LIVERPOOL has been Forced To Make Another Midfield Shake-Up As Transfer Reality Sets In.
Szoboszlai, who joined Liverpool in the summer from Leipzig, has made an immediate impact but has now run into trouble.
The speed with which Liverpool made their surprise switch for Dominik Scholeszlozaj in the summer is matched only by the speed with which he settled into life at the club.
After a relatively quiet pre-season, not helped by an ankle injury that ruled him out of a friendly, expectations were low at the beginning of the season.
Alexis Mac Allister was more impressed with his summer performances.
However, a difficult first half of the season, with Liverpool losing to Chelsea and being reduced to ten men against Bournemouth, and Newcastle United, was a perfect opportunity for the 24-year-old to step up to the plate and take on more responsibility. And when the pressure was on, Szobolzsi stepped up.
It wasn’t until he scored the opener in a 3-0 win over Aston Villa that the Kop really fell in love with him, and he followed it up with two assists against Forest last month to cement himself as one of the best signings of the window.
Since then, however, there has been an alarming decline in form. In the 1-1 home draw with Luton Town at the start of the month, he was so substandard that he had to be replaced in the second half, ending his 100% Premier League record since arriving at the club.
A few days later, he was a second-half substitute in the defeat at Toulouse in the Europa League, and although he was much better in the home victory over Brentford, he was dropped for the game against Manchester City on Saturday with almost 20 minutes remaining and Liverpool in the hunt for a deserved point.
It’s understandable that he hasn’t been able to live up to those early lofty standards. After all, few players, let alone one in his first season in the Premier League, have been able to keep up with such intensity.
“It’s crazy,” he said last month. “You have to run and not only run but you have to defend as well because every time the opposition gets the ball in this league the quality is so good that they can score.”
It’s fair to say that the heavy workload has reflected Jurgen Klopp’s faith in him, especially when you consider that he’s played all 90 minutes in six of Hungary’s internationals this season (five of which have been qualifying for Euro 2024, in which he’ll now be expected to shine at the season’s end).Maybe it’s time for him to get out of the way for a while. After all, he’s the only player in the Reds’ midfield trio who has played more minutes than Salah this season.
Jurgen Klopp has a number of options at his disposal, with Harvey Elliott fighting for a place in the starting line-up and Curtis Jones and Ryan Gevenberch both more than capable of filling the role.
It would be understandable if the 24-year-old was left on the bench for the Europa League clash with Lassa Linz on Thursday – he has not started any of the last four group games – but it would also be prudent to limit his Premier League minutes in the next fortnight, especially with crucial games at home to Man Utd and Arsenal looming, and the Hungarian likely to have his first taste of the congested festive schedule that makes English football so different from the rest of Europe.
Zobobozszylai is the long-term future of Liverpool’s midfield, but taking him out of the equation for a few weeks could enable him to rediscover his brilliance in the present.
