Kostas Tsimikas
Konstantinos Tsimikas
Current Club: Liverpool.
Previous Clubs: Olympiakos, Panserraikos.
Loan Clubs: Willem II, Esbjerg fB.
International: Greece 33 caps.
Trophies Won: Greek Footballer of the Year 2020. English FA Cup 2022. English League Cup 2022, 2024. Community Shield 2022. Greek League 2016, 2020.
Kostas Tsimikas must be amongst the unluckiest of footballers currently playing the game. He fought hard to get his dream move to the team he supported as a boy, Liverpool, only to find that nothing seems to quite go his way there. Tsimikas has struggled for game time due to being up against one of Liverpool's key players, Andy Robertson, which has meant he has struggled to get up to form when he does get a chance to play. Then, when Robertson picks up a long-term injury, he finally gets a run of games only for a bit of bad luck to sideline him with injury until just after Robertson returns to fitness!
In terms of peak performance levels, there is very little to choose between the two left-backs, but it is the intangibles that Robertson brings that just about puts him ahead of Tsimikas. Though, it also needs to be said that Tsimikas does bring a lot to the squad in terms of those as well, just a different kind. Robertson is a driving force, a player that cares nothing for reputations and will happily wind up anyone he is facing, just ask Lionel Messi.
Tsimikas has a similar work ethic, though not quite as energetic. He has a similar fight in him. He is also a character, like Robertson, in a game that has very few of those any more. Tsimikas is a life and soul of the perty kind of squad member. Not in a Jack Grealish drunken kind of way, but in that he will be the one making everyone laugh. Tsimikas is the one that will break tension with a silly joke. So, like Robertson, he is the kind of person you want around the squad, the kind Arsene Wenger used to think was very important to his trophy winning sides even when not playing much of a part on the pitch.
On the ball, Tsimikas has very good delivery, a good touch, decent pace though not outstandingly quick, good in the air, good range of passing and decent vision. He does need a run of games to get up to speed though, if he comes into the team after a length of time out of the team he does look very rusty and ineffective. Often Tsimikas can be guilty of trying too hard, more so when he is just back into the side after time out, trying to do too much, take a touch too many or to try and win a ball he will never get near. He can also lose concentration, which leads to simple touches going astray or misplaced passes.
His rashness is a problem, it is very rare Tsimikas will go off the field without having picked up a booking for a rash challenge and he will often forget about defensive positioning in order to rush out to make a challenge. That is, in my opinion, his biggest problem, as he leaves the defence unbalanced by charging out like a bull in a china shop and it is particularly unhelpful against teams that like to overload on the flank to create a space. Teams like that will deliberately draw him out while someone runs in behind into the space Tsimikas has left. Then the centre-backs are left with a problem as one of them has to get out there and cover the gap, meaning there is space somewhere else.
Overall he is very good cover for Robertson, providing very little in the way of drop off in quality levels when Tsimikas is playing well, if any, but he does need to play regularly to play well, which is always going to be a problem. Unfortunately for the Greek Scouser, it is very unlikely he will ever get the chance to play regularly as he is now 27 and this is the time he should have nailed down the spot.
Requested by - zpecialone