Name: Michael John Robinson
Nickname: "Robbo" | "The Cat"



Country: England
Club: Brighton & Hove Albion F.C. | Liverpool F.C.
Number: 9 (Brighton) | 11 (NT)| 10 | 7 (Liverpool)
Position: ★CF
Side: RF/BS
Age: 24-26 years (12/07/1958)

Height: 184 cm (approx.)
Weight: 86 kg (approx.)

Attack: 86
Defence: 35
Balance: 89
Stamina: 79
Top Speed: 86
Acceleration: 81
Response: 84
Agility: 75
Dribble Accuracy: 79
Dribble Speed: 74
Short Pass Accuracy:75
Short Pass Speed: 75
Long Pass Accuracy: 71
Long Pass Speed: 76
Shot Accuracy: 86
Shot Power: 81
Shot Technique: 80
Free Kick Accuracy: 58
Curling: 62
Header: 86
Jump: 91
Technique: 75
Aggression: 87
Mentality: 77
Goalkeeper Skills: 50
Team Work: 76

Injury Tolerance: B
Condition: 6
Weak Foot Accuracy: 4
Weak Foot Frequency: 5
Consistency: 5
Growth type: Standard

CARDS:
P13 - Goal Poacher
S02 - Marauding
S21 - Run Around

SPECIAL ABILITIES: Positioning - Reaction - Scoring

Attack/Defence Awareness Card: Attack-Minded

INFO:
Big, with a raw strength, and powerful. His buccaneering style. His pace. His physicality. The way that no lost cause was ever a lost cause when he was chasing it. Plus a powerful shot that he’s not afraid to exercise liberally. It was Robinson’s trademark skills of speed and physicality – he was remarkably strong for someone a little over six foot tall. Not too agile, but movable and tricky, not a classic in-the-box striker of those years. He would often be dangerous from the wing and stroll into the box or have a low cross. He even dribbled run arounds & through the legs. Due to his strength, he had a good back & chest play. In addition, he had an unusual burst & a very high jump and was a fine passer of the ball

Robinson began his career with Preston North End. His breakthrough came in the 1978-79 campaign when he netted 13 times for PNE in their first season back in the second tier following promotion. That prompted City to spend an astonishing £756,000 on Robinson in the 1979 close season, making him the second most expensive English player of all time. The fee was an eye watering amount for a 20-year-old striker and is often credited as being one of the deals that sparked such rapid inflation in the transfer market. Understandably, young Robinson struggled to live up to expectations although he did still finish as top scorer in his one season at Maine Road.

He was never truly happy at City though and so Alan Mullery swooped in to sign him for half of what City had paid a year previously. It proved to be an astonishingly good bit of business for the Albion. 19 Division One goals in the 1980-81 season. 11 Division One goals in 1981-82. Seven Division One goals in 1982-83. Robinson’s record of 37 goals in 133 top flight appearances over the course of three seasons leaves him ahead of anyone else in Brighton's history.

Michael Robinson was clearly too good to drop into Division Two with Brighton and with books needing to be balanced, he made a dream move to Liverpool to play for the team he’d supported as a boy in the summer of 1983. In his one and only full season at Anfield, Robinson won the League title, the League Cup and the European Cup. He was an unused sub for the final of the latter at Rome’s Stadio Olimpico as Liverpool beat Roma on penalties but it clearly meant the world to him. 52 matches, 13 goals and 9 assists for Liverpool FC in 1 season. Robinson was by his own admission not very skilful and could have been in better physical shape. Even though he was always going to fade in comparison playing with Europe's most lethal striker it did have its advantages: "Ian Rush made me look brilliant in the air," Robinson confesses. "When I jumped up and headed, the ball would always go to Rushie. He could read my body; the way I jumped up Ian would deduce where the ball would go. He knew his limitations, he didn't have a good touch for a big man and he was predominantly one-footed. During one early match, a former leading BBC Radio commentator described him as a “dyspeptic water buffalo grazing with a herd of gazelle – clumsy, awkward, a yard behind the play and a thousand yards from Dalglish’s analytical, surgical football." But he was strong. He was very powerful and would chase everything.

Robinson left Liverpool seven months after their memorable night in Rome, moving to Queens Park Rangers, playing in the 1986 League Cup final (albeit again unlucky to win it) and then onto Osasuna in Spain, where he became an honorary resident.A serious knee injury ended Robinson’s career at the age of 30 and he took the unusual step of ripping up his Osasuna contract when it happened, refusing to take another paycheck from the club if he couldn’t play again.

Although not a prolific goalscorer for Ireland, he went on to collect 24 caps, mostly won when Eoin Hand was manager. He only appeared twice after Jack Charlton took charge.