Arsenal shone a light on some of the issues Andoni Iraola is still trying to iron out during the early part of his reign at Liverpool by beating the Reds at Anfield on Sunday.

The lack of clear attacking threat was perhaps the biggest problem on display against the Gunners, but with Liverpool hoping that Bradley Barcola and Alexander Isak will click further and Florian Wirtz will come good, that will hopefully rectify itself over the course of the season.

Sturridge notes Szoboszlai’s lack of control

Nyoni did not have the easiest full Premier League debut on Sunday, but after a nervy start the 19-year-old settled well into the game and contributed to a brilliant 30 minutes from the whole team leading into half-time.

Though the game was already drifting slightly when he came off just before the hour mark, Liverpool lost their grip on it entirely when Nyoni was replaced by Szoboszlai. Arsenal regained their foothold and went on to see out the rest of the game fairly comfortably.

“Liverpool lost control when Trey Nyoni came off the field,” Sturridge said on Sky Sports after the final whistle.

Szoboszlai is derailing Liverpool

There is a very recent example of this same exact thing happening to Liverpool this season. Rewind to September’s 3-1 Carabao Cup win over Tottenham, and Szoboszlai came on with Nyoni going off at around about the same juncture of the game. Almost instantly, Liverpool looked all over the place.

He may have ended the game firing in one of the goals of the season to put the game beyond Spurs, but Szoboszlai actively made Liverpool lose their grip on a game they were dominating. The same happened on Sunday.

Quite why this is happening is difficult to say, but it probably doesn’t help that Szoboszlai only completed 82% of his passes, despite attempting only 32 during his half-hour on the pitch.

The Hungarian also failed to connect to a red shirt with either of his two attempted crosses, while only two out of seven long balls were successful.

Nyoni, by contrast, finished with a 96% pass success rate from 55 balls, while he completed three out of four long passes, while also playing an impressive 14 line-breaking passes. For contrast, Szoboszlai played four.

Nobody is saying that Nyoni is a better player than Szoboszlai, or that he should be playing ahead of him for now. But Andoni Iraola certainly must find a way to make sure his No. 8 is better at getting Liverpool a handle on matches. If he cannot, there is a serious conversation to be had about his place in the team.