Dominik Szoboszlai tipped by international boss to thrive on Liverpool setback - 'more power'

Liverpool has collectively suffered a disappointing end to the campaign. But few have seen a more pronounced or prolonged drop-off than Dominik Szoboszlai.

It doesn't help that he set such a high bar to begin with. For the first couple of months, Szoboszlai looked like the answer to all of Liverpool's prayers, an all-action midfielder with a keen eye for goal. He was even starting to justify the bold Steven Gerrard comparisons.

But without there ever being a specific turning point, Szoboszlai's influence has seemed to slowly wane from there. He certainly couldn't be blamed for the team's overall slide, but nor did he ever step forward to help arrest it.

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That's culminated in a reduced role during the final weeks of Jürgen Klopp's tenure. Having enjoyed a remarkable run of 10 successive lots of 90 minutes in the league to begin his Liverpool career, Szoboszlai has completed just one full Premier League game since returning from injury at the start of March.

He's only started one of the last six games, and four of his five appearances from the bench have been for 15 minutes or less. But ahead of the Euros, Hungary manager Marco Rossi is not unduly concerned.

“If I have to say the truth knowing Dominik I don’t think he will arrive depressed,” Rossi told M4 Sport in Hungary. “I think that he’s thinking that in the time that he’s not spending on the pitch with Liverpool will give him more power and more freshness for our matches. I hope for this.

“But I think that he’s already focused on what he would like to do and he will do [at the Euros] because in this moment, yesterday [against Aston Villa] he played 20 minutes so it was just a warm up for him. Probably the next match will be the same.

"He’s already focused on the European Championship. He will arrive fresh and this is good overall for us. I think also that he will not suffer under the psychological aspect of this situation.”

Rossi has made Szoboszlai the captain of the national team. He's also experimented with playing him in a deeper midfield role, albeit admitting that the 'Andrea Pirlo' role didn't work as well as he had hoped.

Liverpool.com says: Liverpool won't be too concerned about how well Szoboszlai gets on at the Euros, although a confidence-boosting tournament could prove beneficial. The main thing to take from Rossi's comments, though, is the assurance that the midfielder's confidence will not be knocked.

Rossi has worked extensively with Szoboszlai, so he's in a good place to make the assessment. And while the gradual reduction of his status at Liverpool must be psychologically challenging, it appears the midfielder could be well-equipped to deal with it.

A fresh start under Arne Slot could also help in this regard. Szoboszlai will not need to win back Klopp's favor, with everyone benefitting from something of a clean slate come pre-season.