Dominik Szoboszlai has made the alarming admission that, prior to joining Liverpool, he’d heard of ‘some’ players at Anfield who seemed ‘satisfied’ at warming the bench most weeks.
Despite admitting to some off-field struggles, the Hungarian has been a smash hit during his first few months with the Reds, frequently delivering eye-catching performances and the occasional wonder goal.
The 23-year-old was speaking with journalist Mark Soos for Fodball when he revealed his astonishment over the apparent attitudes of a minority of players at LFC who’ve since left Jurgen Klopp’s squad.
Szoboszlai said: “Everyone wants to get into the starting XI, that’s normal and that’s how it should be the goal in every team. Who is satisfied with sitting on the bench? I’m going to be honest, there are a few.
“Actually, before I came here, there were some here [Liverpool] as well. I won’t name names, but I heard about it.”
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To even get anywhere close to playing for the first team at a club like Liverpool requires years of hard work and sacrifice, and no little ability, so it seems incredible to think that there may be players who’d climb that many rungs of the ladder and then have such a blasé attitude about their game-time.
Usually we hear about the other extreme, that footballers who aren’t getting picked duly become disillusioned and, in some cases, publicly eviscerate their manager.
Szoboszlai is quite right to feel somewhat shocked upon hearing that there were certain individuals at Anfield who didn’t seem overly bothered about being on the periphery of Klopp’s squad before they left the club.
Even if some players might be honest enough to realise that their opportunities may be limited if a teammate has a particular position locked down (for instance, Alisson Becker has been blocking Caoimhin Kelleher’s path for years), surely those who aren’t being picked should be exerting every last sinew to try and get into the side.
The perfect scenario for Liverpool would be to have a group of players who are all desperate to nail down a place in the first XI but humble enough not to sulk at being a substitute if they aren’t selected to start.
In this era of ample squad rotation and fixture congestion, very few footballers are left completely out in the cold, so the vast majority will get their chance…even if a certain few didn’t seem too fussed when they weren’t being picked.