Andrew Robertson says Liverpool’s charge towards Premier League invincibility is fuelled by the sacrifices they make off the pitch.
The Reds are 14 points clear at the top of the table after Roberto Firmino’s first half-strike secured a 1-0 win at Tottenham, extending their unbeaten record to 38 league games.
In amassing an astonishing 61 points from a possible 63 over the first 21 matches of the campaign, Liverpool have now made the best ever start to a season in any of Europe’s top five leagues.
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Their ability to outlast and swarm opposition teams has been a key factor in their success and Robertson believes it is no fluke.
“All the lads in there are no different,” he said. “As footballers you invest everything, you invest your life into football.
“It’s a short career and nobody likes being in the treatment room, not being fit to play the game.
“For me, I put everything into it to ensure I can play the game or be available. That’s what I’ve always done.
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“Lifestyle, I always eat well and watch what I eat. I don’t drink during the season but don’t get me wrong, off season, I have a couple of weeks. I am Scottish after all.
“During the season I try not to and that’s important because you need to invest in your body.
“It’s the most important thing. The team behind the team at Melwood (Liverpool’s training ground) every day, they make sure our bodies are ready and we’re as fit as we can possibly be.”
On whether his team-mates also avoid alcohol, he replied: “I couldn’t tell you. I’m not round their houses, but I imagine so.
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp (left) hugs Andy Robertson (Nick Potts/PA).
“The higher it goes, the tougher it gets because of the amount of games you’ve got.
“We all try to invest everything in it and that’s why you see during those tough, busy times over Christmas we do look fresh, because recovery is spot on.”
Barring an unprecedented collapse, the champagne will be flowing in May as Liverpool head towards a first league title since 1990.
They are also well on course to match Arsenal’s 2003-04 achievement of going through the season unbeaten, but Robertson reckons that puts a target on their backs.
“We’ll let you say that. We won’t say that because look at the run both us and Man City went on last season,” Robertson said when asked whether there was a way his side could not win the league.
“What’s to stop Man City doing that again? Being unbeaten in every single game. This league is so hard.
“Maybe sometimes we’ve made it look easy, but believe me it’s not – it’s so hard to perform against every team that wants to beat you.
“The longer the run goes on, the more everyone wants to beat you – ‘we beat Liverpool’ or whatever.
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“We don’t take anything for granted. We are not celebrating in there that we are champions.
“We are just celebrating a nice win just now. Long may that continue and then in May maybe we can start to celebrate.”
Jurgen Klopp’s side are destined to be in the history books for their incredible achievements, but Robertson insists that is not a driving force.
That first touch 🤤That ruthless finish 😍— Liverpool FC (@LFC) January 11, 2020
“For us, they are irrelevant. Yes, if we break records on the way, fine, great, but we will look at that (only) if we get a trophy,” he said.
“Because last season we broke records in terms of clean sheets and ended up empty-handed in the Premier League.
“Records don’t mean anything unless they get you the end goal, hopefully this season it will.”
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