Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp has admitted that he felt Kostas Tsimikas deserved to start against Newcastle United on Saturday afternoon.
The Reds headed to St James’ Park on Saturday, facing a potential banana skin against Eddie Howe’s resurgent Magpies.
Liverpool’s remit is clear; they just need to keep winning and hope that Manchester City slip up.
A trip to Newcastle was far from an easy prospect for Liverpool but they secured a narrow 1-0 victory.
Naby Keita’s first-half goal proved to be the winner for Liverpool, picking up another three points for Klopp’s side.
Klopp did rotate some of his side, with the likes of Joe Gomez, Ibrahima Konate, Keita and Diogo Jota coming in.
There was no opportunity for left back Tsimikas though, who was forced to sit on the Liverpool bench yet again.
The Greek ace may have been hoping that the rotation would allow him to come in for Andrew Robertson at left back.
Instead, Robertson started once again and turned in a superb performance in Liverpool’s 1-0 victory.
Tsimikas shines whenever he plays but just can’t get regular playing time with Robertson ahead of him in the pecking order.
Klopp needs to juggle Premier League and Champions League pursuits, meaning Tsimikas will surely get more chances in the coming weeks.
Klopp has now told Liverpool’s official website that Tsimikas did actually deserve to play against Newcastle.
However, having brought Konate and Gomez into his back line too, Klopp didn’t want to make three changes to his back four.
Klopp seemingly felt that making that many changes at the back would have been a major risk, so Tsimikas had to miss out.
“Look, it’s my job to make decisions, I don’t have to do a lot of other things,” said Klopp. “For example, Kostas Tsimikas would’ve deserved to play and Robbo would have had a break as well, but when you change one full-back and a centre-half and there are three changes in the last line, what I think then is, ‘No, don’t do that, let’s do it like this.’ The decisions are not that difficult because the boys are all in a good shape, really all in a good shape,” he added.
Tsimikas may have a chance to start against Villarreal in the Champions League on Tuesday night having particularly excelled in the second leg against Benfica at Anfield last month.
This is sadly what awaits Tsimikas; having to sit on the bench more often than not and just having to try and take his chances when they come.
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