Liverpool honestly played the better football between themselves and fellow Premier League title contenders Arsenal, but, in the end, it was a wash, with both historic English sides splitting the points in a nail-biting 2-2 encounter.
Both goals Liverpool surrendered were the result of egregious defensive lapses in concentration that will have manager Arne Slot repeating the replays of the goals to his team in meetings.
It is the first goal, though, that stands out as the most concerning one, because while set-piece defending is fixable through coaching, the underlying issue with the opener may not be a problem Slot can readily remedy.
Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka, who has been arguably the best player in the Premier League this season, deserves a whole lot of praise for a great run, a splendid touch to nutmeg his defender, and a violent and clinical finish into the near post that left Liverpool goalkeeper Caoimhin Kelleher for dead.
The issue is that Liverpool left back Andrew Robertson could have – and should have – done so much more to defend that play, and the way he was beat is highly concerning.
Andy Robertson was woeful for Liverpool vs. Arsenal
Robertson made a basic positional error by turning his back, backtracking to keep Saka onside when he could see Ben White was clearly waiting for a lofted ball over the top to the right wing, and then failing to get around and move fast enough when he did play Saka onside.
The result was that Robertson was caught in two minds, achieving nothing. He kept Saka onside and did not get enough of a head start on the significantly faster attacker.
He then played himself too close to Saka, allowing the forward to take him out of the game in one touch, leaving his goalkeeper completely exposed to a one-on-one shooting opportunity near the six-yard box against one of the best goal-scorers in the Premier League.
Now, one error does not doom an entire team or a player’s entire performance, even if that mistake directly leads to a goal, so the criticism of Robertson must be taken into the context of the whole game.
And the whole game was, truthfully, poor. Robertson did not create a single chance, struggled to push the ball up the pitch in support of Luis Diaz, and was dribbled past more than he the number of times he recorded a tackle or interception (two to one).
Andy Robertson has been a liability for Liverpool this season
It’s been the story of Robertson’s anemic 2024/25 season thus far. The Scottish left back, once arguably the best in the world in his position for multiple years, was a massive liability and subbed off at around the hour mark against Arsenal with a significant improvement in team performance.
Robertson has been dribbled past (0.7) nearly as many times as he’s recorded a tackle (1.0) across eight Premier League starts this season. He is averaging just 0.2 dribbles completed and 0.2 fouls drawn per game, which are woeful progressive numbers, particularly in the context of his poor defending.
He’s not stretching the pitch or helping offensively, and, in doing so, he’s not offsetting that lack of attacking production by being any more assured defensively. Aside from his 1.1 key passes per game, Robertson isn’t offering anything positive to Liverpool, and even then, he’s not even registered an assist yet.
We are getting to a point where Robertson’s performances are reaching alarm bell status. He has clearly been the worst starter in an otherwise exceptional Liverpool team that is, on the basis of their displays this season, very likely the best in England.
What’s most indicting for Robertson is, when watching back the Arsenal game, you could go so far as to say that Liverpool are definitively the best team in the Premier League with a better left back than Robertson.
Right now, Robertson is the weak link in the Liverpool lineup, and Slot is going to have to ask himself the tough question. Can he get Robertson back to his world-class level at 30? Can he hide his weaknesses and accentuate his strengths? Or is it time to roll with Kostas Tsimikas, who hasn’t made the decision easier due to his own well-documented limitations?
Liverpool don’t have a ready-made answer for Slot, but with the Premier League title at stake, it all comes down to the new man in charge to make the tough decision – and make sure he gets it right.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.