Andy Robertson isn’t having the season of last year – but that will change. The signs suggest it isn’t his fault.
Robertson was absolutely flying last season. He actually broke the Premier League record for assists by a defender, only for Trent Alexander-Arnold to take that off him shortly afterwards.
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But the fact remains, Robertson was incredibly productive – more than any defender in any season beforehand. He racked up 11 assists in the Premier League, and another two in the Champions League.
That domestic stat was enough for the fifth-most in the league. This season, however, things haven’t clicked as well.
Robertson still has six assists – a great number for a defender. In fact, it’s still the second-most by a defender, after Alexander-Arnold. But that’s only good enough for joint-ninth overall, quite a drop from last season.
The Scot also hasn’t registered any in the Champions League yet. These would be signs of a decline but a deeper delve into the stats and you see that isn’t the case.
Going by stats from Whoscored.com, we can see that Robertson is actually crossing more than he did last season. He averaged 0.6 crosses per game last campaign but this year he’s bumped things up to one.
His number of passes, pass completion and number of long balls are all virtually identical to last season, too. And tellingly, his ‘key passes’ column is exactly the same – he’s creating the same chances.
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But for whatever reasons, he’s not getting the same assists. Perhaps the finishing is worse? Perhaps it’s just bad luck?
No matter the reason, it seems that Robertson is still putting in the same kind of performances. And if that is the case, he’ll eventually get back to delivering the kind of output he’s proven himself capable of since his £10m arrival.