Andy Robertson has urged Liverpool to park the sentiment of Roberto Firmino's Anfield finale on Saturday afternoon - insisting there is little room for emotion as the Reds look to continue their late surge for Champions League qualification.
There are expected to be plenty of tears on Merseyside over the weekend as the Reds' final home game of the Premier League season against Aston Villa is headlined by the departures of Firmino, James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita, who have all played varying roles in Liverpool's trophy-sweeping success over the last four years.
On Thursday, Liverpool Football Club announced they would be celebrating the Anfield careers of the departing members of Jurgen Klopp's squad after the final whistle at Anfield on Saturday afternoon. At this stage, it is uncertain whether Firmino will feature at Anfield having spent the last four weeks sidelined with a muscular injury, however, the forward did make a return to team training on Wednesday.
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But with Klopp's side hot on the tails of Newcastle United and Manchester United in the race for Champions League qualification, Robertson has called on his team-mates to temporarily shelve the emotion that Saturday afternoon will bring in L4 as they face an Aston Villa side reinvigorated since Unai Emery's arrival and not yet giving up on their plans to bring European football to the Villa Park next term.
"Saturday will be emotional for different ways," Robertson told Liverpooolfc.com. "You mentioned Bobby but also the three other lads that have had a huge impact on us as a team and as a football club.
"We’re saying goodbye to four legends within their own right, in different ways and different stories. But we all have to put that to one side, we have to focus on getting the three points because we know it’s going to be an incredibly tough game.
"We have to be at our best to get anything off Aston Villa because they’re high in confidence after obviously beating Tottenham. So we have to fully focus on that in the 90 minutes. Hopefully we can get the three points that we desperately need and then after that we can say bye to the players properly."
Both Newcastle and Manchester United have three games of the season remaining and therefore be looking to restore the four-point margin between themselves and Liverpool with victories ahead of the season's final game week next weekend. Robertson, though, admits he and his team-mates will be ready to pounce if they are to be any late hiccups from those above them in the Premier League table.
"It’s in their hands and for them it’s in their hands and if they win their games then we can’t do anything about it. I’d much rather be in that position," added Robertson. "We’ve spoke about it in seasons gone by in terms of when we were chasing Man City for titles, I think always when you’re the team with more points and things like that, it’s always a better position to be in.
"I don’t think anyone saw six weeks ago that we would even be in with a chance of Champions League football, people were talking that we might not even make Europe. So the fact that we’ve secured European football was the first task we wanted to do because it meant we’d won more games than not in that small period.
"But we’ve given ourselves a chance and all we can do is keep winning our games. And at the end of the day that might not be enough, which will be disappointing – disappointing as a squad, disappointing as a club and we know the fans will be disappointed."
He added: "Unfortunately it’s out of our hands; we’ve got two games left and the other teams have got three. It’s out of our hands and we can’t do much about it, we have to win our two games and hope that that’s enough. And if it’s not we have to deal with the consequences.
"But, like I said, I think the last six to eight weeks have given us a building block to move on from next season, to have different formations, to have different ways of playing and being able to put a good run together like that can stand us in good stead for next season to achieve what we want to achieve."
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