Not Ngumoha: Arne Slot wowed by ‘mentality’ of tireless Liverpool beast with 89% pass completion | OneFootball

Rio Ngumoha grabbed the headlines with his stoppage-time winner, but Arne Slot was keen to praise another Liverpool player who was crucial to the dramatic victory over Newcastle last night.

With Jeremie Frimpong injured, Conor Bradley only fit enough to make the bench having just come back from his own layoff and Joe Gomez lacking match fitness, Dominik Szoboszlai was pressed into action in an unfamiliar right-back role.

The Hungarian midfielder was faced with a potentially thankless task against the Magpies, but he rose to the challenge with a tireless performance at St James’ Park on Monday.

Slot praises Szoboszlai ‘mentality’ v Newcastle

Speaking after the match, Slot highlighted the 24-year-old’s contribution to the result by heaping praise on the mental fortitude that he showed in such testing circumstances.

The Liverpool head coach said of Szoboszlai (via liverpoolfc.com): “Talking about mentality, it is not easy to play as a full-back if you’ve only been a midfielder in your career. He played there once in pre-season – I think it was against Stoke when we played behind closed doors – but in that game we only had the ball and now he had to defend a lot.

“For him to put in a performance like that, you can say a lot about his mentality – as you can about all the players because this was mentally such a difficult evening, such a difficult place to go to, such a difficult opponent to play against. For us to be able to get a result, let alone getting a win, is a big compliment for the boys.”

(Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)

Szoboszlai was an unsung hero for Liverpool last night

Slot referenced the pre-season game in which Szoboszlai lined out at right-back, but this was his first time doing so in a competitive match (Transfermarkt), and he was something of an unsung hero for Liverpool last night.

His tremendous performance wasn’t lost on Ian Doyle, who awarded him a 9/10 in his player ratings for the Liverpool Echo and wrote: ‘Worked so hard as emergency right-back and defended well at far post on occasion. Began to find space going forward once Newcastle were down to 10, and restored to midfield late on and dummied brilliantly for winner.’

Indeed he had a key role to play in Ngumoha’s stoppage-time goal by having the presence of mind to let the ball run through to the 16-year-old from Mo Salah’s low cross, a largely unheralded yet pivotal contribution from our number 8.

As per Sofascore, Szoboszlai completed 40 of his 45 passes last night (89% success), won one duel and one tackle, made four clearances, executed four accurate long balls and lost possession only seven times from 58 touches.

He also restricted Harvey Barnes’ influence on the left flank as the Newcastle winger failed to record a shot or complete a dribble all night and was limited to just 16 touches of the ball.

In a game where the Hungarian was thrown in at the deep end at right-back and had to either sink or swim, it was very much a case of the latter, with his strong performance reassuring Slot that he could adapt to that role again if needed for the team.