Dominik Szoboszlai reveals preferred position and three ‘winners’ of Liverpool lactate test

Dominik Szoboszlai reveals preferred position and three ‘winners’ of Liverpool lactate test

Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai tells us about his start to life at Anfield after £60m transfer move

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ByIan DoyleChief Liverpool FC Writer
17:00, 20 JUL 2023UPDATED18:15, 20 JUL 2023
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Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai
Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai

Nobody can accuse Dominik Szoboszlai of lacking ambition. Less than a fortnight into his Liverpool career and with just a 45-minute outing under his belt, the new signing has already seen enough to set his sights high.

“To be honest, we can achieve everything that we want, if we do it in the right way,” says the Hungary international, when asked what a realistic aim would be for the forthcoming campaign. “We have some goals for this year, we spoke in the team, the coach spoke to us and told us what he wants to see from us.

“I think we have the quality, we have the coach for it, we have the fans for it, we have everything we need. Now it depends on us.”

Having joined £35million Alexis Mac Allister as one half of a summer midfield rebuild, expectations are high for Szoboszlai to become a key part of Jurgen Klopp’s next Liverpool team.

READ MORE: Jorg Schmadtke drops Liverpool transfer hint and details talks with Jurgen Klopp

READ MORE: Why Klopp was left smiling after Liverpool friendly despite transfer shock

Of course, with Fabinho and Jordan Henderson poised to move to Saudi Arabia, that engine room reshuffle could be more extensive than was envisaged when the 22-year-old completed his £60m transfer from RB Leipzig earlier this month.

While fully aware of Mac Allister given his time at Brighton & Hove Albion and helping Argentina win the World Cup, most Liverpool supporters are less familiar with Szoboszlai despite twice appearing against the Reds when with RB Salzburg and starring for Hungary against England.

Wednesday, then, gave many a first glimpse, with his neat and tidy play allied by an obvious willingness to roam into several midfield positions.

But how does the player prefer to be used? “I want to be on the pitch!” laughs Szoboszlai when talking to a select group of journalists after the game at the BBBank Wildpark stadium. “But yeah, number eight, number 10, if I have to slide back a little bit to take the ball as a number six, no problem, but I want to be more towards the goal. But yeah, box-to-box I would say.

“I enjoyed the game a lot. I felt really good, in good condition with good players, in an unbelievable stadium. It was a good first one.”

Szoboszlai has already been given an idea of the different standards demanded at Liverpool during the ongoing training camp in Donaueschingen, which concludes with Monday’s behind-closed-doors friendly against Greuther Furth.

“It was not easy,” he says of the work thus far done in the Black Forest. “I came from a really good team in Leipzig, but still the pre-season is hard everywhere. Especially, I never had three training sessions a day before in my life!”

Szoboszlai made an impression by winning his section of the infamous lactate test and prompting plaudits from Trent Alexander-Arnold. “In my group I won it, but Mo (Salah) and Hendo were ahead of me in the other groups,” he says. “But I’m ready.

“The players been really welcoming, really nice. I feel as if I was here alreadsy, even though I only knew Ibou (Konate, who he played alongside at Leipzig). Everybody has been really kind to me, nice and helped a lot when I had questions.”

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Szoboszlai, though, hasn’t been surprised by the level of the squad he has discovered during his first training sessions.

“Before I came, I already put them in the highest level, so I expected it from them,” he says. “I want to learn a lot from them, how to be a player at that level.

“To me, the team comes before everything. It doesn’t matter what I’m doing, as long as the team is doing well. I want to help. I want to work for the team, give the fans what they deserve.”

Szoboszlai adds: “When I heard that Liverpool is interested in me, I didn’t need to think so much. It’s a fantastic club, I played against them at Anfield already, and the fans were unbelievable. The coach is one of the best coaches in the world.

“The guys have a lot of quality, a lot of them have won everything you can win. I want to learn from them and achieve everything that is possible with them.”

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