Dominik Szoboszlai: Is he vital for Slot’s Midfield Functioning?

Written on 30/12/2024

After an incredible start to life as a Liverpool player last season under Jürgen Klopp, things petered out for Dominik Szoboszlai in the latter half of that season. He picked up two hamstring injuries between January and March, missing 12 games in the process. And when he made a comeback, things were slowly starting to get downhill for the Reds and the impact wasn’t there anymore.

Come the summer, Arne Slot had a job to rejig the midfield so that it became the engine room for the team once again. The boss started that by deploying Ryan Gravenberch in the number six role to get physicality and higher passing volume from that position. Alexis Mac Allister has become a pseudo-number six who would join attacks when required but stay deep alongside Gravenberch in the defensive shape. The Argentine is clever enough to know when to do what.

When it comes to Szoboszlai, Slot has used him in different roles, mostly either as a number 10 behind the number nine or as a tip of a midfield triangle with two sitting in front of the centre-backs and one ahead of them finding spaces between the lines. The Hungary captain has used his attributes to almost become two players in one. The first one can burst his lungs to close people down and the second can make off-the-ball runs to stretch the opposition's back-line while being clever on the ball in tight spaces. Not many midfielders have both the running power and technical brilliance.

In this article, we analyse the former RB Leipzig star’s numbers this season and how it has made him one of the best midfielders in the league so far.

We start with a comparison table looking at how his numbers are different this season compared to last as there has been a change in coaches and how he is deployed.

There aren’t significant changes in most of the metrics here, but Szoboszlai is getting higher-quality chances this season (non-penalty xG per shot). This is perhaps due to playing higher up and centrally compared to last season when he was a right-sided central midfielder. The % of touches in the final third and opposition box have switched between seasons. This is also down to the subtle change in position under Slot.

Although the assist numbers are high, the chance-creation and expected numbers are quite similar. In terms of winning duels though (overall and aerially), the 24-year-old has improved this time by a significant margin. Aerially, he has gotten so much better with the timing of the jumps and winning those key battles. The third goal against Tottenham Hotspur was him winning the aerial duel against a centre-back before continuing his run and getting the pass from Mohamed Salah to score.