Arne Slot can unlock his own version of Philippe Coutinho at Liverpool as part of new plan

It was a tale of two halves during his debut season at Liverpool for $76m (£60m/€70m) signing Dominik Szoboszlai . Flying out of the traps in the first few months after he was brought in from RB Leipzig, the Hungarian picked up an injury at the turn of the year.

After that, Szoboszlai never looked like the same player. The good news? He looked exhausted, so a break at the end of the season will no doubt have done him a lot of good. The bad? Given his involvement in the European Championship, it wasn't as long a rest period as would have been ideal after a season more intense than any other he has previously experienced.

There are a long line of players who Arne Slot will hope to be able to coax more from having taken over from Jurgen Klopp but Szoboszlai should be near the front of the queue. He has a huge amount of talent — most of which is still to be truly unlocked.

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If Szoboszlai can rejuvenate himself physically and prove that he is fully over his injury troubles this summer, Slot could have a really top-class midfielder on his hands. And while the exact set-up of the new Liverpool midfield is yet to be revealed, the 23-year-old has all the attributes to be a central part of it.

Scoring seven times in his debut campaign on Merseyside, Szoboszlai has already demonstrated an eye for goal, and it wouldn't take much for that number to further increase. He gets into the positions to score and at Leipzig, was even more of an attacking influence than what he has been so far in England.

While Szoboszlai and Philippe Coutinho are clearly very different players in terms of how they look stylistically, their function in midfield is more attack-oriented than the best Liverpool midfields under Klopp. Gini Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson offered balance and a platform for the likes of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane to take center stage, but the switch to a different kind of midfield is underway. Ryan Gravenberch and Curtis Jones are other examples of number eights who are arguably closer to number 10s.

Alongside Szoboszlai and that group of more attacking-focused midfield stars, Harvey Elliott is another who should be eyeing up taking the next step under Slot next season. Closer to Coutinho than the Hungarian in terms of his slight build, elegant style and more technique-based game rather than his physical attributes, Elliott spent most of the last campaign being a super-sub before he established himself in the side.

The scorer of four goals last year, Elliott should be aiming for at least double figures this time around. And like Szoboszlai, he is a more attack-minded option in the middle of the field — but still one who is defensively diligent.

On the evidence of the type of midfield players that Liverpool signed in the final couple of transfer windows under Klopp, the plan is to take the center of the pitch away from being "functional" and more towards a creative hub. Getting the balance right is tricky, but if Slot gets it spot on, he could unlock another Coutinho-type figure for Liverpool in the form of Szoboszlai, Elliott, or even both.