Paul Merson has insisted that Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai is his new favourite Premier League player.
Szoboszlai has hit the ground running since arriving at Anfield this summer. Having joined from RB Leipzig, the 23-year-old has looked liked he’s been playing for Liverpool all his life.
This is something Merson acknowledges in his Premier League predictions for Sportskeeda this week. Predicting a 3-0 win for the Reds over Luton Town on Sunday, the pundit highlights Szoboszlai as one to watch.
“Dominik Szoboszlai, on the other hand, has been my favourite player in the Premier League this season – he’s been absolutely outstanding!” raved the former England midfielder.
“He’s come into a brand new league for a huge fee and settled in quicker than snow, that is some achievement.”
Merson raves about Szoboszlai
‘Settled quicker than snow’ – we like that from Merson, we might pinch that. It nicely illustrates how well Szoboszlai has adapted to life at Liverpool.
Perhaps it can sometimes be overstated just how big a jump playing in the Premier League can be for players.
It may be slightly faster and more intense than other leagues around the world, but top level football is top level football to some extent.
Good players will always be able to transfer their skills from one division to the next.
That’s perhaps the key thing here, though. How many players do you see come and light things up having never featured in England before?
Although the list probably isn’t all that short, it is generally limited to the top, top players.
Szobo’s mate at Manchester City – Erling Haaland – did it, and from a Liverpool point of view the likes of Mohamed Salah and Fernando Torres spring to mind.
But these are truly world-class, top of the range stars we’re talking about. For Szoboszlai to truly add his name to that list he’s going to have to keep proving himself for far longer than he has so far.
Given what we’ve seen of the Hungarian since August though, we’d be fools not to back him to do that and more.