Dominik Szoboszlai: can he lead Liverpool to the Premier League title?

Ever since his £60 million arrival, Dominik Szoboszlai has taken the Premier League by storm.

Through the first eleven games of the 2023/2024 Premier League season, Szoboszlai has already found the back of the net and laid on two assists. A driving force behind Liverpool’s positive early domestic and European season form, those stats merely paint the briefest of pictures as to how good Szoboszlai has been since donning the famous Liverpool strip. 

Breathing new life into an aging Liverpool midfield, the Hungarian superstar has certainly impressed new manager Jurgen Klopp, with the German calling his new signing ‘a beast.’

Seemingly perfect for Klopp’s fast and frenetic counter-pressing style, Szoboszlai has already become one of the most important cogs in the Liverpool machine, seamlessly connecting the defence to the attack and wowing fans with his skill, endless energy and shooting abilities. 

So what can Szoboszlai and Liverpool achieve this year – could they win the Premier League? Here are our key talking points. 

Szoboszlai needs to continue to adapt to the Premier League

There’s a reason why the Premier League is the hardest league in the world. Not only can a handful of teams win the league, but there really are no easy matches. 

What makes winning the Premier League even harder is the schedule and Szoboszlai is about to experience his first winter in English football. 

November and December are often considered critical months in the English football calendar. With games played almost every three days, many new signings to the Premier League have struggled during this period and have dropped off in the second half of the season. 

A guaranteed starter for Liverpool, Szoboszlai currently ranks eighth in the league when it comes to the total distance run. 

Due to his intense running style and desire to win the ball back for his team, the impact of lots of games over a short period of time will hurt Szoboszlai more than most.

Already so important for Liverpool, if the Reds are going to be serious title contenders they can’t run the risk of their new midfield dynamo running out of gas. 

European commitments

One area that could greatly impact Szoboszlai’s abilities to impact Premier League games is Liverpool’s European campaign. 

Last season was a disaster for Liverpool, who despite having a squad more than capable of qualifying for the Champions League, missed out altogether and had to settle for a place in this season’s Europa League. 

Positioned by most online sportsbooks as the favourites for Europa League victory, no team has ever competed in Europe’s second tier competition and gone onto win the Premier League. 

With so many matches played across a gruelling schedule of Thursdays and Sunday’s, often it is the Premier League form that suffers as Liverpool will have to play teams who have had the luxury of rest.

With a deep and talented squad, Liverpool will have serious hopes of a deep run both domestically and in Europe, but Klopp will have to cleverly manage his squad if they are to do so. Although Szoboszlai will want to play every game, his minutes will need to be managed if he is to help Liverpool win some silverware during his first season. 

The Manchester City Machine

In Manchester City, not only will Szoboszlai face the best team in England, but arguably the entire world. 

City are red hot favourites to recapture both their Premier League and Champions League titles and ominously for the rest of their competition, they are already one point clear at the top of the Premier League and have already qualified from their Champions League group. 

However, over the last five years, the only side to consistently cause City problems has been Klopp’s Liverpool side. 

Before a ball was kicked this season, many pundits and fans believed that Liverpool were the team likely to push City in this year’s title race and that theory has largely been proved correct. 

Sitting just three points behind their rivals, Liverpool and Szoboszlai will be delighted as to how their season has started. 

However, as City have proved time and time again, they are simply a winning machine. If Liverpool are to seriously challenge they can ill afford any further slip ups over the busy festive period, as once City hit the front they will be hard to stop.