Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has said that he doesn’t need to encourage Dominik Szoboszlai to shoot for goal when the opportunity presents itself.
The Hungarian lit up Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup win over Leicester at Anfield with a thunderbolt strike to put his team in front during the second half.
The Reds manager was reflecting on that special moment to liverpoolfc.com after the game, and he said of the 22-year-old: “I don’t have to tell him to shoot, he knows that, he knows better than I that he has a pretty good skill. The next one, which goes slightly over, is another grenade.
“You can see that in Premier League games, everyone tries to block him, that’s why he didn’t come through yet – but if he comes through there’s a good chance the ball could be in. A super goal.”
The early signs from Szoboszlai in his time at Liverpool show that when he scores, it’s a box-office moment. His other goal for the club so far was also a rocket from outside the penalty area, striking in the opening minutes in the 3-0 win over Aston Villa at the start of this month.
As Klopp referenced, the Hungary captain was close to doubling his tally last night, trying his luck with a 30-yard howitzer in the final few minutes which fizzed narrowly over the crossbar.
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The statistics suggest that the 22-year-old is very much of a ‘shoot on sight’ mindset. As per FBref, only Mo Salah and Darwin Nunez have taken more than his 15 shots among the Reds’ squad, while he’s landed more shots on target (four) than anyone when forwards are excluded.
Curiously, his on-target rate of 26.7% is among the lowest of any Liverpool player to record a shot this season, but the Anfield faithful will take that all day long if those which do hit the target are as jaw-dropping and successful as the one he blasted past Jakub Stolarczyk.
From now on, you can probably expect to hear one word bellowed by Reds supporters when the 22-year-old has the ball anywhere within a 30-yard range of the opposition goal – “Shoot!”.