Liverpool Star Slams Teammate as Szoboszlai Criticism Reaches Breaking Point
Andy Robertson harshly criticized Dominik Szoboszlai's error against Barnsley in the FA Cup third round as "completely unacceptable," questioning whether the Anfield crowd's praise "affected his judgment" as the Liverpool midfielder faced consequences for his mistake.
Szoboszlai had opened the scoring on Monday evening, unleashing a spectacular long-range shot into the top corner. Jeremie Frimpong responded with a powerful strike of his own before Szoboszlai undid his good work by gifting the opposition a goal with a careless error in his own penalty area.
While attempting to pass the ball back to goalkeeper Giorgi Mamardashvili, Liverpool's No. 8 managed to hand Adam Phillips a golden opportunity with an open goal. Barnsley boss Conor Hourihane criticized the move as "showing disrespect," stating: "He wouldn't attempt that against Chelsea or Arsenal."
Robertson shared similar criticism of his teammate Szoboszlai's conduct. "What's annoying is Dom makes this incredible 60-yard run to begin with," the left-back explained following the 4–1 victory. "He's receiving applause from the Kop and I'm not sure if that perhaps affected his thinking.
"We can laugh about it now but it's completely unacceptable to concede a goal in that manner. Dom clearly understands that. He's been outstanding for us this season and performed well again today. He simply had a momentary lapse in focus, and we cannot tolerate many of those in the six-yard area.
"I believe Gio [Mamardashvili] wasn't pleased either. He aims to maintain a clean sheet, the defense wants to preserve a clean sheet too, so it wasn't ideal. It provided them a route back into the match and remained 2–1 for an extended period. It created some tension but we managed to secure the result.
"I think we all voiced our concerns [to Szoboszlai] immediately, but he recognized his error and offered an apology during the break. If anyone's displays are beyond criticism this season, it's Dom's. He's given 100% in every match this season and has this momentary loss of focus which isn't ideal. We really cannot afford such mistakes in the more significant fixtures."
Liverpool boss Arne Slot would contend that certain squad members couldn't afford such an error even in cup competition.
Slot Regrets His Own Error Following the Blunder
Slot Regrets His Own Error Following the Blunder
Slot avoided openly criticizing Szoboszlai in public, but he did acknowledge that the midfielder's error influenced his own mistake of not bringing Trey Nyoni into the match earlier.
The 18-year-old only received a brief appearance for the first team in the 88th minute, after Liverpool had increased their narrow lead to 3–1 four minutes prior. Encouraged by Szoboszlai's overconfident mistake near halftime, the League One opponents had kept the deficit to one goal throughout most of the second half, generating anxiety in the match that Slot felt wasn't appropriate for the inexperienced Nyoni.
"I genuinely feel bad for Trey because perhaps it was my error, but at 2–1 I believed I needed to make substitutions to secure victory rather than providing a young player who trains so diligently every day and possesses such tremendous talent the minutes he potentially deserves," Slot later confessed, explaining why Ryan Gravenberch entered in the 73rd minute instead of the youngster.
"I decided, 'Let's introduce Ryan first,' and that was entirely due to us allowing the 2–1 goal, because typically a match like this should progress to three goals and possibly more."