The Midweek Maxi #9: Complete Midfielders, Piss Poor Pointless Takes & The Miracle of Istanbul

Our new Liverpool FC weekly compendium. News. Stats. Views. Debate. Links. Data. Insights. Delights.

To read about why we’ve replaced Free Friday with The Midweek Maxi, see the intro to the first edition.

So far the bumper weekly roundup is going down extremely well with paying subscribers:

This week:

• Excerpts and links to the different pieces we've published across the TTT Substack network, prior to the paywall kicking in;

• Andrew Beasley’s Weekly Stats Analysis, this week looking at some an important metric: the availability of players.

• Then, some of the best comments from the site this past week;

• Next, Daniel Zambartas’ bumper LFC News, Media & Transfer Round-Up;

• And then finally, bit of Midweek Moby (the TTT stalwart, not the beautiful bald middle-aged man), for the third mini-article of new writing within this week’s Maxi.

Job done! (Oh, and it’s also a discussion thread for the issues raised.)

Note: the Maxi may exceed the email size limit on Substack, but the whole piece can be read online by paying subscribers.

TTT Network Roundup

Links and excerpts to articles on the various TTT sites, which are run by different people and require separate subscriptions to this, the TTT Main Hub.

TTT Main Hub

For obvious reasons, Paul’s main focus this week was on the somewhat unexpected signing of midfield allrounder Dominik Szoboszlai from Red Bull Leipzig.

Szoboszlai, Salah and Alexander-Arnold Could Be Unstoppable Right-Side for Liverpool

Anyway, as such, I tried to create an estimated radar for Szoboszlai as a ‘midfielder’, looking at the data and percentiles of other midfielders. (This radar is slightly different from the previous ones I’ve created.)

And as a midfielder, his numbers are outstanding, and bear comparison with those of Bellingham, Joelinton (a big factor in Newcastle's rise) and Ødegaard.

As you can see, Szoboszlai ticks a lot of boxes, when judged against midfielders in the main five European leagues:

Look at Szoboszlai vs elite peers:

Shot Creating Actions

• Szoboszlai 5.09

• Ødegaard 4.81

• Bellingham 4.01

• Joelinton 2.71

And on other metrics, he fares well by comparison, too:

Progressive Carries

• Bellingham 3.06

• Szoboszlai 2.62

• Ødegaard 2.46

• Joelinton 2.16

And on npxG + xAG, which is non-penalty expected goals plus expected assists per 90, the four rank as follows:

• Ødegaard 0.53

• Szoboszlai 0.48

• Bellingham 0.37

• Joelinton 0.32

Next up is a reaction to some of the analysis that followed the signing of Szoboszlai, and in particular a couple of sections of Paul Joyce’s piece in The Times.

Really Bad Takes on Liverpool Signing Dominik Szoboszlai Help No One [Free Read]

I have no issue with Paul Joyce's coverage of Liverpool in The Times – I've rarely seen anything to disagree with and find him a reliable news source – but he just wrote a couple of weird passages in a piece on Dominik Szoboszlai that made no sense from a logical point of view.

As such, this article is also about some bad arguments in general, which I often hear and which drive me mad, and not just the ones raised by Joyce.

But here’s the first thing that I found odd:

"And therein lies the rub for Liverpool. In the last 18-months alone, Jürgen Klopp has spent around £250 million on initial fees [recouping about £62 million] so the cry of being unable to compete rings a little hollow. The focus has to be on extracting more from Darwin Núñez [£65m], Cody Gakpo [£37m] and Luis Díaz [£37m] before we get to new boys Alexis Mac Allister [£35m] and now Szoboszlai..."

While he likely won't have chosen the headlines himself, the:

"Dominik Szoboszlai must ensure he is more than just a highlights reel"

and subhead of:

YouTube montages which don’t tell the full story are all too common... Szoboszlai must buck the trend if he is to deliver value on Liverpool’s decision to trigger his £60 million release clause"

… are pretty dumb.

Anyone should be more than a highlights reel!

For starters, £35m and £37m is getting close to 'peanuts' for a Big Six signing these days. (More on that later.)

Next, "the cry of being unable to compete rings a little hollow" is not something anyone has made since signing Mac Allister and Szoboszlai.

I mean, not much at all has happened since they signed. It’s early July.

That said, spending £95m on two players is very nice, but still very different from spending £105m, £106m and £115m on a single player, to reference Declan Rice, Enzo Fernandez and Jude Bellingham.

Plus, Mac Allister and Szoboszlai's combined wages will be considerably less of those paid individually to Rice, Bellingham, and even Kai Havertz at Arsenal. Erling Haaland's wages are reported to be around six times what either Mac Allister or Szoboszlai will be paid, which is another distortion Man City like to make when claiming to not be big spenders.

Dynasty

This instalment of this major series on Dynasty focuses on the Miracle of Istanbul, with Rafa Benitez’s remarkable Champions League win in 2005.

Originally a series of articles covering the period 1992 to Klopp’s arrival in 2017, it was written by TTT Subscriber Anthony Stanley, serialised on The Tomkins Times and then published by TTT as a book called A BANQUET WITHOUT WINE - A Quarter-Century of Liverpool FC in the Premier League Era.

A Quarter of a Century of Liverpool FC in the Premier League Era, 1992-2017, Part 8

The Transfer Hub

Mizgan’s analysis this week is on our new shiny signing, the Hungarian captain - Dominik Szoboszlai - and what he would offer to the Reds.

Scouting Report: Dominik Szoboszlai, Analysing The Hungarian Playmaker

As touched upon in the previous section, Szoboszlai is a player with a high versatility quotient. At Leipzig in the 2022/23 season, the 22-year-old was used as a right winger, attacking midfielder, right-sided midfielder and a support striker.

In his career so far, the Hungarian has started 59 games as a central midfielder, 37 as an attacking midfielder, 33 as a left-sided midfielder, 27 as a right winger, 26 as a left winger, 13 as a right-sided midfielder and once as a number nine.

That is some collection to have for a player who operates well wherever he is asked to play. His performances hardly dip when playing in different positions throughout the course of a season.

…

The 22-year-old is just a remarkable all-round midfield player who can be a lock-in as a right-sided midfielder in a 4-3-3 system under Jürgen Klopp. With Trent Alexander-Arnold probably continuing to play the hybrid role, Szoboszlai has the experience of playing as a wide midfielder on the right. Hence, he will join attacks, create chances and combine with Mohamed Salah in possession, and can track back to help the team out in transitions.

The best thing about all of this is his age - 22. It is possibly an ideal time to sign a player who is already very good but can improve because the development window in his game is still open.

Have a look at a YouTube compilation video to round this off - link.

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