It goes without saying that the Manchester derby at Old Trafford overshadows everything happening in the Premier League today. A little further from Manchester and a little earlier, another game is the one that attracts the most Greek interest. Liverpool – Nottingham Forest (4 p.m., Novasports 2HD and LIVE on Sportish).

Two of the three international Greeks in the world’s top league will be at Anfield. No, unfortunately not a direct duel, as only Kostas Tsimikas will start and Odysseus Vlachodimos is still waiting for his first appearance after his recent transfer to Forest.

Be that as it may, the actions and development of the two irreplaceable members of the representative group, two of the three highest-paid Greek footballers, deserve to be documented, even more so given the current situation.

On the further development of “Tsimi” and the (analogous) comparison with Robertson

Starting with… the most basic thing now, Tsimi. “When they told me about Andy’s injury they told me it would be something that would make me happy because it would make me play more.” That’s not the case in any way and I don’t feel that way either. Firstly because Andy is a good friend of mine and secondly because we are teammates.

“We need each other and the team needs both of us,” the Greek Scouser told English Sky Sports yesterday, referring to Andrew Robertson’s shoulder injury and surgery that will keep the Scot out of action for next term.

And of course he gives the 27-year-old Greek all responsibility for the position. Significantly, until Robertson’s injury, Tsimikas had made a total of 18 appearances in the starting lineup at Premier League level during his years at Liverpool (on 19 August).^The he did it in the Merseyside derby against Everton last week).

More tellingly, Tsimi will start today’s game in 11th place for the fifth time in his tenure at Anfield on the second Premier League matchday in a row. He has never started more than two consecutive games, now it is more than likely that he will surpass that milestone.

The lack of pace – he had only played 274 minutes in all competitions this year until Robertson’s injury – but also the diversification of Liverpool’s blocking tactics, with Jurgen Klopp adopting what the English media calls a 3-box-3 formation , with i.e. one of… The fact that the full-backs essentially act as a third stopper in an attacking phase were points that the media on the island focused heavily on when analyzing Tsimikas’ entry into the eleven.

We do not question his potential, but above all consider whether we are in Robertson’s prolonged absence and no longer able to give Csimika breath himself… breathless, until the Scot recovers and always in the rhythm and the Klop requirements.

Even if the participation times of the two footballers in the years they lived together are not nearly comparable, the statistics represent an initial, useful dynamic tool.

In the 1720 minutes of his participation in Premier League games, “Tsimi” created 19 “clean” chances from his actions, shared 5 assists, had 34.6 touches in the final (in a reduction of 90 minutes) and grabbed the third field. This exceeded Robertson’s corresponding performance (29.7).

Known for his dribbling skills, the Greek Scouser averages 7.4 moves with the ball at his feet compared to Robertson’s 4.8, while the Scot excels at forward passes with 22.5 per game compared to 17.7.

Defensively, Chimika’s behavior is believed to be…aggressive. The proportion of “real” tackles (“True Tackle”, the “real” is characterized as such and is statistically determined from the ratio of successful and unsuccessful tackles and the fouls resulting from these tackles) by the Greek national player is more or less similar that of Robertson (56.9% vs. 56.3%) and shows that he is usually effective when he chooses to win possession with projection, despite being fouled more often than the Scot (1.85 vs. 0.68 per game).

The courage of Odysseus and the eleven who wait (for him).

It has been almost two months since Odysseus Vlachodemos left Lisbon and moved to Nottingham. Hard decision. The Premier League has always been his dream, but with certain conditions and conditions.

And he may have become a luxury player in the summer after a falling out with Benfica coach Roger Schmidt, but that doesn’t diminish his status in the slightest. Neither competitively nor economically (after all, they are a mirror image of each other).

Be that as it may, there are no favors at Premier League level. The solution to the stalemate that existed at the Lusitanians in mid-August was the appearance of the “Reds” from Forest, who saw the situation created as an opportunity to sign one of the best goalkeepers in Europe

The purchase of Matt Turner from Arsenal before the summer had no impact. Neither the logic of taking advantage of the chance nor the prioritization of the two goalkeepers. If Ody were to make the decision to move to the City Ground, he would be considered Forest’s No.1 – for a number of reasons.

Something that ultimately, regardless of the framework formed with the Lusitanians, played a catalytic role in the decision of the international Greek goalkeeper. It wasn’t the money (although more than his earnings at “Dal Luc”), nor just the prestige of the Premier League, but the ability to combine everything with a key role.

The necessary guarantees, fully envisaged based on the above-mentioned status of the 29-year-old goalkeeper, were given, the decision for the said move on behalf of the English club was made unanimously – management, scouting, coaching staff – and with that the deal was completed at the end of the last transfer window.

But Vlachodemos has not worn gloves in a game since then. It took a reasonable amount of adjustment time. He is a family man with two children, both of whom were born in Lisbon. Therefore, the time required, especially human nature, for the transition to begin to solidify is proportional to the major change (note that the Vlachodimos family recently moved into their new home). in Nottingham).

It is characteristic that the Greek goalkeeper has never played so little in his career, at such a moment, only two games at collective level (the ones he played with Benfica against Boavista in the premiere of the Portuguese League and against Porto) . Portuguese Super Cup). , like this season. .

We have to look back at his first years in Stuttgart’s second team, then still a minor, when he found himself out of action at professional level in mid-autumn. However, he wasn’t even a member of a professional team (he made his debut with Stuttgart II in February 2012).

An unprecedented state for Vlachodimos, who is limited to experiencing the exceptional level of training – which also recently started speaking Greek, as Panagiotis Agriogiannis was recently added to the Forest goalkeeper coaching staff – but it does not stop at just training.

A situation that is particularly beginning this week and is being highlighted, also by the English media (“follows” the environment of the national team in the last games for the European Championship qualification). The change of…gloves is dismissed as self-evident in the reports and reports there, although Forest coach Steve Cooper, always pressed for results, will not justify the assessment – barring a shockingly spectacular turnaround – even today.

It’s a matter of time anyway.

The second round game is scheduled for March 2nd at the “City Ground”. The hope and wish of everyone (of course also the voters, because at the end of the month the national team will get a ticket to the European Championship through the final of the Nations League) that until then the… progress control of both national players at the top league of the planet will be full.