1 hour ago
2
Scotland boss Steve Clarke has lifted his lid on his discussion with Andy Robertson, with the pair predicting he would win his place back in the Liverpool line up.
Robertson has been a mainstay of the Liverpool side since his arrival from Hull but has played a back up role to Milos Kerkez in the early weeks of the season. The left-back was wanted by a number of clubs in the summer, most notably Atletico Madrid, but decided to stay and fight for his place at Anfield.
He was named as Liverpool's new vice-captain by Arne Slot but has made just one start in the Champions League so far, alongside two Premier League outings from the bench.
Robertson will join up with the Scotland squad next week for matches against Greece and Belarus, where he will get some much-needed game time, reports the Daily Record.
But Clarke has revealed discussions he held with Robertson in the summer, with the Scotland captain confident he would win his place back from summer arrival Kerkez.
Clarke said: "I'd a good chat with Andy last week and a good chat with him before the season.
"And it has panned out pretty much how we thought it would at the time, that Kerkez would start in the team but Andy would find his way into the team.
"That's what's happened. He's had minutes. On the plus side for us, if he's getting good minutes for Liverpool but not getting all the minutes, it means he comes into Scotland camps probably a little bit fresher than he has been in recent years, which can only be good for us."
Clarke continued: "As a player you've always got a point to prove to your club manager, your international manager, to all the pundits or you guys or all the fans – you've always got a point to prove every time you go to the pitch.
"When you're captain of your country you've probably got a little bit more of a point to prove."
The same applies to Ben Gannon Doak, who completed a switch to the south coast whilst Kerkez was travelling in the other direction. When questioned whether he would have preferred to see the 19-year-old receive more playing time in Bournemouth's starting eleven, Clarke responded: "Yeah, you would. But you've also got to understand that he's a young player who's made a big move.
"He's going to a club that have started the season well without Ben in the team. So he's going to have to be patient. When he gets his minutes on the pitch he's going to have to show what he can do.
"He got just over 15 minutes last weekend. He was involved, almost gave a penalty away at one end, had a chance when the ball fell to him late in the game, he snatched his chance a little bit.
"He had a couple of Ben Doak dribbles and managed to get a corner off one of them. And that's what he has to do.
"He has to go on the pitch in those 15 minutes and make sure that he catches his manager's attention. And if he does that, he'll get more minutes."
English (US) ·