Adam Wharton has long been linked with a Liverpool switch.
The midfielder joined Crystal Palace from Blackburn Rovers a couple of years ago and managed to cement himself as a more than solid Premier League midfielder.
In fact, the Englishman has even received a call-up to the national team due to the performances he’s put out over the years.
And, even though most of the Premier League’s big six have been vying for his transfer recently, Liverpool are the ones who constantly seem to get linked with the 21-year-old.
In fact, there were even a couple of murmurs about a potential move in the 2025-26 summer transfer window for Wharton, but in the end, nothing came to fruition.
This means that Wataru Endo and Ryan Gravenberch are Slot’s defensive midfield options for the rest of the campaign.
However, if one Liverpool player’s performance for his national team is anything to go off, they could have a third option to choose from.
Dominik Szoboszlai could be used deeper at Liverpool after what he did for Hungary on Tuesday
It goes without saying that Dominik Szoboszlai has been one of Liverpool’s best players this season.
The Hungary international has been used out of position for most of the campaign at right-back, but that hasn’t stopped him from thriving with the midfielder even getting himself a goal against Arsenal.
During the international break, Hungary have drawn against the Republic of Ireland and have lost 3-2 against Portugal.
The latter of the two games was where Szoboszlai really shone, however, even though he played a tad deeper than usual.
This is backed up by Sofascore’s heatmap of Szoboszlai, which shows that he spent most of the game in his own half.
The midfielder also managed to win 71 per cent of his ground duels and even maintained a pass accuracy of 73 per cent.
Defensively, he was also fairly solid as he managed to make two clearances, one interception and two tackles.
This performance alone shows that Szoboszlai could do the business in defensive midfield if needed, with his defensive ability already shown after Slot chose to start him at right-back while Jeremie Frimpong was injured.
What Hungarian media thought of Dominik Szoboszlai’s performance
Now that Milos Kerkez has joined Liverpool, Slot has two of Hungary’s best players at his disposal.
And, although Kerkez is an exceptional talent, it’s hard to look past how important Szoboszlai actually is for his country.
After their game against Portugal on Tuesday, Hungarian media shared their thoughts on their country’s performance with Nemzeti Sport, highlighting the fact that the midfielder started ‘deeper’ than usual.
“He started deeper than usual, so he was involved in the game often, trying to play short and helping our team bring the ball out of the box with his short passes, earning applause for a sliding tackle,” they wrote.
“Before Hungary’s goal, he launched Zsolt Nagy brilliantly, registering thirty touches with ninety percent passing accuracy before half-time.
“His playmaking ability is outstanding, but if he played further forward, we could create more chances, as he was too far from Barnabás Varga.
“His clearance in the 50th minute was greeted with loud applause.
“However, it was a big mistake to pass toward Milos Kerkez during the intense pressing before Portugal’s third goal.”
At the moment, it’s anyone’s guess how Slot could line his team now that Frimpong, Conor Bradley and Joe Gomez are all likely to be back in action.
One thing is for sure, however, with the form that Szoboszlai finds himself in at the moment, it’s going to be difficult for his manager to drop him from his starting XI.
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