By Sam McGuire
Merely put, the Liverpool No. 8 had been terribly unfortunate in entrance of purpose.
Some efforts have narrowly missed the underside nook. Defenders had thrown themselves in entrance of purpose certain pictures. Keepers had pulled off good saves to thwart the previous RB Leipzig man.
And after Arne Slot had stated he anticipated extra from the attacking midfielder earlier within the marketing campaign, a return of 1 Premier League purpose earlier than the flip of the yr wasn’t doing something to alter the narrative that he was underperforming.
Finally, he’s judged on output. Regardless of the very fact he’s probably not within the workforce for that. Jürgen Klopp even used him as a facilitator for the Reds after the Hungary skipper moved to Anfield in the summertime of 2023.
He was there to do lots of the working for Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah. It nullified him in possession and, finally, it resulted in him selecting up accidents. Effectively, the identical harm twice. He missed two months of motion early on in 2024 with two separate hamstring points. From what I can see, it’s the primary time in his profession that he’s suffered a muscle harm.
It was a matter of when and never if this may occur.
He wasn’t correctly conditioned for that function or that place. He went from taking part in as an attacker for RB Leipzig to being a box-to-box midfielder, showing in nearly each single sport.
It needs to be gradual. Szobozlai had an excellent health base, however the calls for positioned on him as an attacker within the Bundesliga are utterly totally different to the calls for positioned on him as a shuttler in midfield for Liverpool.
In some unspecified time in the future, one thing goes to provide. With him, it was his hamstring.
After getting back from harm, he struggled. He made simply 5 begins within the ultimate 12 Premier League video games of the season and failed to attain a purpose within the English top-flight post-January.
This isn’t precisely Klopp’s fault, however his dealing with of him didn’t assist.
This season, we’re seeing a greater model of the Hungary skipper. The narratives had remained the identical although.
He doesn’t rating sufficient. He doesn’t create sufficient. He isn’t as impactful within the ultimate third as folks would’ve preferred.
But when he’s not within the workforce, you discover, don’t you?
The headline figures haven’t essentially backed up his performances both.
After a flurry of targets not too long ago, Szoboszlai has 5 for the season within the Premier League. He’s additionally has three assists to his identify.
These numbers have been boosted currently with 4 targets and an help in his final eight appearances.
The underlying numbers have painted a nicer image. And the underlying numbers inform extra of the story.
For instance, this time period, within the Premier League, he has an Anticipated Objectives complete of 6.6. He additionally has an Anticipated Assists complete of 4.16.
Instantly, you possibly can see he’s underperforming each metrics. The latter is tied to the ending of his teammates although. If he’s creating good, high-quality possibilities, it isn’t his fault they aren’t being transformed. As we all know, ending will be fickle.
That is why I’m evaluating him to Darwin Núñez.
He’s getting possibilities, good ones at that, he simply hadn’t been capable of end. You possibly can argue he must be doing higher together with his alternatives however there’s additionally a component of dangerous luck too.
For instance, he’s had 4 pictures contained in the six-yard field this season and none of them have resulted in a purpose. The one in opposition to Brentford was blocked, as was the one in opposition to Nottingham Forest. The efforts in opposition to Wolves and Spurs, with a mixed xG of 1.4, had been each saved.
While you take a deeper take a look at the numbers, you realise how good he’s really been. He has an xG90 of 0.31 from his 2.54 pictures per 90. Solely Salah, Diogo Jota, Luis Díaz, Núñez and Cody Gakpo have a better xG90 this time period. However, remarkably, there’s barely something separating Gakpo (0.38), Diaz (0.38) and Szobozlai.
He’s posting the numbers of an attacker. However whereas Gakpo and Diaz have eight and 9 targets respectively, Szoboszlai has simply 5.
He’s additionally obtained an xA90 common of 0.20, giving him a mixed xG90 Involvement of 0.51. As a fourth purpose menace, which he’s on this workforce, you’d completely take that, wouldn’t you?
Examine that to final season and you actually get to see how a lot he’s improved as a purpose menace.
He was averaging 2.56 pictures per 90 final season however had an xG90 of simply 0.16. Low worth efforts regularly. His xA90 was similar to this time period (0.21) however his xG90 Involvement was simply 0.37. It may appear minimal however over a 38-game marketing campaign that could be a distinction of virtually seven anticipated purpose involvements.
The return of two targets in his final two appearances has been on the playing cards for fairly a while. It might be a prolific finish to the marketing campaign for the Liverpool No. 8.
(Cowl picture from IMAGO)
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