16 hours ago
33
In his first season at Liverpool, things didn't go too badly for Arne Slot. He largely kept things the same, with a few minor tweaks, and ended up winning the Premier League title.
Having now had time to assess his roster fully and get to grips with the areas that he felt could be improved, the Liverpool head coach is ready to take the next step. The Reds have spent big on transfers, and could yet splash out some more before the September 1 deadline, and Slot has begun to implement some changes.
With Florian Wirtz setting a new club record for the most Liverpool has ever spent on a transfer, he is the man who will play the number 10 role most often. And that means Dominik Szoboszlai's role in the team is changing.
What pre-season so far has shown, however, is that the Hungary captain is still going to be vital. Along with Wirtz, Rio Ngumoha, Ben Doak, Curtis Jones and Hugo Ekitike, Szoboszlai very much impressed at Anfield on Monday.
Playing a deeper role against Athletic Club — often dropping further back even than Ryan Gravenberch, his midfield partner — the Liverpool formation was very clearly a 4-2-3-1 system. Szoboszlai, at times, was positioned alongside the center-backs.
Because of the $81 million (£60 million) man's running power, though, that didn't mean that Szoboszlai wasn't always breaking forward. In fact, while he often started attacks level with Ibrahima Konate and Wataru Endo, he often ended them on the edge of the opposition penalty area.
This kind of box-to-box role should suit Szoboszlai. That is where he tends to play for his country, where the responsibility for attacking is almost exclusively on his shoulders, and he has proven countless times that he has the energy to be everywhere.
So while Wirtz might be the man around which the Liverpool attack focuses in the final third, using Szoboszlai further back means getting the best of both worlds. Wirtz is an elite playmaker, but Slot would be loath to lose his number eight's physical traits.
In the stronger starting XI against Athletic Club, it was Szoboszlai and Gravenberch as a midfield two, with Wirtz in front of them.
Jones, in the earlier game, had played very well and looked sharp, and moving forward, of course, Alexis Mac Allister will need to be fitted in somewhere.
This article contains affiliate links, we will receive a commission on any sales we generate from it. Learn more
"I think in both games, we created a lot of chances, scored seven goals — four in the first, three in the second — so that's very pleasing to see because we definitely didn't score every chance we had," Slot said post-match.
"Especially in the second game in the first half, I think we could have scored a few goals more than we did. So that pleased me most, the ability to create the chances and even to score seven goals over two games is also good."
While Slot has a lot of options to fit in and only so many spaces in the team in which to do that, there will be more than enough games for everyone. Between Szoboszlai, Wirtz, Mac Allister, Jones and Gravenberch, he has five elite players to fill three spots.
English (US) ·