Dominik Szoboszlai has appeared to throw down the gauntlet to Florian Wirtz ahead of the latter’s impending transfer to Liverpool.
The Reds have agreed a club-record £116m deal for the German playmaker, who generally plays in the same area of the pitch as the Hungarian, which could leave the two of them competing for the one berth in Arne Slot’s starting XI.
While our number 8 recognises the likelihood that the incoming 22-year-old isn’t being signed for such a gigantic fee to sit on the bench, he insists that he won’t submissively step aside and let him take his place in the team.
Szoboszlai won’t roll over for Wirtz at Liverpool
Szoboszlai said (via Oghuncrew): “If you say that it will be difficult for me, then we’ll wait and see how it will be after pre-season. In the end you might be right, but I don’t give up easily. I think he knows that getting into a Premier League-winning team is a hard job and takes work.”
When the interviewer suggested that the 24-year-old doesn’t ‘hold a candle’ to Wirtz, the Hungary captain shot back: “No, I don’t [agree]. Of course, if they buy a player for €150m they probably won’t keep him on the bench, but then we have to find a way to play together.”
Liverpool will definitely need both Szoboszlai and Wirtz next season
While some might be inclined to label Szoboszlai’s comments as arrogant or maybe even disrespectul to his soon-to-be Liverpool teammate, we actually like the midfielder’s defiance when he was challenged about whether he’d lose his place in the team.
Of course Wirtz will be an automatic starter whenever he’s available, considering his extraordinary ceiling and the fee being paid for him, but the nature of modern football is that players can be/need to be adaptable to a number of different positions.
There have been suggestions that the German could possibly be deployed as a ‘false 9’ (The Athletic), and it’s a position in which he has occasionally played in his career. He’s also capable of filling in on either flank, so it’d be erroneous to simply pigeon-hole him as an attacking midfielder situated just behind the forward line.
Szoboszlai also provides tactical flexibility, having played in a makeshift centre-forward role on a couple of occasions last season and also being utilised in a slightly deeper role by Slot (Transfermarkt).
Even if they don’t always start simultaneously, the workload that Liverpool will have from their involvement in four tournaments in 2025/26 means that both should still receive plenty of game-time, with the head coach no doubt needing the full depth of his squad to effectively cope with the multitude of spinning plates.
Anfield may well be big enough for both the Hungarian and Wirtz, and we’re sure that both of them will be heavily relied upon in the months ahead.
