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Dominik Szoboszlai of RB Leipzig controls the ball on his head during the DFB Cup quarterfinal match … [+]
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Dominik Szoboszlai, 22, stood out ever since his childhood days in Hungary. In training, young Dominik and the other kids wore colored headbands rather than bibs to encourage them to look up and to blindly control the ball at their feet. “When you have the technical skillset it’s a lot more enjoyable to just play”, said Szoboszlai’s father Szolt in First Time Finish, a soccer site.
Liverpool triggered Szoboszlai’s release clause of $76 million (€ 70 m, £ 60m) hours before its June 30 expiration date to bring the RB Leipzig man to Anfield. The signing is a statement of intent from Jurgen Klopp. The 22-year-old, who will wear the coveted number 8 shirt, could be the missing jigsaw piece in Liverpool’s game.
Klopp urges caution: “Szoboszlai still very young”
At RB Leipzig, Szoboszlai contributed 20 goals and 22 assists in 91 matches. At sister club RB Salzburg, where he played before, the then teenager managed 26 goals and 34 assists in 83 outings.
“Szoboszlai is probably one of the most intensive pressing attacking midfielders I’ve seen in the last few years”, said Jasmine Baba, a soccer scout who works for several Europa League and Champions League clubs. She added: “He’s explosive, dynamic, very fast and all of these attributes have helped him be a vital creator for RB Leipzig. Szoboslai is also good in possession and offers a bridge between midfield and attack in either the central areas or the halfspaces.”
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Previous Bundesliga have struggled to adapt to the speed and robustness of the PremierPINC
League and to the culture in England. “There is no pressure, though. Dominik is still a very young player,” said Klopp on Liverpool’s website. The coach urged fans of the Reds to “give him the time and space to allow his talent to come through within our team.”
From Red Bull to Liverpool like Mane and Keita
It bodes well that the young Hungarian already made the jump from his homeland to Austria and then Germany. Like Sadio Mane, Naby Keita and Takumi Minamino before him, Szoboszlai comes to Anfield from the Red Bull clubs’ talent pipeline. That’s no accident, because the Bundesliga’s RB Leipzig and Austrian sister clubs RB Salzburg and FC Liefering employ a high-pressing, fast and technical approach that closely resembles Liverpool’s own.
The Szoboszlai signing is a statement of intent from Liverpool. After a mediocre season, the transfer “signals that the Liverpool head coach is going back to more high-intensity pressing football”, said Baba, noting that Klopp lately lacked the players to use that style. Baba sees Szoboszlai as an inverted winger, a number 10 or a number 8 but warns that the 6′1 ft tall midfielder should “not play out wide like Mo Salah.”
Moulded by his father at Fonix Gold in Hungary, chances are good Szoboslai will rise like a phoenix from the ashes at Liverpool, too.
