Dominik Szoboszlai: Liverpool’s new set-piece specialist and former team-mate of Erling Haaland set to light up Anfield

Liverpool have completed the signing of Dominik Szoboszlai after triggering his £60m release clause at RB Leipzig; Once Szoboszlai made his desire to move to Anfield clear, it removed all other interested clubs, including Newcastle, from the equation; he has signed a five-year deal
With Dominik Szoboszlai completing a move to Liverpool, take a look at all his goals and assists for RB Leipzig in the Bundesliga

The wonder of Dominik Szoboszlai is in his ability to make the obvious unstoppable.

On October 21, when Liverpool host the first Merseyside derby of the new season, Jordan Pickford won’t need to refer to any bottle containing detailed information about penalty preferences when it comes to Szoboszlai.

Goalkeeper’s bottom right, his left, hit low and hard – but 15 converted spot-kicks from his last 16 attempts tells you this is a player who has immense confidence in his ability to execute precisely what they are thinking.
In a summer that has seen Jude Bellingham become potentially the most expensive British footballer of all time, when Declan Rice commands a fee north of £100m and Mason Mount is worth upwards of £55m, Liverpool are looking for good value and versatility in their recruitment.

Julian Nagelsmann, his former manager at RB Leipzig, once said: “Dominik can play in a variety of positions.
Capable of playing in midfield and out wide, set-piece specialist Szoboszlai is of the same mould – someone with the potential to become a household name but still desirable to other clubs should he struggle to adapt. Still only 22, the Hungary captain is ripe for further improvement.
With 32 caps for his country, Szoboszlai – pronounced ‘Sob-oss-lie’ – is treated like a messiah back home having already been on the scene for quite some time.

Leipzig’s sister club Red Bull Salzburg snapped him up aged just 16 and he flourished in Austria alongside Erling Haaland before his move to Borussia Dortmund.

With Haaland no longer on the scene, Szoboszlai became his side’s lynchpin, earning him the Austrian Bundesliga’s player of the year award in 2020.

Having finished eighth in the prestigious Golden Boy award for Europe’s best prospect that year – voted for by European journalists – he was set to showcase his talent on a bigger stage.
Two summers ago, a groin injury meant he missed Euro 2020 after scoring the decisive last-minute goal against Iceland to secure qualification.

Even then, aged just 20, Szoboszlai was considered Hungary’s best player in decades for those starved of recent success and yearning for a return to the halcyon days of the “Magic Magyars” era led by Ferenc Puskas.

It was a crushing blow for a nation that has not been at a World Cup since 1986 but had just qualified for their second successive European Championships.
Hungary head coach Marco Rossi said at his team’s training camp near Salzburg in Austria: “He is not in good condition. He is not even in a condition to be sent on as a substitute for a few minutes. It is really painful for me not to be able to play him.”

Szoboszlai is leaving the environs of Saxony for Klopp’s rebuild, which is gathering momentum. It is his ability to manipulate space, pick a pass and a spot standing over a penalty or set-piece which will excite Liverpool fans.

Of the 681 minutes Szoboszlai played in the Champions League last season, 621 of them were spent operating on the right side of midfield. He could adopt a similar role for Liverpool, providing the width to allow Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah to feature more centrally.

On 24 occasions last term, he played on the right across all competitions – scoring eight goals and assisting five times. When deployed more centrally by Marco Rose at Leipzig, he scored five and laid on three for his team-mates.

His feather-like feet despite his height bear comparison with the gliding airs of Zinedine Zidane, while his eye-catching flair for free-kicks, long-range goals, and defence-splitting assists are qualities shared by Kevin De Bruyne.