Andy Robertson has insisted that Anfield’s farewell to Bobby Firmino, James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita must be ‘put to one side’ tomorrow with Liverpool in need of a huge three points against Aston Villa.
With the Reds having won all of their last seven games they remain in contention to sneak into the top four but the Scotland captain is aware of the threat the Villa Park outfit will pose at L4.
They have European hopes of their own this term and after beating Spurs last time out Unai Emery’s side will travel to Merseyside high on confidence.
“Villa are a fantastic team, a fantastic manager, we know that – the game we played against them on Boxing Day was incredibly tough,” Robertson told Liverpoolfc.com. “Obviously one of my close friends, John McGinn, plays with them and I know how confident they are just now in terms of the way they are playing for their European push. Probably in the situation they were in before Emery came in probably a lot of people didn’t expect that either. They will be highly motivated to try to get into Europe, of course they will be. It’s going to be a tough task but we have to focus on the 90 minutes.
“Saturday will be emotional for different ways. 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.”
It’s going to be an emotional day at Anfield as we bid farewell to the four stars but Robertson is right to insist that there’s only time for sentiment after the full-time whistle.
Firmino and Milner are Liverpool legends while Oxlade-Chamberlain has seen his career hampered by injuries and Keita has never really got going since his big money move from RB Leipzig back in 2018.
They have all won every major trophy possible at the club, however, so they deserve a great send off.
Villa will want to rain on our parade, though, and it’s therefore imperative that we continue what we’ve been doing in recent weeks and pick up our eighth consecutive victory.
Let’s hope for another solid performance, three points and a brilliant Anfield farewell to the four lads!