Liverpool can now UNLEASH set-piece specialist
We're talking about Dominik Szoboszlai, of course.
He's not had a lot of opportunities to take free-kicks and set-pieces at Liverpool but he has proven himself as a very adept set-piece taker before his move to Anfield.
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At RB Leipzig just under 35% of his total goal contributions for the German side in the Bundesliga came from set-pieces.
In total Szoboszlai has scored eight goals directly from a free-kick during the same period as Alexander-Arnold at club level.
In that period he also has three direct free-kick goals for his country as well, against Slovakia, Turkey and Bulgaria.
As a youngster, when I spoke to Szoboszlai's father, he revealed that his son would practise around 100-200 free-kicks everyday.
That level of dedication has made the Hungarian into a deadly set-piece taker.

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