Arne Slot insists he still 'needs' Andy Robertson amid Liverpool legend's transfer talks with Tottenham as doubts emerge over shock deal

Reports emerged on Friday claiming Spurs had initially earmarked Robertson for a summer transfer, with his contract at Anfield up at the end of the season. However, Tottenham decided that Thomas Frank's first-team squad needs immediate improvement and as such have brought forward plans to try and sign the Scot. The north Londoners are also said to value the 31-year-old's leadership and experience.

Robertson started on the bench for Liverpool's 3-2 defeat at Bournemouth on Saturday evening. He was introduced at half-time in place of Milos Kerkez, with Slot admitting the former Cherries left-back wasn't fit enough to play more than an hour at most.

The Liverpool boss was asked post-match if he could afford to lose Robertson this month and if he wanted him to stay. Slot replied: "I think I need all my players. Robbo had to come in at half-time, in my opinion. I always knew that for Milos, another 90 minutes against a very intense Bournemouth side was not a possibility for him, so I knew I would have to bring (Robertson) in.

"I had already had one substitution in the first half, then you only have two moments left, so I thought 'let's bring Robbo in at half-time to make sure Milos stays available for the rest of the season'.

"There's a lot of games to be played with the players available. I have to manage that as well. The last thing we could need right now is another injury."

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Liverpool's run of 13 games without defeat in all competitions came to an end at the Vitality Stadium. Though Virgil van Dijk and Dominik Szoboszlai cancelled out goals from Evanilson and Alex Jimenez, Amine Adli scored with essentially the last kick of the game to ensure the Reds left without any points to show for their efforts.

"I think it is safe to say they could have scored 3-2 a little bit earlier," Slot admitted. "A few of our players ran out of energy and I cannot even criticise them for that because two days ago [three] we had to play an away game. We're the only team that played in the Champions League that has two games in between.

"This time after an away game, another away game against one of the most intense teams in the league and I mainly played the same players because of the players we have available. Conceding a goal is always frustrating, but especially if there is no time left to come back into the game."

Meanwhile, Robertson's suitors Spurs needed a last-minute goal from Cristian Romero to rescue a 2-2 draw at relegation battlers Burnley. Head coach Frank was targeted with 'sacked in the morning' chants once again by Tottenham supporters.

With just over a week to go until the transfer deadline on February 2, talks between Liverpool and Tottenham are expected to ramp up regarding a fee for Robertson. In the event that the Reds do sell Robertson, they are expected to recall Kostas Tsimikas from his loan at Roma.