Andy Robertson facing fight to keep spot in Arne Slot's Liverpool side

Andy Robertson is facing a fight to keep his place in ’s side.

This is the first time since he settled into ’s team a few months after signing from Hull in 2017 that there is a doubt about Robertson’s position. It is not guaranteed that the Scot will start today against with Kostas Tsimikas pushing for the spot on the team sheet.

That would have been unheard of during the Klopp era at the club but Robertson’s form has not been up to his usual standards this season.

The Scot was beaten twice by for ’s first goal as he struggled with the pace and trickery of the winger. He also had a tough game with Noni Madueke the week before when visited Anfield.

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Robertson has started eight of Liverpool's nine league games so far. The one he was on the bench for was away at , after he had played 72 minutes against Bologna in the midweek previous.

The former Hull defender, 30, was handed the captain’s armband for the Carabao Cup win over the Seagulls in midweek but was that a sign it will be Tsimikas starting today?

Slot believes the skipper is still finding his feet in this new team after missing pre-season through injury.

“I think his current situation is what you can expect if a player misses out on pre-season and a new manager comes in, so you miss quite a lot,” said the Dutchman. “And then when you start to play, maybe he thinks a bit too much because there are not so many things different but in some situations we ask for a bit different positioning from a left full-back.

“For me he is a bit in that period of time where he is thinking ‘Ok, I’m here now, should I be here or there?’ That’s something I’ve seen a lot from other players in the past.” But Slot insists he has no concerns about Robertson rediscovering his best form.

“The moment he stops thinking but is just acting on what we expect then he will be fine,” said the Reds boss. “That, combined with the fact that Robbo has always been a great player for this club especially because he went up and down, up and down all the time.

“Therefore he needs to have some time because he missed out on pre-season to come back to that up and down, up and down full back all the time. I see him coming there more and more, that’s the good thing.”

Liverpool will be looking to keep pace with early leaders in the title race today. The Reds are without Diogo Jota so Darwin Nunez will get the nod in the No 9 role.

Nunez has scored just once so far in the Premier League and was clearly second choice to Jota at the start of the campaign. But Slot is seeing improvement in Nunez who, like Robertson, has had to learn the different style of football under the Dutchman.

He added: “His work-rate definitely [is impressive], he has done well. He also came back quite late and had to adapt a bit because we press a bit differently.

“The idea is still the same, to press high, but we're using the press a bit more with the wingers inside and the No 9 has to defend a little more and he is now more involved in that pressing part. So that's what he does quite well. I still see a lot of room for improvement.”

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