Even with Liverpool cruising for much of the second half against LASK on Thursday night, Jurgen Klopp was still vexed with one of his players over an erratic moment at Anfield, issuing a stern three-word message.
In a piece for the Liverpool Echo, journalists Paul Gorst and Theo Squires compiled a list of tidbits which the main TV coverage would likely have missed.
One of those was an angry reaction from Curtis Jones towards Kostas Tsimikas after the midfielder took up a promising position at the edge of the penalty box, only for the Greek defender to overhit a long ball to the back post which had to be retrieved by Harvey Elliott.
It wasn’t just the Scouser who had words for the 27-year-old, either, with the article noting: “Jones wasn’t the only man inside Anfield to get frustrated with Tsimikas on Thursday night. Manager Jurgen Klopp did at one point in the second half too after the same erratic cross.
“The German could be seen screaming on the sidelines, before holding his hands up to his face to gesture glasses. He has, after all, not needed his trademark spectacles for a number of years now.
” ‘Open your eyes!’ was the accompanying call, albeit perhaps more family-friendly, if the ECHO’s lip-reading skills upon observing the replay in the Anfield press box are to be trusted!”
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While deputising for the injured Andy Robertson, Tsimikas had a night to forget away to Toulouse in the Europa League last month, but followed it up with two assists against Brentford and a decent display at Manchester City.
He came very close to scoring in the first half last night with one fizzing shot which thundered off the crossbar and had a largely tidy performance, although his distribution from the left could indeed have been better at times. As per Sofascore, he found a teammate with only one of his four crosses.
Even with Liverpool comfortable at 3-0 when the Greece defender failed to pick out Jones midway through the second half, the reaction from the midfielder and Klopp made it very clear that the Reds were in no mood to let their standards drop despite the result virtually being in the bag by that point.
It’s a facet of Tsimikas’ game on which he can still improve, but he showed against Brentford that he can be a very useful supplier of goals when at his best, so hopefully we’ll see that side of him a few more times before Robertson comes back.
#Ep96 of The Empire of the Kop Podcast: EOTK Insider with Neil Jones🎙️