Tottenham Hotspur had a dominant win last weekend over Chelsea, 2-0, and made a statement that they are indeed back under Roberto De Zerbi, but veteran left back Andy Robertson had a pretty quiet day going forward and had some nervy moments defensively that neither Cole Palmer nor Pedro Neto were sharp enough to take advantage of against a game Antonin Kinsky in goal.
In total, Robertson has been a bit of a disappointment this season, because for every game he has played well and generated chances for Spurs, he's had a couple where he has looked slow and like a liability defensively, which was why Liverpool let their club legend go in the first place.
But looking at this latest performance against Crystal Palace, Robertson was in his element and starting again while Destiny Udogie made an appearance off the bench in recovery from his latest nagging injury.
Andy Robertson is the right choice against the right opponent
Robertson created three chances for his teammates, won two tackles, and even popped off a couple of shots on target. He provided a great outlet on the left side in conjunction with Mathys Tel, completing 96 percent of his 89 pass attempts with four accurate crosses on seven attempts, which is a marked improvement from where he was at against Chelsea.
This performance against Crystal Palace is reassuring, because it shows that Robertson does have a role to play for Tottenham Hotspur this season in conjunction with Udogie as a left back. As you would expect, at this stage of his career, Andy Robertson is not a world class left back, but he is still a decent Premier Leaguer who is good enough to help dominate weaker sides like Palace and hold his own against the middle of the table.
Against a bigger club with athletic superstars like Cole Palmer and Pedro Neto, it is going to be more difficult for Robertson to play well, and he can get exposed just because he does not have the same pace - and then he can't do much going forward. But even against Chelsea, Robertson wasn't costly; Tottenham still one that game.
One week later, Robbo was one of the better players on the pitch, and he exceeded expectations. The technical quality and mental sharpness never go away with age, and you could see that with his quality of passing and crossing against Crystal Palace. Tottenham will want to see more of this from Robbo, and hopefully, Udogie can be healthy enough for the biggest games, but in the meantime, they should rotate Robbo heavily against these sorts of teams to keep Udogie freshest for what matters most.
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