6 months ago
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Photo by John Powell/Liverpool FC via Getty Images
Liverpool’s big money midfield signing of last summer reflects on the ups and downs of his first season at the club.
If you’d asked Liverpool fans at the close of 2023 who the Reds’ signing of the previous summer had been, most would likely have pointed to Dominik Szoboszlai, with the 23-year-old Hungarian international having impressed massively throughout the autumn following his big money £60M move from RB Leipzig last summer.
Injuries, though, impacted Szoboszlai in the second half of the season, and often when he did play he struggled to rediscover his form from the first half. Reflecting on the situation in an interview with Hungary’s MLSZ TV, he says he might even have started off too well, setting a standard that was always going to be difficult to match.
“When you play for Liverpool, you’re not there to bounce around in mid-table or fight to stay in the division, you’re there to go for the Premier League title,” the midfielder explained. “My good start gave me a boost, but perhaps it also set the bar too high because then there were matches where I couldn’t bring out the best in myself.”
Fitness and form, though, are all a normal part of a football player’s life. Learning to deal with that is something any young player will have to do to succeed. The second half of his first season at Liverpool might not have hit the heights of the start, but Szoboszlai says that’s an aspect of the game he’s already learned to deal with.
“There are times you don’t play well and in some people’s eyes you’re the worst on the pitch,” he added. “But it’s not a problem and we get through these things as a team. It’s not easy to come in as a youngster, it’s in your head ‘I’ve got an opportunity and need to take it.’ It doesn’t work like that, though, and I needed time to realise it.”
