In an exclusive interview, Liverpool and Scotland defender Andy Robertson unpacks Liverpool's difficult title defence and tells Sky Sports News why Scotland will stand rather than take a knee during the upcoming international matches
Monday 22 March 2021 23:16, UK
Andy Robertson admits Liverpool's title defence has not been good enough but is hopeful they can turn a corner and continue to progress in the Champions League and make the top four.
Liverpool have won four times in the Premier League since Christmas to leave them with what manager Jurgen Klopp called an 'almost impossible' battle to qualify for next season's Champions League.
Robertson is confident the club can put their early 2021 slump behind them though and sign off a disappointing campaign on a high.
"Of course the results at club level haven't been good enough," Robertson told Sky Sports.
"We believe that we should be higher up the table and competing which we were doing before Christmas.
"We just took a bad turn but hopefully we have seen the back of that now. Hopefully we can show the Liverpool of old and we can keep kicking on and the season might not be all bad come the end of it. There's still a long way to go."
Liverpool progressed to the Champions League quarter-finals and a meeting with Real Madrid after beating RB Leipzig 4-0 on aggregate in the last 16.
Victory over Wolves in their last match before the international break also boosted their hopes of closing the gap in the race for the top four.
Robertson, who by his own admission has relished the additional responsibilities thrust upon him amid an injury crisis this season, knows Liverpool can juggle the extra demands in domestic and European competitions.
"It's been a different season," he added. "I like the responsibility, I have always had that responsibility at Liverpool, but maybe a bit more has been put on me this season with the likes of Virgil (van Dijk) being out, (Jordan) Henderson being out, (Joe) Gomez being out, (Joel) Matip being out.
"Unfortunately we have not had as good a season as we probably thought but there's still time to fix it - not to the extent we would like to fix it - but there's still time to make it a bit better.
"We're used to juggling two competitions. We have got to go on all fronts. We need to go for both [top four and Champions League] - we need to get up the league as high as possible - we need to put a run together.
"We have struggled for consistency this season. You don't make the top four unless you put six, seven, eight results together and that's what we need at the end of the season."
Robertson also called out the unacceptable levels of racist and personal abuse within society and believes football has a long way to go in its fight to stamp it out.
It was confirmed that Scotland's players would stand and not take a knee during the upcoming international matches, mirroring scenes across Scottish football.
It comes as teams opted to stand in solidarity with Rangers' Glen Kamara last weekend, after he suffered alleged racist abuse during their game against Slavia Prague in a Europa League last-16 tie on March 18.
"Obviously this weekend in Scottish football, I think up and down the country, all the teams stood with Glen Kamara and Rangers," Scotland captain Robertson said.
"Of course it needs to go through investigations. Unfortunately, racism is still part of life and still part of this game and it is unacceptable.
"We'll stand with all the Scottish teams. As the national team that heads this country, we'll stand with all the people below. It's got to get kicked out somehow.
"We as players are trying everything we can now and we need the authorities up above us to do a bit more now and stop it.
"I just hope one day we can stop talking about racism because it's no longer a factor in football, but we are a long way off that."
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