Although he is not the fastest player in Premier League history, as is sometimes claimed, Liverpool’s Dominik Szoboszlai may not be far behind.
Szoboszlai has become a regular since Saturday’s 3-1 win at Wolves when he was tackled and slotted past Pedro Neto on the break.
The clip led to sensational claims on social media that the Hungarian had scored the second fastest goal in Premier League history.
Szoboszlai was expected to finish behind only Kyle Walker, whose 37.31 km/h was said to be the only sprint better than his 36.76 km/h at Molineux.
Quick statistics are not readily available and do not reliably date back to the start of the Premier League in 1992, making comparisons difficult. But Szoboszlai’s stats are certainly up and the Mail’s Lewis Steele brings Opta’s numbers.
According to Opta, Szoboszlai’s speed of 36.76km/h since the start of the 2020/21 season is third behind Walker (37.31km/h) and Luton’s Chiedozie Ogbene (36.93km/h).
That takes the 22-year-old ahead of Antonio Rudiger, Brennan Johnson, Adama Traore, Mohamed Salah, Tariq Lamptey, Mykhailo Mudryk and Anthony Gordon over the last three seasons and into the new campaign.
Also, according to Steele, only five players covered more distance than Szoboszlai combined this season.
Szoboszlai ran 57.7 kilometers in Liverpool’s first five games, an average of 11.54 kilometers per game, or 7.7 kilometers per hour. Dejan Kulusevski, Bruno Fernandes, Philip Billing, Declan Rice and Rodri are the only players in the Premier League who have run more.
It comes after another round of Szoboszlai’s status spread over the weekend, with the No.8 winning 30 more tackles in his first five starts than Jordan Henderson did in the same period last season.
Szoboszlai played a big part in two crucial goals as Liverpool came back to beat Bournemouth also 3-1. He won Salah’s penalty 2-1 and saw his shot flow into the path of Diogo Jota.
