Xherdan Shaqiri expects the Kostas Tsimikas transfer to ‘pay off soon’. The Greek hasn’t featured much at all this season.
Liverpool paid a little over £11m to sign Kostas Tsimikas ahead of this season. But despite the relatively low fee, they haven’t seen a return on that investment.
Tsimikas has played just five Premier League minutes. He came on as a substitute to see out the defeat against Manchester City.
He’s been a little more present in Europe, playing 131 across four Champions League appearances. But still, you’d expect more than that from any senior player.
Now, it’s not entirely his fault, of course. Tsimikas has battled with injuries, like many in the Liverpool squad. He also only plays one position – left-back – meaning Andy Robertson has to be out of the side for the Greek to get in.
Subscribe to Rousing The Kop TV now
But as we approach to end of the season, it’s tough to see a real future with Liverpool. Next season would have to be a complete reversal of this one, really.
Though, that’s apparently quite possible. Xherdan Shaqiri believes we will soon see the move ‘pay off soon’.
“Obviously [Tsimikas] didn’t have a lot of games this season but we see his qualities every day in training and how hard he works every day in the gym, after training too,” he told Liverpoolfc.com. “I think this is going to pay off soon.
“I hope he gets his rhythm as soon as possible and he can get some minutes because he’s a very good player and he can be much, much better if he can improve himself also. That’s why he came here.
“I’m looking forward that he’s going to be a very, very important player for the club.”
Tsimikas is running out of time. Praise like this, though, does give us some confidence that he can turn things around.
But he needs to get out on the pitch. Impressing in training is the only likely way to get that done, unless Robertson picks up a knock.
It’ll be tough but it sounds like Tsimikas does still have a chance.
