The Digest articles make a welcome return to Fantasy Football Scout in 2023/24.
In these pieces, a player, team and talking point that have attracted interest in the weekend’s matches are discussed.
Five-time top 1k finisher Tom Freeman will be taking the reins this season, producing regular Digest articles, with only Premium Members able to access every single one.
THE PLAYER: DOMINIK SZOBOSZLAI
Dominik Szoboszlai (£7.0m) provided two assists during a magnificent performance in Sunday’s 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest.
Having set up Darwin Nunez (£7.5m) and Mohamed Salah’s (£12.8m) goals, the Hungarian was unlucky not to score himself with a low curling effort that had to be pushed away from the near post.
He created four chances – the most of any player on the pitch – and off the ball, recorded 12 recoveries, another match-leading total.
Combining technical quality, strength and work-rate, Szoboszlai has hit the ground running at Anfield.
He’s created the most chances for Liverpool so far (25), won two penalties against Bournemouth and Brighton and Hove Albion, registered 21 shots and is up there among the Reds’ best players for take-ons and tackles. Simply put, Szoboszlai is the definition of a box-to-box midfielder.
However, despite running games almost single-handedly at times, he only has five goal contributions (one goal, four assists) to show for it, which doesn’t seem a lot compared to midfield rivals such as Moussa Diaby (£6.8m) and Bryan Mbeumo (£6.6), both of whom have eight.
Still, Szoboszlai’s influence is growing at Liverpool. He’s created exactly four chances in four of his last five outings and in that period from Gameweek 6 onwards, only James Ward-Prowse (£6.2m) has registered more key passes in his position.
The 23-year-old has also made himself indispensable just 10 Premier League games into his top-flight career, starting and finishing every Liverpool match. Including injury time, he’s been on the pitch for a whopping 1010 minutes, which is captured below.
Above: Liverpool players sorted by time played – raw in 2023/24
What Szoboszlai does lack, however, is close-range goal threat.
Of his 21 shots this season, just three have arrived in the box (see below). As a result, his expected goals (xG) per shot is just 0.04.
Above: Dominik Szoboszlai’s shot map in 2023/24
So, what you are currently getting with Szoboszlai is creativity, a share of set-pieces, guaranteed minutes and long-range goal threat. That’s pretty appealing given the firepower in this Liverpool team, but he might need to add a few more goals to truly become a heavyweight option.
THE TEAM: BRENTFORD
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