Tzolakis. Is it Now or Never?

Tzolakis. Is it Now or Never?

By Stephen Kountourou 

Well, it’s happening. After three seasons of outstanding service Olympiakos keeper Jose Sa is on the verge of departing the port for Premier League side Wolverhampton Wanderers. With super agent Jorge Mendes pulling the strings, Rui Patricio will join Italian side Roma and fellow Portuguese player Sa will be his replacement. 

Before the move is officially announced however there is still the question as to who Sa's replacement will be going forward. The Greek Champions have been linked with a few shot stoppers over the past couple of weeks with Omonia keeper Fabiano, Borussia Dortmund and Swiss international Roman Burki, Claudio Ramos from Porto, AZ Alkmaar keeper Marco Bizot and Tom Vaclk,  who is currently staring for the Czech Republic at Euro 2020, are all potential candidates. 

 

But what if Thrylos made a very left wing decision in handing the first choice gloves to a player already at the club. Young Greek keeper Konstantinos Tzolakis? 

While lacking the experience of the potential incoming keepers, could it be a risk worth taking? So for this week, I am hopefully going to answer these questions in a pivotal point for Olympiakos and Tzolakis, highlighting his career in Piraeus so far, what the benefits would be if he does get the unlikely nod to become first choice good keeper and if it could happen.

How Tzolakis has Performed given the Chances

After that period, however, game time did become more infrequent as the Chania born keeper was mostly out of the squad all together with a rare bench appearance. He would not receive his first league start again until the new year when he played in an away fixture against Panetolikos but sadly did not manage to keep a clean sheet. Even during the 2020/21 Greek Cup campaign, he found himself behind Kristinsson in the pecking order with his only start being the quarter final first leg against Aris in which he also failed to keep a clean sheet.

 

Once the league split in two for the playoff round of fixtures the talented young Greek did not see the game time until the last few matches of the campaign by which time Olympiakos had already secured the title. He played the full 90 in a 1-1 draw with Aris and played his last game where he kept a clean sheet in a dour 0-0 draw against Asteras. 

 

Including an U19's fixture he also competed in during the season Tzolakis only made seven appearances in all competitions with his game time accumulating to 623 minutes in total. In that time he kept three clean sheets and conceded four goals. 

Despite the clear lack of game time which he perhaps should have been given more of, there are clear positive signs already this early on in Tzolakis career at the port. While the maybe the level of teams that he faced was not the highest Tzolakis record after those matches stand at 4 wins 3 draws no defeats which only will be good for the player’s confidence but also will help him gain that winning mentality early on that you need to compete for the title every season with Olympiakos. While his consistency needs work that will naturally come if given the game time to develop properly.  

Could it Ever Happen

Now the question of could this ever happen? Could Tzolakis take up the mantle as the first choice for Olympiakos? My answer in the long term is yes. There are signs early on, even in very limited game time, that he is talented and with a high level of potential that could be fulfilled in Piraeus if given the time to develop properly. 

Do I think he will be given that opportunity for the 2021/22 season, no I don’t and I do understand why. For one, he is only 19 years old and the pressure to instantly become first choice goalkeeper for a club like Olympiakos comes with huge expectations and pressure from the club and also the fan base, something that could hamper any young players confidence and development. More or less I believe that it might be a bit too soon for Tzolakis to become the number one goalkeeper next season. 

 

There is also the comparison that I have been seeing lately to Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma who became the starting keeper for boyhood club Milan at the age of 16 and never looked back, becoming one of the best players in the world in his position and I guess their comparison has some justification. 

But I would also say that the two players at the same point in their careers had very different situations at their club. While AC Milan is a huge club in comparison to Olympiakos, at the time of Donnarumma's raise his club was more or less at rock bottom. 

They were not competing for the Serie A title or even a place in Europe, so while there was pressure on the Italian there were still opportunities for him to make mistakes, learn from them and become a better player from those experiences. 

This is something I don't think Tzolakis has at Olympiakos currently. Thrylos as its stands is back on top in Greek football, competing for the Greek Super League title every season not to mention the added pressure of qualifying for Europe every season now. 

 

If Tzolakis was shoved into the starting role at such a young age and was scapegoated as the reason for his club failing any of those objectives that are so important every campaign that could be his career done before it’s even beginning and nobody wants that especially as we have seen Greek fans pile the pressure particularly on their homegrown players at the best of times.

 

There are however new options emerging for players in Tzolakis position who are ready to get more consistent game time but are struggling to be allowed that transition from youth to senior football and that could be with the new B teams being added to Greek Super League 2. 

There Tzolakis would be the undisputed starter of the U23 side. He would get the game time and experience he craves, the pressure would be off him to win every single game allowing him to make the mistakes that any young player will before maturing and developing himself as a more senior member of the Olympiakos squad. He would also be able to move between the senior squad and the B side if he impresses Pedro Martins with his performances and this could be the perfect way for him and Olympiakos other talented youth players to break their way into the first team in the long term.  

 

While I would love to see a Greek talent such as Tzolakis come into Olympiakos first team, take the mantle as the first choice goalkeeper and take the league and Europe by storm, sadly this isn't FIFA. If he is patient and works hard over the next season or so I do believe he will get his chance. 

There are already signs of admiration from the rest of Europe as Tzolakis along with fellow youngster Christos Tzolis were in the nominations for the Golden boy award a couple of weeks ago, show that while Greek football is not doing everything right when it comes to youth development there are hopeful signs of that changing in the future. 

Hellas Football 

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