After watching the last few games — and listening to every take under the sun about what Iraola wants versus what our players are actually doing — I've landed at a crossroads. And I'm pretty sure the Liverpool hierarchy is standing right there with me.
The question is simple to ask and brutal to answer: how do we turn our highest-paid players into genuinely significant pieces of this squad? Take one honest look at the payroll and you might be quietly asking yourself: did we make a mistake here?
The Contract Reality
Gravenberch is our second-highest earner, contracted until 2032. Read that again. Is this real? Part of me wonders if it's another Dutch swindle — Slot never had any qualms about making sure his Dutch contingent were paid and playing. Because purely on merit, I don't understand how Gravenberch earned a bigger deal than Szoboszlai.
Yes, he played a HUGE role in us winning the league when Slot experimented with him as the deepest midfielder — restricting him to be the cover man for Trent, the same way Hendo used to be reined in. But the moment we lost Trent, one of two things became true: either he's now being told to push forward more, or that's simply his profile and, be damned what the coach or the team needs, he's going forward and leaving our defense exposed to chase his own game.
And trusting Szoboszlai to cover? Fool's gold. Sure, he'll drift into the "Trent spot" and ping the occasional Trent-like ball, but his tackling and his angles leave a lot to be desired. We all know his real strength is edge-of-the-box shooting. His appetite for 50-50s is lacking, and his speed of thought is slow. He routinely kills quick transitions because he won't attempt the through ball or the ball over the top — even when the run is there for the entire stadium to see. We know he could play it if he just tried, and that's the single most frustrating thing about him. Honestly, it might be the ONLY frustrating thing about him. I could be completely at peace with his game — twinkle toes and all — if he'd just do more with those quick-transition moments.
So here's where we are: two very highly paid players who don't quite do what we need to be ULTRA-competitive in the Premier League. Iraola now has to juggle a long-term bet the club has already placed against the short-term need to win right now.
The options aren't pretty:
- Force it. Play Gravenberch and Szoboszlai as a double pivot for months until it finally clicks — and probably draw or lose half our games while they learn.
- Rotate around it. Spread minutes across all our midfielders in a way that keeps them involved but keeps the team solid.
- Cut bait. Drop them, accept they're a liability, and try to sell — which their contracts make almost impossible.
That last one is the trap. No club is coming near the valuation of these contracts. They might match the valuation of the player, but not the deal. Given the length, if we're not getting 100m+ for either one, it isn't even a conversation — and we're not getting that on current form, no matter how many outside-the-box screamers Szoboszlai produces. Because that and running are pretty much the only two things he does at an ELITE level. Everything else needs serious work.
So after watching preseason, this opening spate of games, and the way Iraola clearly wants us to play, I think the path is to thread the needle: keep the midfield solid while feeding these two the minutes they need to eventually figure out the double-pivot partnership between them. That's the long-term vision the club paid for. That's the reality of those contracts. Hughes — or whoever — wanted Gravenberch and Szoboszlai here for the foreseeable future, so here we are.
The Alternative We Just Saw
With all that said: starting Mac Allister and Nyoni in the cup made perfect sense — ESPECIALLY after the boring 0-0 that Gravenberch and Szoboszlai cooked up for us the game before. And immediately, I saw the thing that's been missing: two players relentlessly covering for each other, and two players constantly looking for forward runs.
Let the numbers tell the rest.
The Numbers
Carabao Cup vs Tottenham (3-1)
Trey Nyoni — 62 min
- Passing: 37/39 accurate (95%), long balls 2/2, passes into final 3rd 2, chances created 0
- Attack: 1 shot (0 on target, 1 blocked), 48 touches, xG 0.02 / xA 0.08
- Defense: 3 tackles, 1 interception, 2 clearances, 6 recoveries, 6 defensive actions
- Duels: 4 won / 1 lost — ground 3/4 (75%), aerial 1/1 (100%), 0 fouls, dispossessed 1
Alexis Mac Allister — 90 min
- Passing: 29/35 (83%), long balls 2/3 (67%), crosses 0/2, passes into final 3rd 10, chances created 2 (1 big chance)
- Attack: 4 shots (1 on target, 2 off, 1 blocked), dribbles 2/2, 52 touches (3 in box), xG 0.38 / xGOT 0.57, 2 corners
- Defense: 1 tackle, 1 interception, 3 clearances, 1 recovery, 5 defensive actions, dribbled past 2
- Duels: 5 won / 5 lost — ground 5/10 (50%), 3 fouls committed, fouled 2
Ryan Gravenberch — 28 min
- Passing: 11/11 (100%), long balls 1/1, passes into final 3rd 1, chances created 1
- Attack: 0 shots, 22 touches
- Defense: 3 tackles, 2 interceptions, 2 clearances (both headed), 3 recoveries, 7 defensive actions
- Duels: 4 won / 3 lost — ground 3/5 (60%), aerial 1/2, 0 fouls, dispossessed 2
Dominik Szoboszlai — 28 min
- Passing: 9/11 (82%), crosses 1/3 (33%), passes into final 3rd 1, chances created 0
- Attack: 2 shots (both on target), 1 big chance missed, 21 touches (2 in box), xG 0.59 / xGOT 1.01, 2 corners
- Defense: 1 tackle, 1 interception, 2 recoveries, 2 defensive actions
- Duels: 1 won / 3 lost — ground 1/4 (25%), 1 foul committed
Because it's hard to see the real picture off the Spurs cameo minutes alone, here are Gravenberch and Szoboszlai from the full Fulham game for comparison:
Dominik Szoboszlai — 90 min
- Passing: 42/52 (81%), long balls 6/6 (100%), crosses 3/9 (33%), passes into final 3rd 9, line-breaking passes 11, chances created 4 (3 big chances)
- Attack: 2 shots (1 on target), 77 touches, xG 0.12 / xA 0.28, 3 corners
- Defense: 0 tackles, 1 interception, 2 clearances, 3 recoveries, 6 defensive actions
- Duels: 1 won / 9 lost — ground 1/9 (11%), 4 fouls committed, dispossessed 3
- Physical: 10.97 km covered, 12 sprints, top speed 30.3 km/h
Ryan Gravenberch — 60 min
- Passing: 24/30 (80%), long balls 2/3 (67%), passes into final 3rd 3, line-breaking passes 7, chances created 1
- Attack: 1 shot (0 on target), 47 touches, xG 0.04
- Defense: 2 tackles, 1 interception, 5 clearances (3 headed), 1 recovery, 10 defensive actions, 1 block
- Duels: 4 won / 3 lost — ground 2/5 (40%), aerial 2/2 (100%), 1 foul committed
- Physical: 7.24 km covered, 6 sprints, top speed 30.1 km/h
Stats vs. Eyes
On paper, this reads clean: Gravenberch is the defensive one, Szoboszlai is the offensive one. But when I actually watch, I'd swear Gravenberch drifts into the final third more often than Szoboszlai does. The eye test and the box score keep pulling in different directions.
Weigh it all together, though, and I still think Szoboszlai gives us more of a net positive than Gravenberch. His miracle shooting carries all the other flaws in his game. Gravenberch doesn't have the passing accuracy or the shot output to offset his deficiencies the same way.
Then I watch Nyoni and Mac Allister, and the math shifts again. I basically get the Szoboszlai shots from Mac Allister — not as thunderous, but bangers all the same. And Nyoni's forward-passing accuracy and off-the-ball covering are proving to be ELITE. At least ELITE for our team.
So Who Starts the Pivot?
Or do we abandon the pivot entirely, pivot (pun intended) onto Wirtz, and turn this into a Klopp-style Christmas-tree midfield?
Personally? I haven't given up on carrying a luxury 10. Mac Allister has earned his spot until his form dips. Nyoni would start too — but he's still a touch too young to go every three days, so you have to rotate no matter what. And if the rotation is with two of our highest-paid players, then sadly, Nyoni is the one who gets overlooked for a while. Remember the whole point: the goal is to MAKE Szoboszlai and Gravenberch figure it out. And we clearly think they can — otherwise, why hand them 5+ year deals? You don't give a player a contract that size unless you believe he can adapt to whatever's asked.
The Plan
For the next five games, here's how I'd run it:
- Start Mac Allister + Szoboszlai.
- Bring Gravenberch on at 60' for Mac Allister.
- Let Szobo and Gravenberch run the double pivot for ~10-15 minutes.
- Then bring on Nyoni to close it out.
When a lower-stakes game rolls around — a cup tie or a Coventry-type opponent where I can really rotate — I start Nyoni over Mac Allister and give him the full 60. And if Szoboszlai is genuinely out of form, I start Gravenberch and give him 75.
Ride these four, get real results, and limit the amount of time Szoboszlai and Gravenberch spend as the partnership until they've earned more of it.
In the meantime, I'd make Szoboszlai and Gravenberch be bunk mates on every single road trip and tell them, plainly, that their careers here depend on learning to get along and understand each other. Once we actually see it click, we give them a 60-minute starts together to prove it holds.
Be honest about the timeline, though. If after three months of this it still isn't working, we're going to have a hard time offloading either of them for something different — so we might be running this exact rotation for the next two years, until we finally land a pivot that fits together as naturally as Nyoni and Mac Allister already seem to.
A Footnote on McConnell (and Wirtz)
I'm not going to dismiss McConnell's effect on all of this. Having a hardworking third midfielder instead of a pure luxury 10 does take the edge off. But I honestly don't remember a moment where McConnell dropped in as the deepest man to facilitate the other two. He didn't save us any more than Wirtz would have — he wasn't meaningfully more defensive than Wirtz already is.
I routinely see Wirtz help the midfield when he can, and then, once the ball drops past a certain depth, set himself up as a transition outlet. To me, that's the correct read — unless he has to cover for someone. But maybe Wirtz saw something worth changing watching from the bench, comparing his own game to McConnell's. Here's hoping.