In the midst of a 2025-26 season that hasn’t gone quite to plan for defending Premier League champions Liverpool, there has been one player who has repeatedly set himself apart as the standout. One player who, no matter how the rest of the team looks, can be counted on to put in an effective, determined shift.

For Liverpool this season, the standout has clearly been Dominik Szoboszlai. It doesn’t seem to matter where manager Arne Slot lines up the Hungarian international, who has made an impact as a midfielder, support forward, and at fullback. It’s just a matter of putting him on the pitch and watching him get to work.

“I’m happy that I can play at a level like that but I just need to keep going,” Szoboszlai said following Tuesday night’s 1-0 victory over Real Madrid in the Champions League where he was key to a stellar team performance, Liverpool’s second on the bounce following a strong victory over the weekend against Aston Villa.

“Finally we are keeping clean sheets, and that’s the most important. We have a rule, after five seconds, it’s everyone get back behind the ball. I think the last two or three games, everybody is doing it. The new guys also showed their quality, and especially today I have to mention Florian [Wirtz], he just kept running.”

Wirtz impressed both with his work-rate and his skills on the ball on Tuesday, putting in arguably his strongest performance since joining Liverpool over the summer, and finding ways to get both Szoboszai and Wirtz on the pitch together—especially if both are putting in the hard yards—will be key to the Reds’ hopes.

Next up, after top performances against Villa and Madrid, Liverpool get a relatively long four day break before facing Manchester City in a clash between the current first and second place sides in the Premier League, and both will be desperate for all three points as they seek to close the gap on current leaders Arsenal.