Every time Andy Robertson passes Trent Alexander-Arnold, it takes just three simple words to trigger the England defender.
“By a mile.” That’s it. That one sentence from Robertson to his great friend and fellow Liverpool full-back has the Scotsman creased in laughter - and his team mate fuming.
The words were said by TV pundit and former defender Gary Neville when describing the Scottish captain as the “best full-back in the Premier League, by a mile”, when picking his team of the year. For Robertson, it was banter gold. “Quite a few people sent what Gary Neville said to me - I enjoyed that, that’s for sure,” he said.
“Yeah, Trent’s not too happy! He gets enough praise probably. I’ve used it with Trent for the last week, by saying: ‘By a mile’. That’s it. I just keep saying it to him. I walk past and that’s all I need to say. He knows exactly what I’m talking about because I know he watched it. That’s the relationship me and him have.”
The two are not only quite possibly the best full-back pairing in world football, they are also the best of friends, with a peculiar humour. That comes through in their hilarious ‘Wingmen’ podcast, episodes of which see them driving around Liverpool chatting about anything and everything.
The two have a friendly, fun rivalry, with them competing each season not only on who will score the most goals, but also most assists - a competition which Alexander-Arnold tends to win hands down.
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It means Robertson tries to keep him away from reading up the latest info - a tough job at times! “Trent’s stats are always better than mine so I try and keep him away from stats,” he said. “Unfortunately he always knows the stats inside out but stats are part of football, it is great.”
Sometimes, though, the pair - who have become the leading creative force in the Liverpool team - are victims of their own success, as Robertson explained: “That is what people just look at, me and Trent, maybe our downfall is our success at times because in 18-19 I think we had 12 and 11 assists or whatever and then it was 12 and 13 or whatever.
“And everyone thought to have a good game they have to set up a goal, or to have a good game Mo needs to score a goal and Ali needs to keep a clean sheet. But it is not true, and people look at it a bit differently and actually watch the game and see what people are doing then maybe the unsung heroes and sometimes performances can get a bit more credit.”
Robertson is an unassuming hero. He’s defined the left-back position in recent years and will be a major threat to Real Madrid in the Champions League final. But he admits to not really being interested in reproducing the heroics of Alan Kennedy, the Liverpool left-back who scored the winning goal against Real in Paris in the 1981 European Cup final.
“As soon as we got to the final, there were a lot of people who sent me the video of Alan Kennedy in Paris, or said they were going to bet 1-0 Liverpool and me scoring,” he said with a smile. “Obviously i cannot change history, he scored a wonderful goal that managed to win Liverpool the trophy. if I do that, I do that.
“But I am more focused on trying to put in a good performance, trying to be solid defensively, if we get a good basis then I will let someone else try and be the hero. That for me is the most important thing.”
It is his philosophy and life, and right now he seems to winning at it.
