Robertson Makes The Case For Patience With Kerkez
Milos Kerkez is one of those signings that splits the fanbase down the middle. Some supporters feel the 22 year old still has not shown enough since his move from Bournemouth to justify the fee and the hype that came with it. Others point to the raw tools on show and argue the surrounding context is being ignored. Both camps have a point, and that tension is exactly why this debate keeps resurfacing.
Kerkez arrived as the long term answer at left back, stepping into a shirt that Andy Robertson had made his own for the best part of a decade through sheer reliability and output. Following that act was always going to be hard. It gets harder still when the club is going through change and every misplaced pass gets picked apart in real time.
Robertson’s explanation for the slow start
Robertson himself has offered the clearest insight into why the transition has taken longer than some expected, and it has far more to do with adjustment than attitude. Speaking recently, he explained that he tried to help Kerkez settle in last season, acknowledging just how big a jump it is to go from a club like Bournemouth or Hull, where he started his own career, straight into one of the biggest clubs in the world.
The point Robertson kept coming back to was workload. At a club fighting for its Premier League status, a full back might get forward three or four times a match. At a club built to dominate possession, that number can triple. Suddenly the decision making in the final third and the quality of every cross becomes a far bigger part of the job than it ever was before.
Strong in duels, still growing on the ball
Nobody disputes the defensive side of Kerkez’s game. He is aggressive, quick into challenges and uncomfortable to face in one on one situations, which Robertson himself has praised without hesitation. The area Robertson has pushed him hardest on is composure once the team has the ball for long spells, encouraging him to manage the tempo rather than attack every situation at full throttle.
That is the real gap right now. It is not a lack of quality, it is a lack of calibration for a side that spends far more time in possession than any club he played for previously. Layer in a coaching change, with Andoni Iraola having since taken charge, and Kerkez is effectively adjusting to a second new framework in as many years.
A wider point about new arrivals
Kerkez is not alone in facing this kind of scrutiny. Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak have both had to find their feet at a club still working through the aftermath of an incredibly difficult period following the loss of Diogo Jota, and Robertson believes that context has been brushed aside too easily when judging the new faces.
His argument is that Liverpool spent heavily on players expected to lift the team immediately, and when results did not arrive instantly, the financial outlay itself became a stick to beat them with. Robertson’s view is that last season should not really count as anyone’s true first season at the club given everything going on around the squad, and that this campaign is a fairer measure of where Kerkez, Wirtz and Isak actually stand.
Our take is that Robertson’s framing is hard to argue with. Kerkez has shown real defensive quality without yet delivering the consistent end product Liverpool need from that position. Both things can be true at once, and neither should be used to settle the argument prematurely. If the final third version of him catches up with the defender, the debate around Kerkez will fade quickly, and on current evidence there is no obvious reason to think it will not.