Dominik Szoboszlai may not score many goals, but Jürgen Klopp knows his impact at Liverpool is significantly greater.
Football fans’ hasty evaluation of new acquisitions is one of many bad occurrences. Most will be proclaimed the greatest or a waste of money within a game or two when they have likely performed well and are finding their footing.
Use Cody Gakpo as an example. He started slowly for a difficult Liverpool team but finished 2022/23 well. After breaking his duck against Everton, only Mohamed Salah and Diogo Jota scored more goals last season, the latter by one.
This raises another concern with quick judgements. They frequently use simple metrics like goals and assists to evaluate a player from a rival team you may not have seen much of. Liverpool fans have embraced Dominik Szoboszlai, but his one goal and no assists may make others wonder why.
Even if some will continue to do so, measuring a midfielder by such simple stats is pointless. Liverpool fans appreciate the Hungarian for his effort and energy in the heart of the squad when required.
Szoboszlai ‘became the 2nd fastest footballer in @premierleague history against Wolves recording a top speed of 36.76kph’, surpassing key Reds midfield players from 2017/18, let alone last season, in distance covered, presses, sprints, and other tasty metrics, according to Anfield Index Under Pressure on Twitter/X.
Szoboszlai’s on-ball productivity shouldn’t be underestimated, as looking at the Reds’ 12 league goals in 2023/24 shows that he was involved in majority of them. Besides his amazing goal against Aston Villa, his efforts versus Bournemouth were most memorable.
The 22-year-old was fouled for a penalties, which Salah converted, and Neto parried a second-half attempt for Diogo Jota to score. FBRef logs the latter as a Goal Creating Action, whereas Opta’s chalkboards allow you to look back at shot-generating actions.
There are just three goals without Szoboszlai’s fingerprints (footprints?). At Newcastle, Salah assisted Darwin Núñez after Harvey Elliott recovered the ball, but the goal chain ended there. Two others came from corners: Salah at Aston Villa and Andy Robertson last weekend at Molineux. The nature of those goals meant just a few players were involved, so Szoboszlai’s absence isn’t a criticism.
He trails Salah by 10 goals to 9 and is two ahead of Trent Alexander-Arnold in third. Long possession sequences, like Liverpool’s 29 uninterrupted passes that led to Villa’s Matty Cash’s own goal, allow players to contribute in several ways. Szoboszlai has 16 goal actions, surpassing Luis Díaz, Diogo Jota, and Darwin Núñez combined.
That he outperformed those forwards is expected. He has played every minute, perhaps 502 rather than 450 in five matches due to injury time most weeks. Constantly present midfielders on possession-centric teams will have many touches.
However, Szoboszlai deserves credit for quickly assimilating into Jürgen Klopp’s newest Reds. Despite his lack of goals and assists, he will remain in the manager’s good graces by indirectly contributing.
