A Disappointing Tournament
It was supposed to be a redemption arc for the Liverpool midfielder. Dominik Szoboszlai had struggled towards the end of last season under Jurgen Klopp. But at Euro 2024, the Hungarian captain was supposed to revive himself and get back to the kind of form that we saw him reach during the beginning of his Liverpool career.
Alas, even before the tournament began, things had gone awry. Szoboszlai picked up a muscle injury in his thigh during Hungary’s last friendly against Israel before the tournament.
That meant he went into the competition with a niggle. He was able to train in the lead-up to Hungary’s first game against Switzerland and then before Hungary’s second game against Germany.
However, the niggle persisted, and following Hungary’s 2-0 defeat, Szoboszlai had only been going through a rehabilitation programme and did not participate in any team training all the way until the Scotland game.
Despite his troubles, he played all 270 minutes for Hungary, who crashed out of the tournament as one of the worst two third-placed teams on goal difference.
A Change in Roles
The niggle definitely overshadowed Szoboszlai’s tournament. It forced him to play a different role for Hungary than he had been playing in the lead-up to the tournament.
During qualifying, Szoboszlai was often used in a free role by Marco Rossi. He’d drop deep, sitting back in a six role to help Hungary progress the ball forward or drop to cover Hungary’s wing-backs on the flanks.
This allowed him to have more of the ball and exploit a lot of space on the pitch. That’s why he would go on long, mazy runs, gaining momentum from deep to beat opposition defenders.
Take into consideration that in Hungary’s last Euro 2024 qualifying, playing in this free hybrid role, Szoboszlai took 122 touches as per FotMob.
As opposed to that, in Hungary’s first two games against Switzerland (63) and Germany (54) – Szoboszlai actually took fewer combined touches (117).
Hungary’s manager, Rossi, reverted back to his original tactics – from which he deviated during qualifying – and instructed his team to play deep while allowing the opposition to have most of the ball.
In this system, Szoboszlai wasn’t dropping deep – he was often playing a lot further forward than Hungarian fans have been used to seeing him play. But Hungary missed his deep-lying playmaker role and actually struggled to get the ball to him.
What Went Right for Szoboszlai
Despite this, when he did get the ball, Szoboszlai showed plenty of his quality. He was involved in both Hungary goals, setting up Barnabas Varga with an inch-perfect cross against Switzerland and releasing Kevin Csoboth for his dramatic winner against Scotland.
He also recorded the highest expected assists (1.44) out of any player in the group stages, and only his teammate Roland Sallai created more big chances (4) than Szoboszlai (3) at the entire tournament during the group stages.
Which means Hungary, looking at the numbers, were actually quite an unlucky team during the group-stage process.
Szoboszlai’s team created 10 big chances in total – only Spain (12), Portugal (11), and Croatia (11) created more.
Out of the teams who created at least 10 chances or more, Hungary were the only team to score only two goals.
When it comes to distances covered, Szoboszlai recorded 30.8 kilometres in three games – which was the third highest in the Hungary team. He also recorded the fastest top-speed among his teammates at 34.5km/h – again, a really impressive metric given he was struggling with a niggle.
As per UEFA Euro statistics, he also completed 10 dribbles, which ranked him among the top 15 players after the group stages of the tournament.
The fact that he managed to achieve all of this while not being 100% fit only bodes well for Liverpool.
What’s Next for Szoboszlai?
Szoboszlai was supposed to meet a specialist in the Hungarian training camp if his side qualified for the round of 16 to get him in the best possible shape.
But with Hungary’s elimination, it is moot whether that will now take place. Instead, he will now have two weeks to recuperate and relax before he is expected to join up with Arne Slot’s squad in pre-season.
Hungary were eliminated from the tournament on Wednesday last week – which means Szoboszlai is expected to be back in training sometime around the 11th of July.
Liverpool haven’t announced any official plans for any pre-season fixtures until the club’s tour to the US, which will begin with a game against Real Betis on July 27th. But by then, it is expected that Szoboszlai will be able to feature and participate in the pre-season friendlies on Liverpool’s tour to the States.
