OPINION
Gary Neville has admitted that he was wrong to doubt Liverpool defender Andy Robertson’s defensive qualities earlier in the season.
The Sky Sports pundit reiterate what he originally made of the left-back upon seeing him barely feature for the Reds in the first half of the current campaign.
“Robertson, earlier in the season, I made a comment that I didn’t think he was good enough,” Neville admitted when picking his team of the season for Sky Sports.
“I wasn’t talking about how he was going forward but more his defensive work, I’d done a lot of work on him when England played Scotland.
“I did a lot of the opposition analysis and we saw him as a weakness going back, I thought he would be found out defensively, with a goalkeeper and a defence I wasn’t convinced by him and I thought that he would falter.”
However the Sky Sports pundit not being one to shy away from his opinion, continued explaining that he would happily hold up his hands over the defender’s superb performances this season, to show he was wrong to doubt Robertson.
“He’s done a lot better than I ever imagined,” stated Neville.
“I have to hold my hands up and then you bring him into consideration with Alonso. In terms of goals, it’s a no-brainer. Alonso’s scored more goals, but clean sheet ratio, Robertson’s better.”
The former Manchester United star ended his segment on the 24-year-old by confirming that the Reds left-back would make his Premier League team of the season.
Robertson has lit up Anfield with his displays, ever since Jurgen Klopp has opted to play him regularly, and has helped his side’s cause in the 26 appearances he has made.
While Neville may be impressed by the Scottish international now, wait until he sees him next season.
It’s practically guaranteed that after battling his way through his debut season at the Reds, he only joined from Hull City last summer, Robertson will hit the ground running at the start of the next campaign.
The 24-year-old only featured in two of the Reds’ opening 14 league games with Alberto Moreno keeping the Scot firmly rooted to a place on the bench.
However after proving himself to Klopp in Moreno’s absence, there’s no way that Robertson, unless unavailable, isn’t go to regularly feature from the start of next season.
This will allow the defender to build up his form quicker, which in turn will allow him to overcome any weaknesses in his game that still need to be addressed, by the time the second half of the season comes around.
So with Robertson improving throughout the season and starting the 2018/19 settled in at Anfield, the defender will be even better during the next campaign and blow Neville away with his displays.