Dominik Szoboszlai ruins a strong performance in the FA Cup with a mistake that the opposing coach finds ‘disrespectful’ and Arne Slot finds “strange.” Liverpool’s coach announces a conversation.
Liverpool FC needed a couple of strong substitutes to get over the first hurdle in the FA Cup. Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitiké, both brought on after an hour, set up a goal for each other in the closing stages to turn a shaky 2-1 lead against third-tier Barnsley FC into a comfortable 4-1 final score.
“We needed a lot of regulars to win today, which isn’t necessarily a compliment for me,” said coach Arne Slot, who, as announced, had actually fielded a fairly strong starting eleven. It was certainly not a compliment for Andy Robertson, Federico Chiesa & Co., who were given a chance to start for once.
The fact that things got exciting again after Jeremie Frimpong’s goal to make it 2-0 (36′) was down to one of Liverpool’s most reliable players this season: Dominik Szoboszlai, who was one of the best players on Monday, not only because of his dream long-range shot to make it 1-0 (9th minute), made a mistake four minutes after the 2-0, which, according to the coach’s statements afterwards, could be classified as somewhere between strange and disrespectful.
Slot: “You shouldn’t even do that in training.”
The former Leipzig player ran onto a ball during an attack by the visitors, dribbled it into his own penalty area and then tried to backheel it to keeper Giorgi Mamardashvili. However, he missed the ball and Adam Phillips pounced to score the equalizer. The topic of the evening was born.
“I was disappointed with our goal because he wouldn’t do that against Chelsea or Arsenal,” Barnsley coach Conor Hourihane criticized Szoboszlai on TNT Sports. When asked if the backheel attempt was disrespectful, he replied: “Yes, possibly. I don’t think he would do that in a Premier League or Champions League game. It was a bit disrespectful.“ Slot also had an opinion on the scene, ”and I will definitely let him know.“ Namely: ”I don’t think you should do that in an FA Cup game, a League Cup game, a friendly game, or even in training,“ Slot publicly rebuked Szoboszlai. ”It was a strange decision.”
Szoboszlai apologizes
The Hungarian will have to report to his coach, because even though his mistake did not decide the game, it did cost his team unnecessary energy. “It’s not the first time we’ve been 2-0 up, had everything under control, and then conceded a sloppy or cheap goal,” Slot said angrily. “But even by our standards, this stands out when it comes to sloppy and cheap goals.”
Szoboszlai was aware of his guilt. “I’m sorry for the team. I made it difficult for us with a simple mistake,” he apologized. “But we’re through to the next round.” And Slot knew that Szoboszlai had also contributed plenty of positives to that.