'He runs for two players' - How non-stop Dominik Szoboszlai silenced his Liverpool critics to become a key member of Arne Slot's side

Not many players have made a more immediate impact at Liverpool than Szoboszlai. He'd been signed from RB Leipzig for £60 million ($76m), a not insignificant sum of money, but quickly set about showing why his former boss at Red Bull Salzburg, Jesse Marsch, considered it "a steal".

There were no airs or graces about Szoboszlai, but from the moment he walked in the door, he looked right at home at Anfield. Even the incredibly colourful Klopp was struck by the Hungarian's "charisma".

He clearly didn't lack confidence, either. Szoboszlai took the No.8 jersey once worn by his idol Steven Gerrard (he even has a tattoo inspired by the former Reds skipper) and plenty of comparisons were drawn between the two during the first few months of the 2023-24 season.

Marsch felt that Szoboszlai was actually more like "a modern-day David Beckham" because "when the ball is on his right foot he can put it anywhere he wants. The precision and the pace he can put on the ball is ridiculous. And I say 'modern day', it's because he is more mobile and more dynamic [than Beckham]."

However, it wouldn't be long before Szoboszlai's all-action approach began to catch up with him. After playing every minute of Liverpool's opening 10 Premier League games, he almost inevitably began to slow down, before breaking down. He picked up a hamstring problem in January and never really recovered.

Szoboszlai was directly involved in 11 goals last season, but only three after returning from injury - and all of those arrived during the two legs of the Europa League last-16 tie with Sparta Prague. Tellingly, he ran out of steam around the same time as his team, with Szoboszlai afforded just one start during Liverpool's final seven Premier League games.

Unsurprisingly, he also struggled at Euro 2024 as Hungary failed to make it out of their group. "He was not in top form and this is also a consequence of the fact that he has not been at 100 percent since his injury in the winter," the president of the Hungarian football federation (MLSZ), Sandor Csanyi, told Nemzeti Sport in July. "At the Euros, he had also been struggling with a minor injury for a long time."

Thankfully, Szoboszlai has had no such fitness issues this season. He's only missed two Premier League games to date: one through suspension, and the other through illness.

Ryan Gravenberch's emergence as the solution to Liverpool's longstanding problem at No.6 has certainly helped, as Slot now essentially has four versatile potential starters to choose from in midfield (Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister and Curtis Jones are the other three), while Wataru Endo has proven himself an extremely useful option off the bench, a dual-winning machine that can be utilised when team-mates are exhausted and games need to be closed out.

However, while Slot was happy with Szoboszlai's performance and fitness levels during the first half of the season, it was telling that he publicly demanded more decisive contributions from his first-choice No.10 in the final third.

The Dutchman acknowledged that while the 24-year-old's pressing was "outstanding", he needed to be "even more involved in scoring goals and creating chances for us.

"Last season he scored three [in the league] and, for an attacking midfielder at Liverpool, his numbers need to go up." They are now, though.

Szoboszlai has already surpassed his tally of goal involvements for 2023-24 and he's in far better shape going into the business end of the season than he was at this point last year. Indeed, only three Reds played every minute of their crucial and gruelling recent run of five Premier League games in 15 days, and Szoboszlai was one of them (captain Virgil van Dijk and goalkeeper Alisson Becker were the others).

Even more encouragingly, he got stronger as the games got tougher. Szoboszlai was excellent in the 2-2 draw at Aston Villa and would have had a deserved, game-winning assist had Darwin Nunez not missed an open goal midway through the second half.

Mohamed Salah, though, was never going to waste the clever near-post flick that bamboozled Man City at the Etihad, while Szoboszlai then netted the killer second goal after being released into space shortly before the break by the Egyptian.

Szoboszlai also made the breakthrough in the subsequent win over Newcastle and drew widespread praise for his overall performance, most notably from Slot.

"I think he's been very, very important to us the whole season," Slot told TNT Sports last Wednesday night. "Not always was his quality seen. But again, today, people talk about his goal, which they should because it was an important goal and a good goal, but I think what helped the team even more than him scoring a goal was the number of times he wins the second ball.

"He wins the ball back for us, he runs for two players. That probably deserves even more credit than him scoring a goal. But it is nice that he starts scoring goals as well because that, in the end, is also what you need to do if you are an attacking midfielder that wears the Liverpool shirt."

There had certainly been questions over whether Szoboszlai was up to the task - and as recently as February 3, with former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher admitting on Sky Sports, "I'm not his biggest fan. He's great off the ball, but he's a No.10 and he's got three goals (at the time) and you need more from that position."

Szoboszlai couldn't be giving any more at the moment, though. He's regularly covering more ground in games than any other Liverpool player - the Newcastle win was the most recent case in point - and his all-round excellence is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that he now ranks fourth at the club for both direct goal contributions and possession won.

Furthermore, while he says he's tired, he only ever looks it after games. For 90 minutes, he's playing with an incessant intensity that one rarely sees in attacking midfielder - particularly one asked to take to the field every three days.

He'll obviously need a rest or two at some point between now and the end of the season but, going into Wednesday's Champions League last 16 first-leg clash with Paris Saint-Germain at Parc des Princes, Szoboszlai has undoubtedly re-established himself as a certain starter for Liverpool in their most important matches at this decisive juncture in their campaign.

He won't be getting ahead of himself, of course. He'll continue taking it one game at a time. But if he can maintain his current level of influence, in and out of possession, Szoboszlai will belatedly get his hands on at least one of the major trophies that eluded Liverpool last season.