Liverpool have continued their midfield overhaul with a rather unexpected transfer, bringing Dominik Szoboszlai to Anfield in a £60.2m deal from RB Leipzig.
Amid reports of interest from Newcastle United, the Reds moved quickly to trigger the release clause in the Hungarian's contract, and he has committed the next five years of his career to Jurgen Klopp's side, becoming their second arrival of the summer after Alexis Mac Allister.
Szoboszlai has inherited the number eight shirt - most recently worn by Naby Keita and proudly donned for 11 years by Steven Gerrard - and the 22-year-old is expected to take up a position on the right-hand side of Liverpool's midfield trident.
Using statistics from their respective leagues in the 2022-23 season, Sports Mole takes an in-depth look at how Szoboszlai compares to Liverpool's current midfield options.
Goalscoring
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Normally occupying an advanced position for RB Leipzig - either as a right winger or number 10 - Szoboszlai came up with six Bundesliga goals in the 2022-23 season, with only fellow new signing Mac Allister (10) - who played four more matches - netting more in the English top flight.
Szoboszlai comfortably beats the remainder of Liverpool's midfield options in the goalscoring category, with Curtis Jones (three) his closest challenger, while Stefan Bajcetic and Harvey Elliott only netted one Premier League goal apiece. Meanwhile, Jordan Henderson, Fabinho and Thiago Alcantara all ended the campaign with zero league goals to their name.
Interestingly, Szoboszlai is the only one to have out-performed his expected goals tally of 5.5 - including penalties - in the 2022-23 Bundesliga campaign, and his six strikes came from 28 efforts on target.
Both Szoboszlai and Mac Allister hit the target on 28 occasions, but the former only registered 58 shots compared to Mac Allister's 80, thereby achieving a better shot-on-target percentage of 48.3% compared to the Argentina international's 35%.
The Hungarian also averaged just over one shot on target per match - more than any of his Liverpool midfield colleagues - and his average shooting distance was 23.2 yards from goal, only behind Thiago's 24.1.
Comfortable in dead-ball situations, Szoboszlai had nine attempts from free kicks in the 2022-23 season - one of which flew into the back of the net - while he also scored from his solitary penalty kick in a 3-1 win over Bayern Munich.
Playmaking
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With a total of eight assists in the 2022-23 Bundesliga campaign, Szoboszlai's tally is remarkably just one fewer than the rest of Liverpool's midfield options combined, with Mac Allister, Elliott, Fabinho and Henderson all setting up two goals last term, while Jones did so on one occasion.
As a result, Szoboszlai's combined tally of 14 goals and assists is more than the rest of his Reds lynchpins, and the Hungarian also ranks the highest in progressive carries with 75 in total to his name - Mac Allister is not too far behind with 69.
Szoboszlai also received far more progressive passes than his Liverpool colleagues with 157 - Elliott is the only other Reds midfielder in three figures with 129 - but he curiously ranks rather low in the progressive passes category.
Indeed, Szoboszlai produced 151 progressive passes in the 2022-23 campaign, fewer than all of Fabinho (161), Mac Allister (174) and runaway leader Henderson (189), but in terms of shot-creating actions, the Hungarian is unrivalled.
Throughout the Bundesliga campaign, Szoboszlai came up with 150 shot-creating actions - averaging 5.52 per game - while 17 goal-creating actions also puts him at the top of Liverpool's midfield leaderboard.
Szoboszlai also drew 10 fouls leading to an attempt on goal, but he ranks lower than Mac Allister in shot-creating take-ons (eight compared to the Argentine's nine) and shots leading to another shot attempt (five compared to eight).
The former Red Bull Salzburg youngster also attempted 105 take-ons - 53 of which were successful - but that success rate of just over 50% sees him rank lower than Mac Allister, Henderson and Thiago.
Passing
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Moving onto a category where Szoboszlai falls down the leaderboard, the 22-year-old completed 79.9% of his attempted passes last term, with 1262 coming off from 1580 attempts.
That percentage puts Szoboszlai second from bottom compared to the rest of Liverpool's midfield options - only ahead of Bajcetic's 77.5% - while Jones interestingly leads the way with 90.3%.
However, thanks in no small part to his set-piece specialities, Szoboszlai does sit at the summit for long passes completed with 145 - boasting a success rate of 69.0% - although Thiago, Jones and Fabinho all performed better in that regard.
In terms of dead-ball passes, Szoboszlai is by far and away the leader in that statistic, racking up 200 throughout the Bundesliga campaign - 147 more than closest challenger Henderson (53), while Mac Allister is not too far behind the Englishman with 52.
Szoboszlai took 68 corners, 66 free kicks and 56 throw-ins for Leipzig last season, while also sending in a total of 117 crosses and completing 24 switches of play, both of which are more than any other current Liverpool lynchpin.
A total of 16 through balls also puts him one clear of Mac Allister's 15, while 46 of his attempted passes were blocked - unsurprisingly the highest out of Liverpool's engine room options.
Defending
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Despite normally strutting his stuff in the final third of the field, Szoboszlai's defensive numbers might make for positive reading for Klopp as he integrates the Hungarian into his counter-pressing machine.
Only Mac Allister (70) and Fabinho (65) made more tackles than Szoboszlai's 45 last season - with most of them taking place in the middle third of the field - and the Hungary international managed to win 28 of them.
Szoboszlai also made more blocks than his fellow midfielders last season with 43 - 41 passes and two shots, putting him five clear of second-placed Fabinho, who is the sole Liverpool midfielder to have made more clearances (40) than the 22-year-old's 27.
However, 17 interceptions puts him in fifth place in that regard, and Szoboszlai only won 28% of his aerial duels, with only Elliott performing worse in the air at 20%.
In terms of disciplinary cautions, Szoboszlai was only yellow-carded five times last term, but he was sent off on two occasions, while the rest of Liverpool's midfielders did not pick up a single red card between them in the Premier League.
Ben Knapton
