There’s always that one divisive player in the Liverpool midfield.
People focus on what these players aren’t doing instead of what they are.
Originally, it was Gini Wijnaldum. Then there was Naby Keita. Not long after Thiago joined from Bayern Munich, his performances were put under the microscope.
Curtis Jones was next in line for undeserved criticism.
Last season, it was Alexis Mac Allister.
Now it is the turn of Dominik Szoboszlai.
The Hungary skipper has been pivotal to Liverpool’s impressive start to the campaign.
The Reds have won six of their seven Premier League outings, they have a 100% record in the Champions League and they dismantled West Ham 5-1 in their only Carabao Cup fixture of the season so far.
Arne Slot’s Liverpool have won nine of 10. They have conceded just four goals while scoring 23 in the process. The Reds have kept six clean sheets in the process.
They are bossing it at both ends of the pitch.
Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate and Alisson Becker have been lauded for their dominant showings at the back while Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz have been praised for their goalscoring exploits.
Mac Allister, in his new role for the Merseyside club, is impressing while Ryan Gravenberch has been a revelation as the deepest midfielder - he’s Patrick Vieira incarnate.
Szoboszlai, along with Mac Allister and Gravenberch, is part of Slot’s preferred midfield three. Whereas the other two are being praised, the Liverpool No8 has a bullseye on his back this term.
People just expect more from him.
It was the same with Wijnaldum, Keita, Thiago, Jones and Mac Allister. Fans expect a player to perform a certain way and when they don’t, regardless of why they aren’t, they are heavily criticised.
It is always the same argument, just packaged differently:
Why can’t Wijnaldum replicate his form for the Netherlands when playing for Liverpool?
Why isn’t Keita doing what he was doing in the Bundesliga?
Why isn’t Thiago involved in more goals?
Jones was supposed to be an attacking player, where’s his end product?
Mac Allister scored 10 goals for Brighton, why isn’t he doing similar for Liverpool?
For the most part, context is overlooked or simply ignored. For many, it doesn’t matter that roles are different.
For example, at international level, Wijnaldum was given more freedom to attack. At club level, he was a facilitator. The RB Leipzig system allowed Keita to take risks whereas the Liverpool system needed the midfielders to be safety nets for the full-backs.
While with Leipzig in Germany, Szoboszlai was part of the attack in a team that looked to play on the break and create transitions. Since moving to Liverpool, he’s been used in midfield.
Yes, Slot has made him part of the front four when the Reds are pressing, but his role is still dramatically different to what it was with Die Roten Bullen.
But expectations have not been altered to account for this.
Fans expect more goals from the 23-year-old. They expect more assists from him. Slot said as much earlier in the campaign.
"He has been important for us and his pressing has been outstanding. Something we have to work on is making him even more involved in scoring goals. He scored three last season but for an attacking midfielder at Liverpool, his numbers need to go up.
"I am confident with the quality he has and the players around him he will score more goals as well."
He’s scored just once this season so far, away at San Siro in the win over AC Milan, while he’s managed to chip in with two assists in victories against Manchester United and Bologna.
Szoboszlai, in the eyes of many, is the player who is most at risk of losing his position in Liverpool’s starting XI.
In truth though, he might be the safest of the trio. Because what he’s bringing to the team is much more valuable than goals and assists.
Slot mentioned it ahead of the game against Crystal Palace when Szoboszlai was dropped to the bench for the first time this season.
Speaking to TNT Sports ahead of the game at Selhurst Park, Slot said: “Dom is putting so, so much effort in his pressing that you wonder if he can continue doing this every three days.”
And that is it, Szoboszlai is key to the Liverpool press. The Liverpool press is key to Slot’s system.
It helps the Reds create favourable situations while limiting the opposition. The former Red Bull Salzburg man regularly puts in a shift out of possession and his value to the team cannot be quantified.
He might not be scoring or assisting but he’s contributing to this team winning.
And if you delve into his numbers, he’s not exactly getting many chances to impact the final third. Yes, he’s passed up a few opportunities when in favourable situations in some games but, generally speaking, these are exceptions rather than the norm.
Some have cited Calvin Stengs as the benchmark for that position in a Slot system. The Dutchman played as the attacking midfielder/second striker/fourth attacker for Feyenoord last season.
The versatile forward finished the campaign with six goals and 12 assists across 2,111 minutes in the Dutch top flight. That works out at a goal involvement every 117 minutes in the Eredivisie.
He had an xG average of 0.22 from 1.88 shots per 90. His xA average was 0.37 and he was creating 3.03 chances per 90.
So, in a nutshell, he underperformed as a goalscorer (5.2 xG) and the finishing of teammates helped spike his creativity numbers (8.6 xA). Stengs was still creating at an absurd level. But he was lucky too that others were able to convert these chances on a consistent basis.
Szoboszlai’s underlying numbers aren't as good. There's no dressing it up.
His xG/90 in the Premier League is 0.21, his xA/90 is 0.13. He's not having as many shots (1.84) as Stengs and he's creating fewer chances (2.1) and, of course, the sample size is tiny.
But he's third top among Liverpool players for chances created (12) and he's fifth for xA.
But Stengs wasn’t anywhere near as busy defensively as Szobozlai is. So that is the trade-off, isn’t it? Szoboszlai sacrifices a little bit in attack for the good of the team.
And Liverpool are better because of it.
Another thing to note here is that despite Slot saying Szoboszlai needs to score more, he’s actually having fewer attempts under the Dutchman this term than he was under Jurgen Klopp (2.56) last season.
Slot needs to weigh up whether he wants more goals from the No8 or whether his defensive work is more valuable to the team because there needs to be some balance to these demands.
With Szoboszlai in the team, Liverpool are better. So why focus on what he’s not doing rather than what he is?
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