Kerkez has silenced his doubters after Slot's brave selection call
Despite early noise around his summer signing, Arne Slot stuck to his guns and is now reaping the rewards.
Having produced his latest excellent performance in Liverpool’s win at Marseille on Wednesday, Milos Kerkez took to social media to engage with a supporter who stated he had finally been won over by the defender following initial doubts
“It’s ok bro, critics give me even more fuel,” he wrote, showing a magnanimity the poster in question perhaps did not deserve.
This exchange was interesting not just because it contained an amusing clapback from a high-profile footballer but, for starters, because it showed that Kerkez personally monitors his social media.
Clearly, that cannot have helped his early performances given a level of scrutiny at Liverpool will no doubt have taken him by surprise.
But most crucially, it also highlighted the speed with which so many had - inexplicably - made their mind up on a player who weeks earlier had made the biggest leap of his career at the age of just 21.
Yes, some of Kerkez’s early showings weren’t perfect, but is there a player in the Liverpool squad who hasn’t struggled at some point this season?
And what he was producing certainly wasn’t worthy of comparisons to Alberto Moreno, the Reds’ last poor left-back signing.
These barbs completely ignored solid early-season performances against Arsenal and Everton, where he had a strong claim to be one of the best players on the pitch.
Fortunately, even when those levels weren’t being reached, Kerkez retained strong backing from the coaches who saw what he was capable of on a daily basis at the AXA Training Centre.
That is why Arne Slot continued to pick him at left-back ahead of the more experienced Andy Robertson when, to many, that seemed a highly questionable call.
Given the pressure he himself was under, it would have been easy for the head coach to give in to the external noise at that point, but then Kerkez would have consequently missed out on the tests and struggles that have brought him here.
