After a debut 2020-21 season at Liverpool that was afflicted by injuries and COVID-19, Tsimikas has gained more regular opportunities in the team this term.
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Kostas Tsimikas reckons that the healthy competition with Andy Robertson for a left-back starting role is driving both the full-backs to be at their best in Liverpool. After a debut 2020-21 season at Anfield that was afflicted by injuries and COVID-19, Tsimikas has gained more regular opportunities in the team this term. Wednesday’s 2-0 Champions League win over FC Porto is his eighth start. Robertson, on the other hand, has started the other 11 of the Reds’ matches in all competitions as the manager has rotated the squad well to share the duties among them. Tsimikas is enjoying the “healthy competition” for a starting role and believes both players give their all to be a part of the team.
“Yeah, it’s very healthy competition,” he told Liverpoolfc.com ahead of Saturday’s Premier League meeting with Southampton at Anfield. “Me and Andy work a lot in training. We give absolutely everything to play in the team. In my opinion, it’s very, very healthy; we help each other, we are very close to each other, if someone wants something he asks the other. Always we try to find the best for the team and we work for that. And I’m happy because I have this player next to me and this competition is very healthy.”
Liverpool registered a fifth successive win in Champions League Group B in midweek. Despite winning the group, the Reds survived a testing first half against Porto to eventually win the match through goals from Thiago Alcantara and Mohamed Salah. Tsimikas featured for just over an hour before being replaced by Robertson. He explained why the team’s mentality meant there could be no drop in performance level, even when the result was not of paramount importance.
“We always try to play our football, we always try to win every game no matter if we [need to] qualify or not,” said the Greece international. “We always play for a result. It was a very good game, we won, we achieved what we wanted from the start and we are very happy for that. We want this momentum – to work on it, to keep going, to keep working hard and to win the games.”
Next up for Liverpool is a Premier League clash against Southampton at the weekend. Tsimikas wants the players to follow up the impressive 4-0 rout of Arsenal last time out in the Premier League. “It was very important for all the boys, for the team, to start building again this winning spirit. It was very, very important,” he said of the emphatic victory over the Gunners.
“We won 4-0, everybody was confident, we saw on the pitch what we are working for all the week. We showed it and we won the game. We will try to do this also this Saturday. Every game in the Premier League is very tough. Southampton are a very good team, they defend all together, they run like crazy – a very physical team. But we have to stick to our plan to play good football and to win this game, as always, and to achieve our goals.”
