Dominik Szoboszlai forced Liverpool coach into 'daily negotiations' in training

Dominik Szoboszlai is one of the fittest players on Liverpool's roster, but he wasn't originally a fan of doing fitness work away from the pitch, according to a former Reds coach

Dominik Szoboszlai is one of the fittest players in Liverpool's team(Image: MI News/NurPhoto)

A former Liverpool fitness coach has revealed how Dominik Szoboszlai used to push back on instructions from the Reds' fitness team upon his move to Anfield in 2023.

Szoboszlai has gained a reputation for his incredible fitness levels, particularly this season, which has seen him display his best form since moving to Anfield. However, upon joining the club, the Hungary captain was seemingly not a fan of doing a lot of fitness work away from the pitch, as former Liverpool fitness coach Jordan Fairclough revealed in an interview with The Redmen TV.

“Dom Szoboszlai, he came in from Leipzig, really, really good seasons there, playing really well. This isn’t the only player who has this belief, there’ll be many others, but he kind of associated his quality and his class in those leagues as not having to do loads of gym stuff to play well.” he told The Redmen TV.

“But he came to the Premier League, different league, different intensity, so there was like a nice almost daily negotiation period that we went through. Okay like, ‘these are the things that I think you should do today.’ And he’d be like ‘no, no, no, yes, yes, yes, no, yes, no.’

“It was kind of like play the game, you have to kind of play the game a little bit. ‘Okay Dom, what kind of stuff do you like to do?’ and blend it to that. The personal side of it and creating exercises and the buy-in and working with players was really cool as well.”

Fairclough also revealed how individual fitness plans varied from player to player, as he explained how different players' personalities influenced the decisions of the fitness staff.

“Harvey Elliott as an example, a lot of energy, really competitive, likes full energy and full power, full speed stuff," Fairclough said. ""So, exercises for him to get fired up might be something that’s quite competitive or fun so he can really sort of throw his personality into it.

“Whereas a Joe Gomez, for example, kind of a more quiet, mellow type of guy, likes his routine, likes to know what he’s doing, how he’s doing it, quite methodical. So you have to play to the individuals’ characters as well and that was actually really fun.”

Fairclough joined Liverpool in 2017 and left the club last year. Announcing his departure on LinkedIn, Fairclough wrote: “7.5 years at a wonderful football club.

"I've learnt, laughed, loved and made some amazing friends and memories. A very special club and a very special city.”