Andy Robertson leaves Liverpool on Sunday after nine years at the club, bringing down the curtain on one of the defining careers of Jürgen Klopp’s reign. Signed from Hull for £8m in the summer of 2017, Robertson arrived as a bargain full-back and leaves having won everything with Liverpool.
He was never just a reliable defender. Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold supplied cross after cross and assist after assist during Klopp’s peak years, turning Liverpool’s left flank into a source of constant pressure and invention. He also delivered moments that stuck in the memory for reasons beyond the silverware: the last-gasp equaliser at Villa Park in 2019, when he grabbed the ball and ran back to the centre circle; and the FA Cup tie at Wolves in March, when he scored Liverpool’s opening goal.
That blend of relentlessness and edge made him a favourite with teammates and supporters alike. At the 2019 Club World Cup final, after Sadio Mané had been booked for an altercation with Flamengo’s Rafinha, Robertson came off at half-time and was heard saying, “Sadio, I’ll get him, don’t worry.” José Mourinho later summed up the energy he brought to the position with a line that has followed him ever since: “I am tired just from looking at Robertson. Absolutely incredible.”
For Liverpool fans, the connection was personal as well as professional. They described him as “He’s one of us,” a nod to the sense that he played with the urgency and attitude of someone who had grown up inside the club rather than signed into it. The writer calls him the best left-back seen at Liverpool, and that verdict is hard to dispute across nine years of trophies, consistency and big-match influence.
Robertson’s departure also arrives with one more milestone waiting in the background: he will soon be Scotland’s most-capped player. For Liverpool, the bigger truth is simpler. One of the most trusted, most recognisable figures of the Klopp era is leaving after helping to define it from the first season to the last.
