Dominik Szoboszlai’s first 50 games for Liverpool compared to Steven Gerrard

Liverpool’s Dominik Szoboszlai is unfazed by the hasty label of being dubbed the ‘next Steven Gerrard’.

The club’s current number eight shrugged: “I don’t want to be him. I want to be myself.” But there is no doubt Liverpool’s latest legend has had an impact on the young Hungarian midfielder.

A quote attributed to Gerrard is indelibly drawn on Szoboszlai’s forearm. The tattoo reads: “Talent is a blessing from God, but without incredible will and humility, it is worthless.”

Szoboszlai has shown his abundant talent throughout his early life on Merseyside, which stacks up very favorably with Gerrard’s early career at his boyhood club. Here’s how the two Buccaneer midfielders compare in their top 50 Liverpool games

The first point of comparison between Szoboszlai and Gerrard is their penchant for pot hitting. Two-thirds of the Hungarian’s efforts are from outside the box, while half of his eight goals have been long-range strikes.

Gerrard would end his playing days with a reputation for impressive strikes, but at the same stage in his Liverpool career the 20-year-old had only scored two senior goals, both coming from the penalty area.

The lanky midfielder opened his account with a slalom stunner against Sheffield Wednesday in December 1999. Collecting the ball from Rigobert Song on the halfway line, Gerrard got away from Emerson Thome before applying the same move shoulders to leave. EnglandThe team’s star centre, Des Walker, stubbing his toe into the turf. Kevin Pressman had no chance of reaching Gerrard’s slot in the far corner.

By the end of the 1999/00 campaign, Gerrard’s breakthrough season in the first team, he was already hailed as a future big. His team-mate Sami Hyypia was not alone in predicting the youngster would be “England’s best player one day”.

Szoboszlai’s Liverpool career was barely three months old when he racked up a brace of assists in one game for the Reds – twice as many goals as Gerrard created in his first 50 appearances for the club.

The forward-thinking Liverpool midfielder played alongside Darwin Nunez and Mohamed Salah during a a 3-0 thrashing at Nottingham Forest in October 2023. Szoboszlai’s second assist underlined the direct approach that has brought him after six years at three of Red Bull’s stable clubs, firing a 60-yard ball over the scattered backline of Forest to keep Salah away.

Szoboszlai finished his debut Premier League season with just two assists, but had created chances to the tune of around six goals only to be let down by his teammates at the end. Gerrard’s poor attendance was not a result of a lack of opportunities.

“I’ve been on the end of a lot of his passes over the last few years,” Michael Owen said in the summer of 2000, before delivering an unusually comical line, “but thankfully none of his tackles.”

When Szoboszlai arrived at Liverpool in 2023, he said the guardian: “I want to win everything because no one will ask you how it feels to be second.” The ambitious Hungarian only managed to get his hands on the Carabao Cup in his first 50 games at the club, sitting out the final against Chelsea through injury as a host of youngsters admirably helped the Reds win the last trophy from Jurgen Klopp’s tenure.

Gerrard’s goals at the start of his tenure at Liverpool revolved around status rather than silverware. “Hopefully,” the boyhood fan said in 2000, “one day, when I’m in my 30s, I’ll be captain of Liverpool.” Gerrard was only 23 years old – the same age as Szoboszlai – when he was finally handed the armband.

Liverpool were suffering their longest trophy drought since the early 1970s when Gerrard broke into the team. The prodigy failed to win a single pot or trinket in his first half-century of appearances, but would end the 2000/01 campaign with a treble of both the domestic cup and the UEFA Cup.

Just as Szoboszlai has been dubbed the ‘new Gerrard’, his legendary predecessor was hailed as the next Graeme Souness. The future club icon certainly had a bad run at the Scot and was repeatedly told to “calm down” during training. “I was going to kill them,” Gerrard said at the time, with just the whisper of a smile.

Szoboszlai does not have the same advantage as Gerrard – he has received just three yellow cards – and is proud of his unique player identity. But if the opportunity presented itself to replicate the impact of an icon, I would have to take it. “If they put a piece of paper in front of me and say you’re going to have the same career here at Liverpool, I’ll sign it straight away,” laughed Szoboszlai. BBC. At the moment, he is already ahead of Gerrard.

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