Dominik Szoboszlai Scouting Report

I was going to avoid a Szoboszlai scouting report for a few weeks. Mainly for a few reasons:

• I hadn’t seen that play that much. Not as much as I’d like to, and with work/life… I didn’t think I had the time to bulk-watch

• Every time I say his name I pronounce it differently… So I don’t feel as qualified to write about him

I’d heard a lot of good things though, and the little I had seen was positive. However, we know how quickly the hype-train gathers momentum.

For example, I did see a Social Media post talking him up about scoring a hattrick, and all goals were either a penalty or a tap in… So that’s a sign that the hype is real.

So, I thought I’d try to find a few extra hours and do a bit of a deep dive on Szoboszlai for you and see how he stacks up.

Player Profile

Name Dominik Szoboszlai
Age 20 (2000)
Nationality Hungary
Position Attacker/Winger
Club Red Bull Salzburg
Rookie Year 2019 Season Rookie Stickers

About Dominik Szoboszlai

I don’t want to bury the lead here, so I’ll come out and say it… The first thing I noticed when I looked at Szoboszlai play in Austria is that he’s too good for that league.

So, that’s a good thing going forward.

You’d want him to be a class above in Austria.

However, he’s not the next great number 10 (I don’t think so anyway), and I think there’s a lot to his underlying numbers that aren’t too great going forward. However, he’s still a very talented young prospect that’s getting some good hype and if he gets the right move he could improve going forward.

Still, I think the hype at the moment is a bit much. I’ll dive into why.

Like I said, the first thing I noticed is that he’s a gun in Austria. This season, Szoboszlai towards the top in Austria for goals, assists, key passes, and all those other good metrics.

However, it’s his xG that concerns me a tad.

Don’t get me wrong, seeing score worldies from outside the box is great, but check out these long shots on his shot chart.

There’s a whole lot of shots from outside the box here. That and penalties.

An attacker that lives off long-shots and penalties can be a bit of a catfish.

And sure, he has been scoring a lot of those long-range shots but there’s a lot of low-chance shots here.

Just check out his xG bucket distribution. Most of his shots, and most of his goals, are coming from shots that have an xG under 0.1.

Or, less than a 10% chance of going in.

Is that sustainable long term?

Time will tell, but that’s a very hard thing to do. Over the last calendar year, he’s scored 11 goals in Austria off 7.46 xG. To me it says it’ll revert back to the mean.

Here’s a goal of his from a recent Nations League match. And sure, Iceland are better than his opposition but check this goal out.

Don’t get me wrong…. Bloody amazing goal, and what a moment to score it.

However, that’s by no means a sustainable play.

In fact, if that doesn’t go in, there’s a fair claim that he held on to the ball too long and missed a few good passes.

For me, the most impressive part of that play was the acceleration.

In fact, it’s the verticality in his game that stood out to me first. He’s great at gaining ground on the opposition. Usually running at defenders and accelerating to create space or passing options; He’s averaging 2.7 progressive runs this season, which is up from his totals last season.

Most of these runs, are starting from the left-hand-side and cutting in at an angle, opening up his body and setting up either passing or shooting options.

He also attempts these runs into the box too, with the carry being the most prominent way of getting the ball into the best attacking positions along with the key passes (more on that later).

Again, like the shooting, I’ll be interested to see how Szoboszlai’s attacking runs work against better opposition week-in and week-out.

However, his small sample size in the Champions League this season has been promising, with seven progressive runs against Bayern.

I feel like I’m being overly negative here. I think Szoboszlai is a good young player. I just think a lot of the talk I’m seeing about his goalscoring this season needs a bit of cool water thrown on it for now.

For me, the goals are at a ‘wait and see’ stage.

One part of his game that I think will translate well is the set ball work. Especially corners.

Looking at his assists/shot assists, you can see just how many come from a corner.

He’s just as lethal with a free kick too, whipping balls into dangerous areas.

More and more clubs, especially with analytics-based approaches, are focusing in a massive way on set pieces, so having the delivery of a guy like Szoboszlai is always a bonus.

If he gets the space he can also hit those killer balls in open play too, which is something that all interested clubs will be looking at.

Szoboszlai has a god rate of close to 2.5 attempted through balls per 90 minutes, with a completion rate of 55%, which means that he’s setting a teammate up around once a match. He also has high deep-completion pass rate and percentage.

Combine those traits with his set pieces, and you can start to see how he can stake a claim as being a potentially top playmaker.

He still makes a few mistakes like holding the ball for too long when dribbling or carrying the ball, and sometimes rushing a through pass. Which is weird in a way because they kinda contradict each other.

In a way, it’s almost like some of his plays are premediated. Rather than make the read at the time, he already knows what he’s going to do (like “run at these guys and shoot” or “try this cute chipped through pass even though I’m back-to-goal”) and it can lead to making the wrong decision if it doesn’t come off.

However, he’s only young so I’m not too concerned about that really. He’s at least trying to make stuff happen.

And he’s good enough to make the passes, or the dribble. It’s just a case of when to do it.

It’s funny because it’s not just those cute killer passes he can hit either, when he’s not hitting his dribble, he can read the field incredibly well. Here’s a great example, hitting the switch and creating a one-on-one for his teammate.

I really like that pass. Shifts the entire defensive structure and plays like that can easily cause a miscommunication or find players out of position. Not to mention all the space his teammate was in.

I’m way higher on Szoboszlai’s passing, set pieces, and ball-carrying.

What’s Next For Szoboszlai?

For Szoboszlai, the next step is to get out of Austria. While RB are a good side playing in an okay league, he needs to test himself on a bigger stage consistently (I’m talking week-in-week-out, so no Champions League).

And he should get that chance sooner rather than later. He has a £22.5m release clause, which is extremely reasonable considering Szoboszlai’s age and talent.

With a price like that, he should get picked up this window, or the next one.

A lot of the talk is that Arsenal are going to buy him in January. And, for me, that makes a lot of sense.

• He’ll be cup-tied, but Arsenal aren’t in the Champions League anyway

• Arsenal need someone to come in and try to create something in the final third… ANYTHING in the final third

Although his fit at Arsenal isn’t perfect. He’s done most of his damage out on the left-hand-side, and Arsenal have been Aubameyang out there (granted, he hasn’t been having the best season).

I’m also unsure if Szoboszlai’s creativity will fit into Arsenal straight away. A lot of the time he won’t be able to try those cute through balls against Premier League defenders. However, at the very least, his set pieces will be a threat until the kinks in his game are ironed out.

Although, Arsenal seem to be a bit of a work-in-process at the moment.

There’s also no guarentee that he’ll go to Arsenal… I’m just reading tea-leaves here. However, like I said, he’s a very talented young player and will get a good run at a bigger club either this January, or for next season. It’s up to Szoboszlai to take that chance!

Dominik Szoboszlai For Collectors

Dominik Szoboszlai’s rookie sticker started to gain traction because he was one of the only other two or three players worth looking at after you took Haaland out of the Austria 2019 boxes.

However, Szoboszlai has been making a name for himself over the past year or so, and his prices have grown steadily.

His rookie sticker from the Austrian League in 2019 is the go-to product for Szoboszlai. And the best part is, you can rip a box looking for Haaland and still end up with a great young player in Szoboszlai.

He’s got more product coming out this season for the Champions League, and from what I can see - the cards look great!

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