Arne Slot has pinpointed Andy Robertson’s recent struggles for Liverpool.
Robertson endured a difficult start to life under Slot after he succeeded Jurgen Klopp despite featuring in 10 of the club’s opening 14 games.
Kostas Tsimikas’ renaissance threw his fellow left-back further under the microscope after he excelled in the last two games with Arsenal and Brighton.
But Slot believes Robertson’s malaise is aligned to a lost pre-season after he played through the pain with an ankle injury picked up with Scotland in March.
He said: “I think his current situation is what you can expect if a player misses out on pre-season and a new manager comes in – you miss quite a lot.
“You have to go into a programme where you’ve missed the base tactically, when it comes to us [a new management team], and physically as well.
“Then, when you start to play, maybe he thinks a bit too much because there are not many things different but in some situations we ask for a bit different positioning from a left-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?’
“The moment he stops thinking but is just acting on what we expect he will be fine.
“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.
“I see him getting there more and more; that’s the good thing.”