Jamie Carragher questioned Dominik Szoboszlai’s place in Andoni Iraola’s Liverpool team on Sky Sports, while Sturridge and journalist David Lynch discussed his deeper midfield role and his performance against Fenerbahce.
Szoboszlai was outstanding for Liverpool last season and won player of the year. He has found the start of the current campaign more difficult, thanks in part to injury but also – according to Carragher – because of Iraola’s use of him in the double pivot.
Carragher on the midfield partnership
“The discussion that has been there all pre-season and all season is the balance of Liverpool’s midfield. You’ve got Szoboszlai there and Mac Allister – again, individually, two really good players, talented players, but do they work as a partnership in there?” Carragher said on Sky Sports.
Suitability for the double pivot
“So will Liverpool’s midfielders vacate that position a lot? Yes, Szoboszlai will, that’s one of the reasons why he’s probably not 100 per cent suited, I think, to that double pivot,” Carragher said on Sky Sports.
Sturridge on positioning
Football365 said Sturridge agreed with his former Reds team-mate and urged Szoboszlai to consider his positioning more in that deeper midfield role. Sturridge said: “But I think the reason why Liverpool are open is because they don’t have someone who’s reading in front of the defence, and both of the midfielders, whether it’s Mac Allister or Szoboszlai, have a tendency to vacate that space in front of the defence because of the press the manager wants to do.”
Lynch's assessment against Fenerbahce
Journalist David Lynch said on Anfield Index’s Media Matters podcast: “A terrible night. He was just very, very poor.”
Lynch also said: “And he was dreadful. There’s just no two ways of talking about it, really.”
