When we see Dominik Szoboszlai routinely putting in electrifying performances during his first six months at Liverpool, it’s easy to assume that he’s taking to life on Merseyside like a duck to water.

However, we only witness what he does on the pitch for a few hours each week, not the reality of a young man trying to adapt to a new life in a foreign country after a high-profile job change.

The 23-year-old opened up about life away from the football field in an honest interview with journalist Mark Soos for Fodball.

In one quote translated by Bence Bocsak on X, Szoboszlai admitted to sometimes feeling ‘lonely’ during his time in England so far.

The Liverpool player said, “I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel lonely sometimes. There are days when I’m just sitting on the couch, wondering about what to do. Then I put on a movie and try to fall asleep, hoping for tomorrow.”

It’s easy to fall into the trap of viewing top-level football players as Teflon-like commodities who make so much money that they should just get on with it and be happy for the opportunity to live their dream.

However, the football players we cheer for each week are people like us who go through good and bad times, and their confident, joyful public personas may conceal the difficulties they face in their personal lives.

It must be remembered that Szoboszlai has only just turned 23 and is still relatively new to living in England, bringing with it a cultural and linguistic shift (although his English is excellent), along with the pressure of repaying the £60 million fee paid for him by one of the biggest clubs in world football.

As much as we love seeing him work wonders on the pitch, it’s even more important that he can be happy and healthy during his day-to-day life on Merseyside.

He deserves huge credit for having the courage to admit his feelings of vulnerability and loneliness off the field, but thankfully, he couldn’t have a better manager than Jurgen Klopp to handle those issues with the utmost empathy and understanding.

We hope that Szoboszlai will be able to call upon a trusted support network around him to help him through the tougher times away from Anfield.