Former Arsenal striker Alan Smith admits he’s been hugely impressed by Hull City goalkeeper Konstantinos Tzolakis in the opening weeks of the Premier League season.
The £20m summer signing from Olympiacos kept three clean sheets in City’s opening three games against Manchester United, Coventry City and Aston Villa, before rebuffing a Wissa penalty in the narrow defeat at Newcastle United.
Tzolakis maintained his fine form on the international stage during the international break with Greece, earning rave reviews with a clean sheet in the 1-0 win away in Germany, and again in the 0-0 draw against Jurgen Klopp’s men.
That made it five shut-outs from his first nine domestic and international games, form which has impressed Smith, who knows a thing or two about the importance of a reliable number one, having played with the great David Seaman.
“What a start he’s had. Young, isn’t he? What, is he about 23? So, coming into a big league. You’ve got to thank your team, and particularly your defenders, as well, for protecting him,” Smith told Hull Live via BestBettingSites. “But two clean sheets against Germany, as you say, is amazing. So he’ll be full of it.
“If you’ve got a keeper like that between the sticks, as we had with Dave Seaman, it gives everybody confidence. Somebody that can save you, can pull off saves at vital times. Still early on for him, but he couldn’t have asked for it to have gone any better.
After what’s been a hugely promising start to life back in the Premier League, surprising many with their form in collecting eight points from the first five games, City now face another five before the next international break, with three of those coming in front of their own supporters.
The first of those three comes on Sunday against unbeaten Everton, with visits of Brentford and Ipswich Town to follow, along with away trips to the capital to tackle Fulham and Smith’s former club at the Emirates. Smith believes five points from the 12 available would be another excellent return from Sergej Jakirovic’s men, though he feels that tally could rise.
“Five, maybe,” he said when asked what a realistic points return was. “I mean, there’s a couple of games there, Ipswich and some home games that are important for them. Listen, if they can continue defending as well as they have and picking up clean sheets, well, they might be able to pick up more than five points. I think we’re all waiting for them to just show their true selves in a way, and fall back to being a really struggling team. But as things stand, they’ll look at those fixtures thinking that they can pick up a good few points.”
After that historic opening day win over United, and a draw with Europa League winners Villa, City are yet to concede a goal in front of their own supporters. With a trio of MKM Stadium battles to come, Smith has highlighted the importance of collecting points on home soil.
“Yeah, they are (important),” he continued. “I mean, teams like this, those kinds of fixtures are games where they’ll hope they can win, you know, a fellow promoted team. So the crowd will be behind them, and they’ll try and build up momentum. So yeah, they are important, those home games.”
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