Jamie Carragher has issued glowing praise of Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai, who he’s labelled ‘the real deal’ following his early impact at Anfield.
The Hungarian was signed from RB Leipzig for £60m in July (BBC Sport) and has immediately endeared himself to the Kop with his industrious performances, technical ability and knack for a truly outstanding goal.
The former Reds defender was speaking to the Liverpool Echo about the 22-year-old and drew comparisons with one of the most illustrious teammates of his lengthy Anfield career.
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Carragher gushed: “Szoboszlai looks brilliant. He looks almost like one of the best players and if he wasn’t playing in a game, you would really miss him.
“It’s not just his creativity or his shooting ability, it is his physical impact: the pace and power he has got in terms of the ground he covers and the challenges he is involved in. If he doesn’t have his best game with the ball, he is still having a huge impact.”
The Sky Sports pundit added: “This new midfield is probably seen as more creative, but they have got great work ethic as well. They will be described as a completely different midfield, and they are slightly different from what we’ve had before, but is more exciting and flashy on the eye when you’re seeing Szoboszlai hitting shots from outside the box.
“We haven’t had that since Steven Gerrard, hence the comparisons. There is a little way for him to go to reach that level, but it looks like Liverpool have done really good business in that area. With Szoboszlai, you are seeing the real deal right now.”
For Szoboszlai to already be earning comparisons with one of the club’s greatest-ever players in Gerrard within three months of joining Liverpool reflects just how brilliantly he’s settled into life on Merseyside.
Of course, it’ll take years of consistent match-defining greatness from Hungarian to truly match the levels set by the Reds’ former skipper, but the characteristics outlined by Carragher certainly evoke happy memories of a previous exponent of the number 8 shirt at Anfield.
Across several relevant performance metrics, the 22-year-old has quickly stood out as one of LFC’s best players.
As per WhoScored, he ranks among the top six members of Jurgen Klopp’s squad for shots (two), key passes (1.9), crosses (1.1), tackles (1.4), interceptions (0.7) and successful dribbles (1.1) per game, with only Luis Diaz topping him for the latter attribute.
Szoboszlai has arguably made more of an impression at Liverpool inside three months than many past players have done in the entirety of their time at the club, and it’s massively exciting to think about just how high a ceiling he could have at Anfield, given his age and what he’s shown so far.
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