Andy Robertson reveals why he won't text good friend and former Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson ahead of the Reds' clash against Brentford

Liverpool vice-captain Andy Robertson is not bothering to text his good friend Jordan Henderson ahead of locking horns with him at Brentford on Saturday – because he knows the uber-focused Reds legend would not reply!

The Scotland star has had a testing season so far, spending a lot of time as a substitute playing second fiddle to new signing Milos Kerkez and seeing his team lose four in a row going into this week.

But Robertson, who was named vice-skipper after his mate Trent Alexander-Arnold departed in the summer, has played a crucial role in the dressing room to lift morale in honest debrief meetings on Monday.

Now he is readying to play Henderson at the Gtech Community Stadium at 8pm on Saturday night after his finest performance of the season in a 5-1 win over Frankfurt on Wednesday. He is not expecting much pre-match chatter, though.

'I think if I even tried I don't think he would text me so I'll save that for after the game,' said Robertson. 

'He's an absolute legend of our club, what he has done for us within our changing room and the trophies he lifted and guided and led us to trophies.

'He's an absolute legend for all of us who were lucky enough to play with him, he's a legend to the fans and everyone connected with the club. It will be nice to see him but I know he will be up for the fight like he always is.

'Our midfield will have a hell of a battle against him, like all our players will because Brentford are a tough team. Hopefully if we get the win I can have a nice catch-up with him after the game!'

On the losing run, which is now over, Robertson said: 'When you are on a losing streak it is important to end it as quickly as you can. The message from the leaders in the group after Manchester United was, 'Don't panic'.

'We need to get our performance levels lifted and that's a fact and that's what we tried to focus on, lifting our performance levels with and without the ball. We knew if we did that then the result should be on our side. Thankfully we did that.

'When we go 3-1 up you see lads starting to enjoy themselves and that's what you want, people playing with a smile on their face and people enjoying playing for this club, people scoring goals, people assisting goals. 

'Winning 5-1 in the Champions League is quite rare.'

On another under-fire player Florian Wirtz, who also had his best game of the season in Germany, Robertson added: 'I thought he was outstanding, excellent. 

'I thought he grew and grew into the game, especially the second half.

'Players around him helped him a lot – Curtis Jones was outstanding – and I thought the three midfielders helped us gain the momentum and keep the ball. Flo has been really good since he came here.

'People focus on numbers of goals and assists but at times it's unfair as he's created a hell of a lot of chances and today some of the chances he created ended up in an assist. Hopefully he can take a lot from this performance but Saturday is a huge test for us.'