The Hull City goalkeeper has been outstanding so far this season
Konstantinos Tzolakis of Hull City pulls off a phenomenal save at Stamford Bridge(Image: Getty )
Konstantinos Tzolakis will be using his love of maths to combat everything the Premier League has to throw at him this season.
The Hull City number one has been a revelation between the sticks so far this season as he continues to slot into life in the Premier League and East Yorkshire seamlessly.
Tzolakis kept clean sheets in his first three games as City stunned Manchester United, beat Coventry City and took a point off Aston Villa. And, while he may well have conceded at Stamford Bridge last weekend, the Greece international made a number of fine saves to frustrate the Stamford Bridge faithful as Sergej Jakirovic’s side took another point.
Indeed, it’s been a dream start to his spell at City having joined the club for a then club record transfer fee from Olympiacos, but no one has been caught off guard by how well Tzolakis has played, especially the man himself.
That’s because Tzolakis values his own intelligence and while he has a business administration degree behind him, he has also has a passion for mathematics.
The goalkeeper regularly puts those skills into practice on the pitch, too, which serves to explain his uncanny knack of always being in the right place at the right time.
“I think to be intelligent when you play football especially when you’re a keeper is very important,” Tzolakis said. “Because it’s not necessarily to dive too high or too long but when you have a nice position, it makes everything more easy.
“For example against Coventry I saved a ball near to the crossbar, and if my position was more left it would be very hard to save the ball. When I saw the ball, I said to myself in these two seconds you have to have to move more right, more right. Everything I think is maths.”
His experience has undoubtedly helped him excel with City as well, despite being just 23 years of age. Tzolakis has nine caps for Greece under his belt but he has also played 131 times for Greek giants Olympiacos, where being second best is simply not tolerated.
During his time in Piraeus, Tzolakis was part of four league title winning campaigns. He also won the UEFA Conference League in 2024, the Greek Cup and the Greek Super Cup.
The pressure to succeed at Olympiacos is something only the most resilient players can deal with, it’s fair to say, and that is one of key differences Tzolakis has found at the MKM Stadium.
“It’s totally different,” the custodian added. “When you play at Olympiacos you have the pressure to win every game and your target is to take the challenge.
“Here, the target is to stay in the league so if we take one point when we play Chelsea, it’s very good for us. If we take three it’s amazing. But you’re not happy with one point at Olympiacos. The pressure here is totally different. Our fans are happy when we have eight points after four games.”
Happy is an understatement given the Tigers were completely written off in some quarters before a ball had even been kicked this season and City supporters are resoundingly delighted with their new goalkeeper’s performances so far.
“When you’re playing in the Greek league, the Premier League is something different, you have to adapt as soon as possible to the speed and some rules at corners, it’s something different but until now I didn’t find any difficulties,” he said.
“After the saves [against Man United] I felt comfortable and I helped my teammates to feel comfortable and if you keep the clean sheet, it’s easier to score a goal and take three points. If you concede, it’s too difficult.
“I’m trying to be calm because if you are nervous it’s difficult to give instructions to your defenders and your teammates. If you are not calm you will give something totally different to what you want from your defenders and this is a problem.”
So far, so good then for Tzolakis, but what’s target for the rest of the season?
“They said to me if you make seven or eight clean sheets you stay in the league,” he revealed. “We put this target in the team. If we achieve this probably we stay in the league.”
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