Dominik Szoboszlai is even better than you think as only Mohamed Salah can beat him at Liverpool
Dominik Szoboszlai might not have many goal contributions in the traditional sense but Jürgen Klopp will know his influence at Liverpool has already run far deeper
One of the many unfortunate developments in football fandom is a rush to pass judgment on new signings. Most will be declared the greatest of all time or an utter waste of money within a game or two when the likelihood is they have played perfectly well and are finding their feet.
Take Cody Gakpo, if you’re looking for a pertinent example. He didn’t set the world ablaze in his first few appearances for a hideously struggling Liverpool side but grew to finish 2022/23 very strongly. From when he broke his duck against Everton onward, only Mohamed Salah and Diogo Jota made more goal contributions last season, the latter by just one.
This brings us to the other issue with snap judgments. They often focus on simplistic numbers like goals and assists, especially when looking to put down a player at a rival club who you likely won’t have seen play that much. Liverpool supporters have immediately taken Dominik Szoboszlai to their hearts, yet a record of one goal and no assists may lead others to question why Kopites are making such a fuss.
Measuring a midfielder by such base numbers misses the point entirely, even if that won’t stop people from doing so. The Hungarian is beloved at Anfield because of the drive and energy he has brought to the center of the Liverpool team when such attributes were sorely needed.
As the team behind Anfield Index Under Pressure have recently noted on Twitter/X, Szoboszlai ‘became the 2nd fastest footballer in @premierleague history against Wolves recording a top speed of 36.76kph’, while bettering key cogs from the Reds’ midfield of 2017/18, never mind last season, for distance covered, presses, sprints and other mouthwatering metrics.
Yet Szoboszlai’s on-ball output should not be dismissed too lightly, as once you start analyzing the Reds’ 12 league goals in 2023/24 you swiftly realize that the former RB Leipzig midfielder has been involved along the way in most of them. Most notable — aside from his sublime strike against Aston Villa — were his contributions against Bournemouth.
In that match, the 22-year-old was fouled for the penalty from which Salah eventually scored, before a second-half shot was parried by goalkeeper Neto into the path of Diogo Jota, who fired home. The latter is logged as a Goal Creating Action on FBRef, yet with Opta’s chalkboards, you can look further back into shot-generating moves.
KIRKBY, ENGLAND – SEPTEMBER 20: (THE SUN OUT, THE SUN ON SUNDAY OUT) Dominik Szoboszlai of Liverpool during a training session at AXA Training Centre on September 20, 2023 in Kirkby, England.
Dominik Szoboszlai’s goal contribution for Liverpool already extends far beyond his strike against Aston Villa
Doing so reveals only three goals without Szoboszlai’s fingerprints (footprints?) somewhere in the sequence. When Darwin Núñez scored at Newcastle, Salah provided the assist after Harvey Elliott had won the ball, and that was as far as the goal chain went. The other two examples originated from corners: Salah against Aston Villa and Andy Robertson at Molineux last weekend. The nature of those goals meant there were only ever going to be a few players involved so it’s hardly a slight on Szoboszlai that he was not.
