Liverpool are set to face Manchester City in their first game after the latest round of international games. The Reds have had a brilliant start to the season, sitting second in the Premier League standings with 27 points, one point adrift of the table-toppers and next challenger, Manchester City. They lost disastrously to the Citizens in this same fixture last season and will have to be at their best to get something at the end of the game at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday.
For the visitors to get a positive result, Jurgen Klopp must get his starting XI spot on and one of the decisions he will have to make in choosing the first names on the team sheet is whether to start Konstantinos Tsimikas or Joe Gomez at left-back with both players sharing game time in that position since Andrew Robertson got injured.
RECENT KONSTANTINOS TSIMIKAS MANOEUVRE
Tsimikas had his best game of the season in Liverpool’s 3-0 win over Brentford before the international break and must be allowed to continue his resurgence against the defending champions. The Greek Scouser as he is fondly called offers Liverpool creativity on the left flank and allows them to stretch defences with his overlapping or underlapping runs.
While citing his 2 assists against the Bees might reek of recency bias, it will also interest you to know that he is averaging 1.2 key passes per game in the Premier League this season, that is a pass leading to a shot, which is the 5th best in the Liverpool squad, per whoscored.com.
The contrast is the case with Gomez whose last outing at left-back was in the Reds’ disappointing draw with Luton Town, a game in which he showed he was not comfortable at left-back as he offered nothing offensively, cutting inside instead of making attacking runs throughout the game. Although his presence gives much needed stability at the back that plays a domino effect into strengthening the midfield, especially out-of-possession.
Chelsea showed that opponents have a good chance to beat Manchester City if their defensive vulnerability is well exploited and starting Tsimikas will enhance Liverpool’s chances of creating goalscoring chances against Pep Guardiola‘s side.
The worry with the Greece international is his loss of concentration which was on full display during Liverpool’s 3-1 win over Leicester City in the third round of the Carabao Cup earlier this season and the 3-2 loss to Toulouse in the last matchday of the UEFA Europa League. The 27-year-old lost the ball carelessly in both encounters which led to his side conceding and this would be the worry for Klopp.
Besides that, his defensive numbers look decent but must be said that Gomez has done better defensively, averaging more tackles, and interceptions and getting less dribbled past per game than Tsimikas.
With the prospect of facing Phil Foden who has five goal involvements in his career against Liverpool, Klopp can have his left midfielder and winger give the Greek defender support defensively.
AUTHOR’S OPINION
In conclusion, while Tsimikas isn’t as defensively astute as Gomez, he should still be given the chance to start at left-back against the Citizens based on the foregoing evidence. In my opinion, strengthening defensive vulnerability is one of the priorities at Klopp’s disposal and playing Gomez in-turn means Trent has more creative freedom —