He loves the club – Liverpool boss Arne Slot hails evergreen Andy Robertson

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot praised the enduring quality of Andy Robertson after the veteran defender scored one and created another for Mohamed Salah in the 3-1 FA Cup fifth-round win at Wolves.

The Scotland captain, who turns 32 next week, made the crucial breakthrough against the hosts’ massed ranks in the 51st minute with a 25-yard drive and then less than three minutes later crossed for his team-mate to fire into the roof of the net.

Curtis Jones added the third to render Hwang Hee-chan’s added-time consolation academic.

“If you talk about a goal and an assist, the first player you think about is probably not a full-back,” said Slot of Robertson, who could possibly have left the club in January after a bid from Tottenham.

“He loves the club and he loves to play in front of these fans. Robbo has in the one-and-a-half years I am here given everything for the club and the fans will say he did it in all the years I was not here.

“He tries to give his best, defending well, calm with a lot of composure on the ball.”

Robertson also played an important supporting role behind 17-year-old Rio Ngumoha, who put in a man-of-the-match performance in only his fifth senior start for the club as one of four changes from the dreadful 2-1 league defeat at Molineux on Tuesday.

“I think it is special if you are 17 and you played in a Premier League game – I know it is FA Cup but two Premier League teams – and are able to impact it in one v one situations,” Slot added.

“In my opinion he did better than three days ago (when he came on as a substitute) because he kept the ball more.

“Today he was even better in moments when he had to keep the ball. It’s a nice game as you face five defenders (so) defensively you don’t have to do as much and can use all your energy for the attacking part.”

Wolves head coach Rob Edwards accepted it was too much for his side to go head-to-head against Liverpool twice in four days.

“Not a tough one to take, the better team won. They were really good tonight and it was hard for us. No qualms or excuses, their level was excellent,” he said.

“At half-time I was relatively happy, we were limiting them to long-range shots, but not too many efforts, and the most frustrating thing for me was the timing of the second goal, that was the killer.

“We needed to remain in it longer and that second one was really frustrating. That is the thing I am most disappointed in.

“A double-header against Liverpool is hard. For us to win one of those we have to take that as a big positive.

“We tried tonight, but their level went up and they made it very difficult.”