Arne Slot made a tactical call that raised eyebrows before Monday\u2019s fixture against Newcastle United: he named Dominik Szoboszlai at right back.<\/p>\n
Slot confirmed the decision on Sky Sports and set out the reasoning behind the switch. \u201cJoe Gomez not ready to start yet, but he can have an impact in the game, starting comes too early,\u201d Slot said. \u201cThe best is Dominik Szoboszlai. He is still an attacking midfielder but because of his work rate and defending, we thought he could play there.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt helps that Ryan Gravenberch is back because he\u2019s better at positioning than the midfielders we had last game. I am expecting Newcastle to go one-v-one all over the pitch. The moment they go to a low block, the freedom is there for the fullbacks.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the starting XI Szoboszlai joined Ibrahima Konate, Virgil Van Dijk and Milos Kerkez in a back four. Potential right back substitutes Conor Bradley and Joe Gomez were named on the bench. Slot also made two other changes to the side: Curtis Jones replaced Alexis Mac Allister, who did not dress for the match, and Ryan Gravenberch returned in midfield. Florian Wirtz kept his role in the No. 10 position.<\/p>\n
Szoboszlai has featured as a fullback in some of Liverpool\u2019s preseason matches this year, but the position is not his natural one. The manager\u2019s explanation stressed work rate and defensive contribution as deciding factors rather than a permanent conversion. It remains unclear whether the Hungary international will be used at right back in future emergencies or whether this is a one-off tactical response to specific personnel availability and the expected pattern of the opponent.<\/p>\n
Slot\u2019s selection underlines a willingness to adapt personnel to match scenarios and to prioritise game management when some usual options are judged not ready to start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Slot started Szoboszlai at right back and explained the tactical reasons behind the switch. Tonight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2061,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,194],"tags":[299,223,409],"class_list":["post-2062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-newcastle-united","tag-arne-slot","tag-dominik-szoboszlai","tag-ibrahima-konate"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2062"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2064,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2062\/revisions\/2064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2061"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}