Arne Slot tried something in Liverpool’s friendly against Stoke that...

For managers and coaches, the preseason is usually the finest time to try new things, and Arne Slot was doing just that today.

The games played before the actual campaign begins give fresh lineups and strategies the chance to be tried out

without the pressure of having to win, and the opportunity to try out novel concepts is much reduced when the result

has repercussions.

This afternoon, Liverpool took on Stoke City in a behind-closed-doors friendly at the AXA Training Centre and ran

out 5-0 winners, with Darwin Nunez helping himself to a hat-trick as Rio Ngumoha and Federico Chiesa also got

their names on the scoresheet.

Slot goes with strong starting XI but tries Szoboszlai in unfamiliar role

Mo Salah, Virgil van Dijk, Andy Robertson, and recent additions Florian Wirtz and Giorgi Mamardashvili were all

part of Slot’s potent starting lineup against the Potters. A well-known absentee was Alexis Mac Allister, who is still

recovering from a persistent injury.

Despite being another well-known name on the squad sheet, Dominik Szoboszlai played an experimental role on the pitch.

As per Ian Doyle of the Liverpool Echo, the Hungarian midfielder was ‘surprisingly’ utilised in a right-back berth,

with Wirtz playing in the number 10 role ahead of an engine room axis of Curtis Jones and Trey Nyoni. As is often

the case in pre-season friendlies, the entire team was changed around for the second half.

Due to the demanding nature of contemporary football, it is common for players to be expected to perform multiple

roles and may be used in a position different from their most comfortable one.

Nonetheless, it was truly uncommon for Slot to start with Szoboszlai at right-back According to Transfermarkt, the

24-year-old has played eight different positions throughout his career, but never on the right side of defence (or even

anywhere along the backline)

It didn’t prevent the Hungarian from making a telling impact against Stoke, though, with Doyle documenting

(via Liverpool Echo) that he supplied the assist for Nunez’s second goal with a cross and was also the intended

recipient of a through ball from Wirtz in the move which led to the Uruguayan’s sixth-minute opener.

When the competitive season begins next month, Conor Bradley and newcomer Jeremie Frimpong are expected to

compete for the right-back spot. However, we seen last season that midfielders sometimes need to be used in defence

(e.g. Jones in the Merseyside derby at Anfield in April).

Is it possible that Szoboszlai may follow suit during the next campaign? If so, it would most likely only be out of

necessity, but Slot’s experimentation with our number 8 this afternoon, when the final score had no bearing, caused

no harm at all.