KOSTAS Tsimikas has plenty to thank friend Andy Robertson for on and off the park as the left-back rivals have become close confidants at Anfield.
Now he is determined to do the boyhood Celtic fan a favour by inspiring Liverpool to Champions League victory over Rangers.
Tsimikas will line-up at left-back against Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side as the Reds look to pile on the Group A misery and earn Battle of Britain bragging rights.
The Greek has shown himself to be an able deputy for Robertson as the Scotland captain continues to recover from the knee injury that kept him out of the last hat-trick of international fixtures.
Tsimikas said: “First of all, Andy is a very good person and a world class player. Whatever I need when I play, he is always there to help me and to show me what I can do better or to help me find where I have to cross, where is the gap.
“Also I help him when I am on the bench and I see the game from outside. He is a good guy.
“We spend time in the dressing room, we always speak about everything and I really thank him for all this.
“Of course it is an important game, even if he wasn’t a Celtic supporter. We want to win this game and the only thing we have to do is be 100 per cent focused and 100 per cent ready to win this game.”
Liverpool head into the Rangers fixture in desperate need of a performance and a result to kick-start a faltering campaign that has seen the spotlight shine on boss Jurgen Klopp.
The Reds were held to a 3-3 draw by Brighton and Hove Albion at the weekend and sit ninth in the Premier League with just ten points from their first seven outings.
And Tsimikas knows there must be an immediate improvement if the hosts are to avoid an upset at Anfield and keep their Group A campaign on track.
“Everybody knows it’s not enough,” he said. “In the games we’ve had, it’s been not so good.
“We saw something against Ajax but in the previous game against Brighton, Everyone knew they were a very good team.
“We saw from the start we were not so focused and ready. That’s why we conceded two goals.
“But we scored three goals and wanted to keep the result. The most important thing now is to win football matches and we have to do exactly that.
“We do exactly the same. How we play is the same as last year. It’s the same structure, the same tactics last year when we won two cups, lost out on the Premier League by one point and went to the final of the Champions League.
“We haven’t started this year so well. It’s been a bad moment for us. The only good thing is that we have a game and we need to show what we are again.
“Everybody in the team is looking forward to this game and we’ll be 100 focused on it.”
It was a case of so near yet so far for Liverpool last term as they missed out on the Premier League title and were beaten in the Champions League final in Paris.
The Reds find themselves in an unfamiliar situation as the questions pile up but they remain a force to be reckoned with as they set their sights on another European crown.
Tsimikas said: “Of course nothing is finished yet. We have to bounce back. If you remember last year we were 15 points back but by the end we were so close to winning the Premier League.
“Nothing is finished. First of all we have to win the games. We start from the game in the Champions League.
“Of course we set the same goals at the start of the season and we’ll go for them. I think the team will bounce back and we’ll be 100 percent ready again.”
