James Milner gave his teammate Kostas Tsimikas a little slap during the win over Norwich, after the Greek full back gave the ball away.
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Liverpool opened up their Premier League campaign with a very comfortable 3-0 win against newly promoted Norwich, at Carrow Road on Saturday evening.
The main talking point in the Reds' starting line up was the return of Virgil van Dijk to the team, for his first official appearance since his season ending injury last October, in the Merseyside derby.
Joel Matip and Trent Alexander-Arnold were also returning from shorter injury breaks alongside the Dutch centre back, the latter missing the Euros but no games for his club side, and the defence was rounded off by Tsimikas, making his first ever Premier League start.
It was a relatively stress free afternoon for Liverpool's back line but when the Greek left back gave away the ball in the second half, leading to a chance for the hosts, captain for the day Milner let him know it wasn't good enough, with a cheeky slap to the face.
— James John (@JamesJohn2427) August 15, 2021
Loved watching milner slap kostas out of his slump and then virgil berating him after another mistake overall he was very good tho. pic.twitter.com/0xBQoQUKAV
— ** NOT A TOP RED ***** (I suppose) (@allybecks) August 14, 2021
Dwell on the ball Kostas and Milner WILL slap your face.#NORLIV
— Positive LFC Tweets (@30YearsRed) August 14, 2021
Nahhh I’m finished, someone said milner slapping tsimikas is like when you slap the back of your TV remote after the batteries die 😭😭😭
— ibou 🌙 (@kloppbalI) August 15, 2021
Glad those mistakes from Kostas Tsimikas happened now, straight away got the wake up call from James Milner with a slap
— Fáwbio Aurélio (@dunkhamlosza) August 14, 2021
Love that firm slap round the chops from Milner to Tsimikas. Knows absolutely what the levels are now. Great potential
— Gabriel Jones (@footygymjones) August 14, 2021
Tsimikas joined from Olympiacos last summer for £11.75 million but he struggled for game time in his first season at Anfield, partially due to injuries.
Jurgen Klopp's reliance on the brilliant Andrew Robertson doesn't help his case but the Scotland left back picked up an injury in last weekend's friendly against Athletic Bilbao, giving the 25-year-old understudy his chance.
He had a decent first start for Liverpool and, at least after a slap from a man starting his 20th season in the Premier League, he'll now be 100% sure of the standards the club insists on.
In attack it was Diogo Jota who gave the former Premier League champions the lead, after he pounced on a fortuitous touch from Mohamed Salah, after just 26 minutes.
Roberto Firmino replaced Jota around the hour mark and it took the Brazilian just four minutes to double the visitors lead, Sadio Mane's shot deflected off Grant Hanley and Salah squared it to Firmino for the striker to score.
Salah then became the first man to score on five opening Premier League weekends in-a-row when he made it 3-0 with a curling shot past Tim Krul from the edge of the area.
The game was unfortunately marred by alleged homophobic chants in the direction of Chelsea loanee Billy Gilmour.
Featured Image Credit: Sky Sports
Topics: Premier League, Liverpool, Norwich City, James Milner
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