23-year-old Liverpool player says he wants to start sharing penalty duties with Mo Salah

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For a while now one man has been the undisputed penalty-taker at Liverpool. No matter who else is on the pitch, if Mohamed Salah is standing on the turf, he takes penalties for Liverpool. The Egyptian has scored in high pressure situations against some of the best goalkeepers in the world.

However, his record isn’t squeaky clean. In the last three seasons alone, Salah has missed seven penalties for Liverpool. He has scored 15, but that’s only a conversion rate of 68%, below what the average penalty success rate is at around 75%.

This is one of the few areas where Salah may actually be underperforming for Liverpool. Thankfully, this season his three missed penalties haven’t cost the Reds, with Liverpool winning all the games that he missed penalties in. However, in the past his three previous missed penalties before that saw Liverpool draw with Arsenal, and lose to Leicester and Bournemouth. So this imperfection is not something to overlook. And it seems like there is someone at Liverpool who is desperate to be taking penalties as well, and at least sharing the duties with Salah.

Dominik Szoboszlai on taking penalties for Liverpool

In an interview with Hungarian broadcaster Match4, Dominik Szoboszlai spoke about his Liverpool career to date. During the interview, Szoboszlai explained how he had to fight to take free kicks at the club, but managed to now share the duties with Trent Alexander-Arnold. He then also added this is something he would like to achieve with penalties as well.

“I fought for Trent and I to take turns taking the free kicks, and I would like to achieve this with the penalties as well,” Szoboszlai said.

This shouldn’t come as a surprise. Szoboszlai is Hungary’s regular penalty taker, and he has also taken several penalties at RB Leipzig as well. In his career, he has missed just one penalty out of 17, having a conversion rate of rate 94%, which is far above the average. These have been at high-pressure situations as well, including a last-minute equaliser against Paris Saint Germain in the Champions League, a winner against England in the Nations League, and another winner against Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga.

Based on his record, he definitely deserves a chance. Salah’s conversion rate recently has been quite poor, and it’s time someone else got the opportunity to try their luck. Szoboszlai with his proven track record seems like the perfect candidate.