Dominik Szoboszlai Shines with Stunning Strike for Liverpool
Dominik Szoboszlai didn’t just answer his critics. He silenced them with a thunderbolt.
Under the lights of a Carabao Cup night, the Hungarian drove Liverpool past Tottenham with a 3-1 win, seizing the game and the narrative with a stunning long-range strike that ripped into the top corner and jolted Anfield back to the memory of his early-season brilliance. For a player accused of fading, it felt like a pointed reminder.
Asked about the recent noise around his form, Szoboszlai shrugged it off.
“Was there a criticism? I don't know, I didn't see but thanks for telling me,” he said, before making it clear who his goal was really for. “You know this goal [against Spurs] was for the people who are always next to me because we are also humans so we can have bad games.”
That “bad game” everyone keeps circling back to came at Craven Cottage. In the 0-0 draw with Fulham, Szoboszlai endured one of his toughest outings since joining Liverpool, winning just one of his 10 duels. The numbers were seized upon. So was the performance. Pundits and supporters dived straight into the old debate: what exactly is his best position?
At the heart of Iraola’s new Liverpool
What complicates the argument is the tactical overhaul under Andoni Iraola. This is not the Liverpool of old. The structure has changed, the roles have shifted, and Szoboszlai has been asked to live in the most fluid part of the pitch.
“I think you guys see a little bit different because we play with one 6, one 8 and one 10,” he explained, keen to spell out the nuances. “So the 6 and the 8 are not next to each other, the 8 is a little bit higher and the 6 is a little bit deeper and the 10 is a little bit even higher so it is not two next to each other.”
It’s a midfield that stretches and snaps back, that asks for constant movement and sharp decisions. Iraola has repeatedly praised the 23-year-old’s intelligence in handling those demands, and Szoboszlai himself reeled off the list of jobs he has already done.
“Last week against Fulham I was a No. 8, I have been No. 2 as well, I have been No. 6, No. 8, No. 10, No. 7 also,” he said. The numbers keep changing. The expectation doesn’t.
Some fans want him unleashed closer to goal as a pure creator. Others see his engine and range of passing and push him deeper. Szoboszlai refuses to be dragged into that tug-of-war.
Labels don’t matter, minutes do
For him, the conversation is simpler.
“No, I just want to be on the pitch,” he said. “Maybe I am not at the best in the 6 position because I win one of the 10 duels, maybe next the game I am going to win eight out of 10, so I am then a good 6? So it's always balance.”
That line cuts to the core of his mindset. He knows one poor afternoon doesn’t define a role, let alone a career. Iraola’s Liverpool, still bedding in under a new philosophy and dealing with injuries and tweaks, needs players who can shift without sulking. Szoboszlai has become that player: sometimes a 6, sometimes an 8, occasionally a 10 or even wider. Always available. Always central to the plan.
The strike against Spurs felt like a release. A goal from distance, hit with venom and certainty, that turned a conversation about form into one about influence. It dragged Liverpool into the fourth round and set up a heavyweight tie with Chelsea, another test of this new-look side’s credentials.
But there is no time to bask in it.
The league looms again, and Bournemouth await on Sunday. With that Fulham performance still fresh in some minds, Szoboszlai will walk into the game carrying both expectation and scrutiny. He seems ready to carry something else instead: responsibility.
“There will be games where we are not playing at our best as a team, as personally me or somebody else,” he said. “But trust me it is always leave the past and then the next one, the next one, the reaction is what matters.”
The reaction has started with a rocket in the cup. The question now is whether he can turn that one strike into a run that defines Liverpool’s season, rather than just one night under the Anfield lights.
