There is still so much more to come from Andy Robertson at Liverpool, reckons Simon Donnelly

FROM Queen’s Park to Liverpool, Andy Robertson has risen to every challenge he has faced.

But Simon Donnelly reckons the Scotland star still hasn’t reached his full potential.

Former Dundee United assistant manager Donnelly watched Robertson improve every day during his breakout season at Tannadice.

His raw ability won him a deserved move to Hull City. Then Liverpool swooped.

Now, after a string of stunning performances, the Kop has taken Robbo to heart.

It was a moment Anfield adored. ?@LorisKarius on how @andrewrobertso5 is working to maintain his spot in the #LFC team: https://t.co/YIVaZ3Hv5g pic.twitter.com/iSP4TXsaYg

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) January 20, 2018

The 23-year-old’s headline-making performance against Manchester City capped a meteoric rise for a player who was battling in Scotland’s bottom division just four years ago.

But Donnelly reckons his former pupil isn’t finished improving yet – because he has a fire inside him that cannot be extinguished.

“I think Andy can still get better,” said the former Celtic star.

“He’s playing in a team that has such good players in it – and Liverpool will always attract those players.

“The experience of playing with those players will give him the platform to raise his own game even further.

“No disrespect to Hull City, but when you go to Liverpool it’s a different level.

“He’s working with top coaches and top players on the training ground and gaining more and more experience.

“Through that he’ll be able to read the game better. But the most important thing for Andy, which has been the case right through from Dundee United – and I dare say from Queen’s Park – is having that licence to break forward and whip balls in.

“That’s a huge part of his game, and the older he gets, and the more experience he gets, he’ll get even better at knowing when and how best to use it.”

The teenage Robertson’s desire to get forward was the major factor in former Dundee United boss Jackie McNamara’s decision to take him to Tannadice.

He quickly set about proving Jackie’s decision had been a shrewd one.

But the young star’s conduct off the park was just as impressive – and tellingly modest – as his performances on it.

Donnelly explained: “I remember on his first day at the training ground he walked into the Under-20s changing-room.

“Jackie had to go and say to him: ‘No, you’re in there – you’re with the first team!’.

“But that’s the type of boy he is. Anybody that speaks to me about him, you can’t be anything other than excited and happy about his career, because he’s such a good person.

“When we went pre-season to Germany and Spain that year, my memory of him is this milk bottle of a boy, walking around the swimming pool with his towel over his shoulders, trying to save himself from the sun, just a quiet boy.

“But in the pre-season games, he forced himself right into our immediate plans. Any doubt that he might have to be broken in gently went right out the window.

“He forced our hand with his performances and, in fairness, everybody saw it that season, he never looked back.”

Robertson’s performances at United quickly attracted interest from the Premier League – but he was by no means the only talented youngster at Tannadice.

From late 2013 into 2014, the Tangerines produced some of the best football seen by their fans since the glory days of the 1980s.

It wasn’t long before United were stripped of their prize assets.

But of all those that earned moves, Donnelly rates Robertson a cut above.

“We had a talented bunch at that time up there – Ryan Gauld, Stuart Armstrong, Nadir Ciftci, Gary Mackay-Steven, John Souttar was also breaking through – but Andy was the one that stood out,” he said.

“It was just his all-round attitude – and that’s not to slight anybody else – it’s just he had something different about him.

“He’s got real drive about him.

“He showed that against Manchester City, that moment where he chases, and chases, and chases, right back to the keeper, and he almost forces the mistake.

“That epitomises Andy. He just keeps going.

“The performance against City, he kept Raheem Sterling, who has had a great season, very quiet, and he got his reward at the end of it. I mean, the Kop were singing his name.

“The drive he’s got inside him is a huge thing.

“I’m actually reading Sir Alex Ferguson’s most recent book at the moment, the one on leadership, and he touches on that drive.

“He speaks about players having it, and he goes through Brian Robson, Mark Hughes, Roy Keane – Andy Robertson has that in abundance. That’s why he’s playing with Liverpool.”

He is also playing with Scotland, who have another top class left back in Kieran Tierney.

Gordon Strachan got both involved by playing Tierney on the right.

But Donnelly reckons the solution could be more simple – and more deadly for Scotland’s opponents.

“My argument would be to play both of them,” he said.

“We, as a nation, can’t afford to leave either of those players out, so if it means playing both of them on the left side, why not?”