Liverpool, Andy Robertson and the £8.5m that could guide Reds to the Premier League title

In transfer fees, it has cost Liverpool just £8.5 million to find the ammunition that could help lead to the club’s first title in 29 years. All of that money was spent on Andy Robertson, creator of nine Liverpool goals this season. In the other full back position, Trent Alexander-Arnold has supplied six and he came from the academy.

Without the record-breaking signings of Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker, Liverpool would not be in this position but that does not mean Jurgen Klopp has spent his way into contention without consideration for a bargain or what he had at his disposal already.

To understand the significance of the full back, return to the summer of 2017 when Pep Guardiola paid £52million for Benjamin Mendy, £50million for Kyle Walker and £26.5million for Danilo.

That is £128.5million before wages on an area of the pitch where Guardiola recognised there was space to manipulate. He felt justified in ditching Pablo Zabaleta, Aleksandar Kolarov and Gael Clichy all at the same time because they no longer had the legs to do what he wanted.

It is a testament to the eyes and negotiating strategy of Michael Edwards, Liverpool’s sporting director, as well as the brains and guidance of Klopp that Robertson and Alexander-Arnold have subsequently been able to become similarly such important cogs in this Liverpool machine.

While the latter is still learning, he is learning at the very highest level and when he is not available, it does show. James Milner tries his best as a stand-in but he no longer has the spring to get up and get down, while Alexander-Arnold’s crossing ability is also more dangerous and more consistent.

On the other side, Robertson is emerging as one of the great Liverpool left backs, though it had long been a problem position which has never had many handsome candidates, even if Alan Kennedy scored two winning goals in European Cup finals.

Robertson is two assists away from matching Leighton Baines’s record from left back in the 2010/11 season, though it should be remembered that Baines took corners and free-kicks while Robertson does not. When Liverpool have scored this season and the genesis has been the Scot’s boot, it has been in open play.

When Manchester City romped to the title last April, Walker had set up six goals and this season has yielded just one. Not everything can be judged by statistics, of course, because Walker’s attacking presence gives opponents a lot to think about and as they get dragged out wide, it leaves more room for City’s more creative midfielders to do their thing and set up goals or score them.

At Liverpool, the responsibility is different because Klopp demands balls being fed into the box but only when a target is there to be met. This increases the possibility of Robertson’s numbers being better, though looking back at all of the goals he has created the level of accuracy in his delivery has been a feature each time.

Robertson turned 25 recently and he is coming towards the end of his second campaign at Anfield but he is already one of Liverpool’s many leaders – and this is another achievement of Klopp who has changed the personality of this team to reflect his own.

When Liverpool have had the sniff of a title in the past, it has been left to Steven Gerrard to talk the team’s chances up while others around him have been more reluctant to speak about it. Perhaps this revealed their own doubts.

Listening to Robertson, who is not even in the system of four captains which has been implemented by Klopp, there was no sense of fear creeping in.

“We know we've got the energy, we know we've got the heart to go right until the end in every single game; our fitness levels are the best they should be at this point so we know we can go right to the end,” Robertson said. “Sometimes you just need that wee bit of luck and we got it. Even when we were going through the tough times in the second half, we still believed we were going to win the game and that's the mentality we have. It maybe didn't look likely at times but three points at the end of the day and it's what we'll be looking at in the league table.”

Robertson would speak about Liverpool’s powers of recovery. Tottenham was the seventh time this season Liverpool have scored last minute goals and the second game in a row where they had led, only to be pegged back and then win just when all was settled.

“I think it comes from the whole squad having the right attitude and belief that we are good enough to win any game,” Robertson continued. “We knew Tottenham were playing well in the second half but we still believed we were better and could go on and win the game. We had hard times in the second half and we had to push through that but we knew if we got a chance we have the players in the positions.

"He won't get credited with the goal but Mo has done unbelievably [well] to just head it back across. Probably a lot of people wouldn't have had the sight and he has just put in back into an area an unfortunately the centre-back cannot deal with it. It doesn't matter how it goes in at this stage of the season it is just about getting it over the line.”

He would wonder what the manner of Liverpool’s latest victory would do to City.

“I think they have the same attitude as us in that we can only control what we can do. They put in a good performance against a struggling Fulham team and they got the three points. They had the advantage of going first this week and maybe they were hoping Tottenham could come here and get something and it looked that way for long periods of the second half. Who knows what that will do to them but I know for us it is just a big three points for us and it pushes on for the next six games.”