Kostas Tsimikas is among a select group of senior players back for pre-season training. He has described the initial sessions under new coach Arne Slot as “intense.”
With no international duties this summer, Tsimikas enjoyed nearly two months off—a rare break considering that five of his Liverpool teammates are still competing. In an interview at the AXA Training Centre, the left-back expressed how unusual it was to have seven weeks to relax. “I can’t remember the last time I had so much time to just chill on the beach,” he said.
However, those relaxing days are over as pre-season kicks into gear. Slot, in his first summer with the club, has already made a strong impression. Tsimikas shared his thoughts on the first week of training: “It’s been very good and quite intense. All the boys have been giving their best every day.”
Tsimikas praised Slot’s approach, noting, “He has very good ideas, in my opinion, and we work really hard to understand his style of play. I’m really looking forward to seeing how the team performs in games after many training sessions with him.”
Regarding Slot’s instructions, the 28-year-old said the focus has been on playing attractive football, creating passing triangles, and making small movements to control the ball better. “We haven’t been training for long, but these are the main messages we’ve received,” Tsimikas explained.
Training has already seen noticeable changes, such as replacing the lactate test with a six-minute race test and incorporating warm-up exercises in pairs that resemble a mix of shadow boxing and tag. Slot has also been very vocal and hands-on during sessions, with Curtis Jones standing out in the early stages.
Liverpool will head to the US for three friendlies later this month, but they are expected to play several behind-closed-doors games at the AXA Training Centre before departing. As Tsimikas pointed out, it will be fascinating to see how these changes translate into game scenarios.
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