Kostas Tsimikas has said Liverpool are “hungry for more” after breaking new club records in Wednesday’s 1-0 Champions League win at RB Leipzig.
Darwin Nunez got the decisive goal in the 27th minute as Arne Slot’s men became the first Reds side to triumph in their opening six away games of a season, and the first to win 11 of their opening 12 fixtures.
Liverpool sit top of the Premier League ahead of Sunday’s trip to Arsenal, and are one of only two teams – alongside Aston Villa – to have taken maximum points from their opening three Champions League games.
“Of course we’re delighted,” said Tsimikas.
The first time we've won our opening 6️⃣ games of the season ✊🔴 pic.twitter.com/C4nD8Lh199
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) October 23, 2024
“Everyone defends, everyone attacks, and everyone wants to do even more, we’re hungry for more.
“Even for every game now it is very tough for us but the team has to show and stick with the plan to be 100 per cent focused every time and to give our best.”
Liverpool had to survive some early scares and then repel late attacks from Leipzig, who had two goals disallowed for offside, but they emerged with their seventh clean sheet of the season – with defence the cornerstone of their early success.
“I think we defend all together,” Tsimikas said.
“One of the goals of the new manager is he asks us to defend all together as a unit, as a team. So I think that is the important thing. We don’t want to concede. Every game we all defend together and that is what we want to see.”
Confidence is understandably high, but Liverpool face their biggest test of the season yet on Sunday when they travel south to face title hopefuls Arsenal.
Last February Liverpool suffered a 3-1 defeat at the Emirates Stadium, with Ibrahima Konate seeing red late on.
If Liverpool can reverse that, it would be seen as a huge statement of their own title credentials, but Tsimikas said it was too early in the campaign to put so much emphasis on one game.
“I think we will go to Arsenal to play our football and to win the game,” he said.
“That is our target but we just take it game by game, to try and win and play good football.
“I think that is the important thing right now. It’s too early to speak about (statements) but our goals at the start of the season, we said we wanted to win everything.”
Tsimikas explained his reluctance to look too far ahead by pointing back to last season.
When Liverpool beat Chelsea to lift the Carabao Cup in late February, there was talk of it potentially being the first part of a quadruple in Jurgen Klopp’s final season, but a disappointing finish to the campaign meant it was Liverpool’s only trophy as they won just four of their last 10 games.
“Last season, at the end, we destroyed everything after one bad result against Manchester United,” Tsimikas said, referring to a 2-2 draw in early April.
“I think the next fixtures back in the days we were not the team we were before but I think we have tried to work game by game and every game is a final. We try to do what the manager is asking to win games.”
