While he isn’t quite the second-fastest player in Premier League history as somehow claimed, Liverpool’s Dominik Szoboszlai may not be far off.
Szoboszlai has gone viral in the wake of Saturday’s 3-1 win over Wolves, due to his lung-busting run to catch up with and overtake Pedro Neto on the break.
That clip led to sensational claims on social media that the Hungarian had logged the second-fastest speed in the history of the Premier League.
It was suggested that Szoboszlai was behind only Kyle Walker, whose speed of 37.31km/h was said to be the only sprint clocked higher than his 36.76km/h at Molineux.
Speed statistics are not readily available and do not reliably date back to the Premier League‘s inception in 1992, making it difficult to compare.
But Szoboszlai’s statistics are certainly up there, with the Mail‘s Lewis Steele bringing figures from Opta.
According to Opta, Szoboszlai’s sprint speed of 36.76km/h is third behind only Walker (37.31km/h) and Luton‘s Chiedozie Ogbene (36.93km/h) since the start of 2020/21.
? Since 2020-21 Premier League season, only two players have recorded a quicker top sprint speed than Dom Szoboszlai against Wolves on Saturday (36.76km/h) (from Opta)
????Szoboszlai has ran a total 57.7km this season, at least 7km more than any other #LFC player ? pic.twitter.com/TTzFk3yqLo
— Lewis Steele (@LewisSteele_) September 19, 2023
It puts the 22-year-old above the likes of Antonio Rudiger, Brennan Johnson, Adama Traore, Mohamed Salah, Tariq Lamptey, Mykhailo Mudryk and Anthony Gordon over the past three seasons and into the new campaign.
Furthermore, according to Steele, only five players have covered more distance than Szoboszlai in total so far this season.
Szoboszlai has run 57.7km in the first five games for Liverpool, averaging 11.54km per game or 7.7km per hour.
Dejan Kulusevski, Bruno Fernandes, Philip Billing, Declan Rice and Rodri are the only players in the Premier League to have run more.
Remarkably, Szoboszlai has covered at least 8.2km more than any of his team-mates, with Andy Robertson (49.5km) the next closest.
Salah (47.6km), Alexis Mac Allister (43.9km) and Luis Diaz (36.9km) make up the rest of the top five within Jurgen Klopp‘s squad.
This comes after another Szoboszlai statistic went viral over the weekend, with the No. 8 shown to have contested 30 more duels in his first five starts than Jordan Henderson managed in the same period last season.
Not only is he doing the running and putting the effort in, though, the £60 million signing also scored a spectacular goal in the 3-0 victory over Aston Villa.
Szoboszlai played a big part in two decisive goals as Liverpool came back to beat Bournemouth 3-1, too, winning the penalty for Salah to make it 2-1 and seeing his shot spilled into Diogo Jota‘s path for the clincher.
As per FotMob, only Salah (2.1) and Diaz (0.8) have more expected assists this season than Szoboszlai (0.6).
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