'Unbelievable' Liverpool star has chance to cement starting place against Bayer Leverkusen

Kostas Tsimikas is one Liverpool player who has the chance to cement his starting place in the team when they face Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday.

Having been picked ahead of Andy Robertson for the weekend win over Brighton, he produced a very timely performance in light of the faith placed in him by the Liverpool manager. With Robertson featuring in the cup game earlier in the week, Arne Slot had already revealed his intentions when it came to his left-back position.

In years gone by, Harvey Elliott described Tsimikas as an ‘unbelievable’ player and now the Greek international is finally breaking into the side and living up to that praise. Having bided his time patiently behind one of the best left-backs in European football, his time has seemingly come in the new era of Slot.

He was a man on a mission against the Seagulls, winning all nine of his duels, managing eight final third entries, seven tackles, six crosses, three chances created as well as winning possession three times. It was an all-action performance that was a perfect call-back to the type of performance we used to see from Robertson in his prime. Famed for his high-energy across the peak Klopp-years, those days look to be behind the Scotsman. Yet, he remains a key figure having started 10 games in all competitions. Tsimikas, 28, may well be entering his prime years which seem to be ahead of the current level we are seeing from Robertson.

Given their schedule, the real test now begins. If he starts against Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday in the Champions League, then he will surely be anointed as the number one left-back. Following that is the visit of Aston Villa at Anfield just four days later where he may well continue given it is the final game before the international break.

One thing we have seen from Slot this is season is his willingness to rotate the left-back pairing; he did it during the Champions League for the AC Milan and RB Leipzig games, both of which Tsimikas started and Liverpool won and he also picked up the Man of the Match award for that display against the German side.

He clearly trusts Tsimikas to be his number one choice in challenging games but, despite that, it is likely we will see rotation across their tricky spell and over Christmas as a general rule of thumb. Their immediate run consists of Leverkusen and Villa before the break but they return to face Southampton, Real Madrid, Manchester City, Newcastle United and Everton in the games following - and the only real tell to know whether Tsimikas is the number one is whether he is called upon for those big games.

It may well be a case that he sees both of equal level and looks to rotate both of them across a hectic spell - rather than one being the ‘first-choice’ over the other. What is interesting is the fact that this is the first time since Tsimikas arrived in 2020 that he can stake a claim to be the starter, ahead of Robertson. Something which was inconceivable in the Klopp-era.