Liverpool’s “player of the season” so far is becoming the new Wijnaldum

So far as Arne Slot’s Liverpool are involved, there hasn’t been a lot to write down dwelling about this season.

It has been tough, for a large number of causes, and the Reds have slumped to 5 defeats from six matches within the Premier League. They are saying it is too early to make such calls at this stage of the marketing campaign, however Liverpool merely can’t be thought of as title contenders until one thing important shifts within the coming weeks and months.

Physicality and management. Two central tenets of any Premier League midfield value their salt, and particularly so for Liverpool. Nevertheless, Slot’s facet have lacked each in equally regarding measure for a lot of the time period up to now.

And with that in thoughts, we will not assist however recall the times of Gini Wijnaldum in the midst of the park, for the Dutchman could be very a lot missed proper now.

Why Gini Wijnaldum left Liverpool

Wijnaldum has plied his commerce away from Anfield for 4 years now, and it is maybe truthful to say that Liverpool haven’t changed his profile within the years since. The 35-year-old was very distinctive in his model for the Reds.

Liverpool signed Wijnaldum from Newcastle United in 2016 after their relegation from the Premier League. Wijnaldum was among the many standout Magpies that yr.

He was an attacking midfielder and had put 4 previous Norwich Metropolis early within the marketing campaign, a vivid flicker in a darkish yr on Tyneside. Nevertheless, Jurgen Klopp long-established the Dutchman into an industrious, press-resistent central midfielder, a part of an brisk centre that charged Liverpool’s glittering success of the previous decade.

Although Wijnaldum did not rating usually for the Merseysiders, he got here up trumps on a number of events, alright, and scribed his identify into the document books when bagging a brace off the bench on that evening towards Barcelona.

So cool and composed and calm on the ball, Gini was the metronome within the center. To suppose that he performed in superior roles with consistency throughout his days with Newcastle and PSV Eindhoven earlier than that may be a marker of Klopp’s tactical mind, efficiently reshaping into one thing that produced fewer show-stopping moments however contributed extra significantly to the Liverpool undertaking.

Liverpool miss him, for certain, however there is a member of Slot’s squad who’s starting to indicate indicators of the Netherlands man’s former qualities.

Liverpool’s new model of Wijnaldum

Slot’s personal ‘model’ of Wijnaldum may not be stylistically the identical, however he is enjoying a flexible and but singular position for the Anfield facet this season.

Enter Dominik Szoboszlai, the shining gentle of Liverpool’s dreary marketing campaign up to now.

The Hungarian has been hailed by reporter Lewis Steele as being Liverpool’s “participant of the season” up to now. Admittedly, the bar is not excessive, however Szoboszlai ranks extremely throughout the entire of Europe in regard to particular person efforts, having matured into a frontrunner in addition to a tireless supply of power and a technically proficient technician.

To say that he is come on leaps and bounds can be fairly the understatement, and this with Liverpool struggling to muster any form of kind.

Klopp oversaw the £60m signing of RB Leipzig’s proficient playmaker in 2023, beating Newcastle to his signature. Szoboszlai has ebbed and flowed in a Liverpool shirt, criticised at instances for his lack of finish product. On the finish of Klopp’s reign, Szoboszlai fell out to the fringes, beginning solely one of many remaining six Premier League fixtures of the time period, and was hooked at half-time throughout a depressing dwelling defeat to Crystal Palace earlier than that.

Since Slot has taken to the dugout, Szoboszlai’s position has modified some, and that has turn into crystal clear this season, for he has by no means been extra concerned, by no means extra entrusted with a starring position within the facet, hailed as a “correct chief” and Liverpool’s star man by content material creator Jonathan Morley.

Szoboszlai is a participant whose talent and tenacity out of possession, his intelligence and imaginative and prescient and talent to do the appropriate factor on the proper time, make him a novel and priceless a part of a system. Wijnaldum-esque, maybe.

Gini was, in any case, lauded as being “irreplaceable” for Liverpool by correspondent Richard Jolly. He wasn’t a vocal chief on the sector, however the former Netherlands worldwide supplied a relaxing presence, redefined as soon as he settled in on Merseyside after which grew to become a central a part of one of many glittering outfits of their age.

Liverpool might not be on the races this season, however there is a lengthy highway nonetheless forward, and with Szoboszlai shaping into an all-action midfielder of the very best class, Slot’s personal model of Wijnaldum, there can be hope that the remainder of these proficient gamers can get well their ranges and match Szoboszlai’s dedication and need.

His free-kick towards Arsenal, sealing victory towards Mikel Arteta’s title challengers towards the beginning of the season, his Man of the Match performances on a lot of events already, Szoboszlai is the true deal, alright, and when Liverpool do return to kind, he would possibly simply attain even loftier ranges below Slot’s wing.

Szoboszlai has been Liverpool’s standout participant this season, and although this has been tempered by the in any other case depressing performances, solace will be discovered within the data that Slot has unearthed the membership’s newest celebrity.