Dominik Szoboszlai

[Liverpool]

seemed a tweak rather than major

[SB]

seemed a tweak rather than major

My thoughts too. You watch he’ll probably be out for 3 months now that we’ve said that

[Buzzo]

Seemed like he pulled a hammer. Might be a good thing for him to rest up, as he's had a bit of a nightmare last month or so.

Saying that, watch him on our first goal. Nightmare may be a tad strong. Starts the move and continues run pulling defenders to make space for Diaz. We created so much yesterday the midfield were definitely on it.

[ame]https://twitter.com/_blaise250/status/1742118250572288042[/ame]

[RedReet]

It was brilliant play from him. As was Nunez first touch in the build-up.

[BG1973]

Yeah great lay off for him and then some run. Sublime goal tbh.

[Kenneth]

****ing great goal that.

[Mark79]

[ame]https://twitter.com/LFC/status/1743211420055982116[/ame]

[BigChief]

They mistyped months as matches.

[Charly]

Elliott deserves a game anyway. He has dropped off a lot, and probably could do with a rest.

[rudedog]

Bit of a pisser as Dom would likely be filling in for Mo while he's away

[Mr Pink]

Just good timing anyway, hopefully he’ll be back by the bournemouth game in the league, or even the chelsea game… I do think he wasn’t playing the best the last few games- always had a moment of magic in him, but his general play was sloppy or something, especially considering the high standards he set early on. 2 weeks or so break might actually do him good… hopefully!

[Doc_Piptorious]

Just good timing anyway, hopefully he’ll be back by the bournemouth game in the league, or even the chelsea game… I do think he wasn’t playing the best the last few games- always had a moment of magic in him, but his general play was sloppy or something, especially considering the high standards he set early on. 2 weeks or so break might actually do him good… hopefully!

Think we have done to him what we did earlier in the season to Robertson.


When Robertson was fit and covering LB and LCB to accommodate the box set up, Szobo was pretty much just playing RCM and shuttling up and down in that role and his heat maps backed that.


But since Robertson has been out, Szobo's heat maps show that he seems to have been the one tasked with dropping deeper to cover when TAA roams so he has been going between RCM, RM and a deeper CM/DM spot.

As with Robertson I think we are seeing what it looks like when a high stamina guy begins to push his limits a bit too much.

[Charly]

I think thats right. Not sre how great the system really is... I mean, we are top, but the performances are variable to be polite. We lack rhythm and understanding across several areas because of the positional rotation, and players like Robertson, Konate, Matip and Dom are all busting a gut to roate to cover TAA. Just play him in midield and get a new attacking RB

[rudedog]

Whose place is Trent taking in midfield in that scenario then? He doesn’t have the defensive instincts to play as the 6. That leaves the two 8s, so are we going to drop Dom to play him as the right sided 8? Or drop Curtis so we can shoehorn him into the left side 8? Or maybe we can just play a completely different formation?

I don’t actually understand what all the fuss is about Trent playing in this hybrid/inverted role as he’s always played a hybrid role - his hybrid role is now just as RB/CDM rather than RB/winger. This means he can still contribute to the attack but there is less chance of him being exposed and caught miles of position and then having to sprint the full length of the pitch every time we lose possession. He can also (and does) get down the wing at times to mix things up.

We are currently top of the league and have the best defensive record out of all the teams - we’d still be unbeaten if it wasn’t for the worst officiating mistake ever. We’ve also scored the second highest amount of goals. Must be a fluke though as everyone knows playing Trent in the hybrid role is blunting our attacks whilst making us ****e in defence

With regard to Dom, I don’t think his recent dip in form is down to being over played as his off the ball work has still been outstanding, its just when he’s on the ball that’s the issue. If it was a fitness/stamina thing, you’d think there would be a drop off in his running (which there hasn’t been).

Imagine what we are going to like when this team fully clicks into gear though

[RedReet]

Think we have done to him what we did earlier in the season to Robertson.


When Robertson was fit and covering LB and LCB to accommodate the box set up, Szobo was pretty much just playing RCM and shuttling up and down in that role and his heat maps backed that.


But since Robertson has been out, Szobo's heat maps show that he seems to have been the one tasked with dropping deeper to cover when TAA roams so he has been going between RCM, RM and a deeper CM/DM spot.

As with Robertson I think we are seeing what it looks like when a high stamina guy begins to push his limits a bit too much.

Do these adjustments result in more distance covered through Jaco? Clearly RCB has a lot more strain put on him, but in Robbo's case, I'd have assumed he's covering much less distance now than he used to up and down the wing? Szobo could well be be covering more ground on paper, but would he be doing the same number of sprints when covering as opposed to attacking?

He could well be, I honestly don't know, but as with most things I'm sure there are numerous contributing factors. A huge one I'm guessing is the condensed December schedule which most new players to PL aren't used to, especially those used to a proper winter break. Someone on here (Mark/Pepe? ) I think highlighted that Szobo has already nearly reached his record number of games in a season, so playing so many back to back I'm sure also hasn't helped.