PreviewAndy Robertson interview: Maintaining momentum, key to clean sheets, Forest clash and more

Arne Slot’s full squad returned to the AXA Training Centre on Thursday following the first international break of 2024-25, with the Reds’ immediate focus now on the weekend clash with Nottingham Forest at Anfield.

Head coach Slot oversaw a perfect start to his reign as his team collected nine points – while scoring seven goals and conceding zero – from their opening trio of Premier League fixtures.

Saturday’s meeting with Forest is the first of seven matches the Reds will play in the space of three weeks before October’s round of internationals and Robertson told Liverpoolfc.com: “It’s nice to be home.

“Obviously we’ve all travelled the world and it’s always difficult coming back after an international break, but we’re back in front of our own fans and we just hopefully can continue the momentum that we started before the international break.

“I think the start of the season was very rare and strange that we were Saturday, Saturday, Sunday and there was a lot of time in between.

“We probably trained more than we’ve ever trained before, just because of the schedule, but now we go into something which is probably a bit more familiar for us and a bit more normal for us. So, we’re going to need everyone, that’s a fact, we’re going to need the whole squad.

“The manager has gone with roughly the same starting XI in the first three games and I’m sure, although I’m obviously not the one who makes the decisions, in the next seven games it will probably not be the same team every single game and we will need everyone to chip in and be ready with the level that they’re at.

“But it’s an intense period of time. It’s going to be intense from now until probably the end, that’s the way it is: you kind of have a slow start to the season and then it’s just bang, games after games after games, and we hope we can go far in all competitions so it stays like that until May.

“So, we all have to do the right things, we all have to look after our bodies properly and recover properly but also be ready on a matchday. That’s the challenge that we’ve got and hopefully we’re up for it.”

Liverpool’s final outing before the international break was, of course, the 3-0 away win over Manchester United, which followed 2-0 victories against Ipswich Town and Brentford respectively.

When asked to sum up the mood around the AXA Training Centre, Robertson replied: “It’s good. Obviously we won the first three games [with] three clean sheets, scoring goals and playing well and that’s what we wanted, that’s how we wanted to start the season.

“Then the international break comes and everyone goes and they want to represent their country, but we were probably in full flow at that point. But it’s just up to us to make sure it doesn’t disrupt our rhythm and that’s got to be key for us, to kick-start now.

“We know we’re going into an intense period, we know from now until the next international break we have got a lot of games in a short space of time and it’s up to us to try to keep that momentum going, to try to keep the good feeling and good spirit we’ve got just now and keep building towards what we want to do this season.”

Three consecutive shutouts have been recorded under Slot and the left-back believes credit for that should be distributed evenly across the board, not just to the defence.

Robertson continued: “The back line, I think we’re playing with confidence just now. I think we’re going into the games believing that we can get the clean sheet and keep the clean sheet and we’ve probably limited Alisson [Becker] to not too many saves, which I’m sure is pleasing for him, and when he has been called upon he has made the saves that we need him to.

“But I don’t think the clean sheet starts and ends with the back four, I think the work-rate of everyone else in front of us has been excellent. I think everyone has been working so hard to defend as a team and that’s what we knew we had to improve on.

“We knew we had probably given away too many chances last season, we’d conceded too many shots, and I think it’s just [about] trying to limit that. I think we’ve done that so far, I think we’ve kept teams to a low amount of shots and if you do that then you’ve got less chance of conceding goals.

“I think that was definitely something that the manager and the coaches probably looked at from last season on, ‘OK, how do we improve?’ and that was definitely one of the areas.

“I think everyone is a bit more switched on to defending as a full unit, defending as a team, and I think that’s what’s been key to it. But we have to keep doing that: we can’t defend with just four of us or five, it’s got to be the whole XI and in the first three games I think we definitely did that.”

• Training photos: Returning Reds as Liverpool step up Forest preparations

Robertson knows, however, that continuing their impressive form at both ends of the pitch will be no easy task for Liverpool this weekend.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had an easy game against Forest, I think they’re always difficult. I think when you look at the games last season we had against them, they prove that,” the Scotland captain stated.

“They’ve got exciting players up the pitch and Nuno [Espirito Santo] more often than not has a pretty solid team, obviously we played against them a lot [when he was] at Wolves. It’s a difficult team to play against, it’s very difficult, it’s never easy against them and we’ve got to be at our best to get anything from them.

“We know the strengths that they’ve got and we have to be wary of that, but we also have to try to impose ourselves on the game.

“We have to try to keep playing the way we are playing and keep that positive feeling going, and if we do that then hopefully we’re good enough for the three points.”