Can Szoboszlai Be the Most Complete Liverpool Player Ever?
Sometimes the hype is not just hyperbole
I know this might sound like hyperbole. It may well be hyperbole. Indeed, it probably is hyperbole.
However. I never thought I’d see a more complete Liverpool player than Steven Gerrard. Now I’m starting to wonder.
(I can't speak of players from before my time, which was also often before the time of all action being filmed.)
Others have been up there in terms of brilliance, but maybe lacked a touch of pace or work-rate; and if adding another category, which no new player compete with, the longevity of Gerrard's brilliance is what made him the greatest of my match-watching years.
(But a new player also has the added difficulty of adapting, especially if from overseas.)
While Dominik Szoboszlai will never out-fight peak Gerrard (albeit Szoboszlai has the build and the height to look after himself), I can’t see an aspect of of the new man’s game that I’d rate below a 9/10. In that sense, he’s also like Virgil van Dijk when he signed – someone who ticks every single box.
To me, Szoboszlai mixes the brilliance of the brand-new John Barnes in 1987 (where it took just a couple of games to realise he was ultra-special) with the stamina and midfield chops of Gerrard.
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