Although he is not the second fastest player in Premier League history as claimed, Liverpool’s Dominik Szoboszlai is probably not far behind.
Szoboszlai went viral after Saturday’s 3-1 win over Wolves, due to his lung-busting run to overtake Pedro Neto on the break.
The clip led to sensational claims on social media that the Hungarian had logged the second-fastest pace in Premier League history.
It is suggested that Szoboszlai is just behind Kyle Walker, whose speed of 37.31km/h is said to be the only sprint higher than his 36.76km/h at Molineux.
Pace statistics are not readily available and do not reliably date back to the start of the Premier League in 1992, making comparisons difficult.
But Szoboszlai’s stats are definitely up there, with the MailLewis Steele carrying the numbers from Opta.
According to Opta, Szoboszlai’s sprint speed of 36.76km/h is third behind Walker (37.31km/h) and Luton’s Chiedozie Ogbene (36.93km/h) since the start of 2020/21.
? Since the 2020-21 Premier League season, only two players have recorded a faster sprint than Dom Szoboszlai against Wolves on Saturday (36.76km/h) (from Opta)
????Szoboszlai ran a total of 57.7km this season, at least 7km more than anyone else #LFC player ? pic.twitter.com/TTzFk3yqLo
– Lewis Steele (@LewisSteele_) September 19, 2023
It puts the 22-year-old ahead of the likes of Antonio Rudiger, Brennan Johnson, Adama Traore, Mohamed Salah, Tariq Lamptey, Mykhailo Mudryk and Anthony Gordon over the past three seasons and the new campaign.
Additionally, 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 Premier League players to have made the run.
Remarkably, Szoboszlai covered at least 8.2km more than any of his teammates, 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 in Jurgen Klopp’s squad.
This follows another Szoboszlai statistic that went viral over the weekend, with No. 8 featured in 30 more duels in his first five starts than Jordan Henderson managed in the same period last season.
He wasn’t the only one running and putting in the effort, though, the £60 million signing also scored a stunning goal in the 3-0 win over Aston Villa.
Szoboszlai had 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 deflected off the road by Diogo Jota for the clincher.
As per FotMobOnly Salah (2.1) and Diaz (0.8) have more expected assists this season than Szoboszlai (0.6).