Despite being Milos Kerkez‘s direct competition, the young left-back has insisted Liverpool still need “really important” Andy Robertson.Having played for eight years at the top level, it was a surprise when Kerkez took the experienced Robertson’s place in the Liverpool team immediately after signing from Bournemouth for £40 million.While the Hungarian has struggled to adapt to life at Liverpool, he has largely remained first-choice for Arne Slot, starting 16 times this season, whereas Robertson has started just nine matches.Kerkez, though, thinks the Scotland captain is still “really important” to the squad, and he was asked by liverpoolfc.com whether competition for places would bring out the best of him.The 22-year-old replied: “Especially me, I always like to compete and show the best version of myself.“I think it’s always important and especially to have competition like Robbo. You have to always – if you’re playing good, if you have competition like that – you have to continue to do good.“You know if you don’t have competition then maybe it’s possible playing top and you start to drop and then you need someone to pick you back up again. I think it’s really important.“It’s Liverpool, so there’s a lot of games and you need only the best players here. That’s what we have.” One issue facing Kerkez has been a slight change in role from what he was expected to do at Bournemouth.This season, he has often been asked to play as an inverted full-back, underlapping Cody Gakpo who clearly isn’t yet on the same wavelength as the youngster.Speaking about building relationships with his teammates, Kerkez said: “It’s coming.“We do a lot of video analysis and we talk between each other with the coach and everything. With time everything comes good and in the last few weeks some results were not great and some were good.“I think we’re coming good together and when you’re new – a few new players came – you need some time. I know how it was for me when I went to Bournemouth.“You need time, but what is most important is that you’re willing to take on everything – competition and to learn and improve. I’m like that. I know with time everything will be good in the team.”