Last season, Liverpool were overflowing with candidates for player of the season — it is a reflection of how much they have regressed in 2025-26 that there is arguably only one contender.While those around him have floundered, Dominik Szoboszlai has so often been the player to stand up and be counted.When Mohamed Salah, who has been one of the world’s top players for the bulk of the last decade and does not use his words lightly, stands next to you during an interview refers to you as “one of the best players in the world right now”, then you must be doing something right.Salah has spoken highly of Szoboszlai this season (Lewis Storey/Getty Images)It was mid-February when Szoboszlai was standing next to Salah on the pitch at Anfield after one of Liverpool’s most complete performances of the season, the 3-0 dismantling of Brighton & Hove Albion in the FA Cup. The praise, from one of his good friends away from the pitch, came after the 25-year-old had scored his fifth goal in eight matches, including spectacular free kicks against Marseille, AFC Bournemouth and Manchester City, each one better than the last.Last season, manager Arne Slot laid down a challenge of wanting to see more goal contributions from his No 10, who at the time was Szoboszlai. A return of eight goals and nine assists from 49 appearances was respectable, but he has gone to another level this season, scoring 13 goals and providing 12 assists in 53 matchesKey to that has been his brilliance from set pieces. Szoboszlai arrived at Anfield with a reputation of dead-ball quality, but he had been behind Trent Alexander-Arnold in the pecking order.His 30-yard strike against Arsenal in a 1-0 win over a team that, back in August, looked like being title rivals, was the club’s goal of the season.