do when you're four defeats in a row. I thought the reaction was great, get our noses in front and then we never looked back. Second half, we were really controlled, played really good stuff, could have been more and I don't think they had a chance in the second half as well, which was pleasing.
On having dominance of the ball and taking that forward into future games...
We controlled possession really well. I thought Curtis [Jones] in the middle was outstanding, him and Dom played a really good game. And Flo [Wirtz] kind of got a free role and you just saw him grow and grow into the game. I thought he was outstanding. Those three really worked well and kept the ball so well for us, and then it was up to us to kind of have a good rest defence, make sure there were no counter-attacks and things like that, then try to pick passes and keep the ball as well. I think we did that all round.
The movement up top was really good as well. So, there were a lot of pleasing factors. But it's only one win, we know we've still got a lot of work to do. We know we need to keep pushing. Keep pushing each other and trying to keep progressing. We've got such a tough game on Saturday and full focus was on that as soon as the full-time whistle went.
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On how much the squad have spoken together about fixing their form recently...
The lads always speak - maybe a bit more when results like that happen. But the message from the leaders in the group was that it was not time to panic. If you look at the Man United game at the weekend, it was hugely frustrating to lose the game but the chances we had and things like that, it could have gone a very different way. But we knew the performance level wasn't there - and that's what had to change. The performance level had to go up a bit and I think we did that.
We've all spoken, all said what we had to say and training has been good since then. We just tried to take that into [this game], played with confidence and tried to clear our heads. I think you have seen a lot of players doing that and thankfully we got a positive result because of that.
On preparing for Brentford in the Premier League on Saturday and coming up against Jordan Henderson...
It's all about recovering now, such a short turnaround. Brentford away has always been such a difficult game. I know they're under a new manager but the same principles are kind of there. Such a difficult team to play against, especially when we're coming up against our old captain. What he did for our club is amazing, what a servant to our club. He's a legend, he managed to help us bring the Premier League here for the first time in a long time, lifted the Champions League. He's an absolute legend of this club.
He has moved on and is back at Brentford, and he is putting in performance after performance there. So, our midfield is going to need to be at it, because I can say for a fact that Jordan Henderson will be at it. He was at it every single day at us and that won't change at Brentford. We're all going to need to be at it. It's important we rest, recover but our full focus is already on Brentford and we'll start preparing for that.