The question Mohamed Salah asked as his Liverpool career came to an end in May was who in the current squad would set the pace by walking into the gym first.
In one of the legendary Salah’s final appearances during his nine-year spell at Anfield, an interview designed by Sky Sports to showcase a tribute directly to him through a cinema screen was used by the man himself to drive home the message instead.
“When I left, I told them: ‘You need an example,’” Salah said. “You want people to get to the gym early and people look at them like, ‘Oh, he goes to the gym, so I have to go.’
“If that doesn’t happen, I think it’s going to be tough for this club because it’s very, very necessary. You set high standards, as if people have to show up early. People need to go to the gym.”
Perhaps taking the chance to make a point to his friend and now former teammate, Dominik Szoboszlai made sure he joined Salah after the Hungary captain returned to work over the weekend ahead of pre-season training, which begins at the AXA Training Center on Monday (July 13).
Pausing his training to take a quick selfie, Szoboszlai uploaded the post to his 5.5 million Instagram followers and tagged Salah in it with the captain’s succinct: “Back.”
It goes without saying that Szoboszlai, one of the fittest players in the Liverpool squad, will be building up his baseline fitness level more than a week before he is required to report for duty at the club’s Kirkby base.
However, in the modern game, players rarely take a break from keeping fit, and the idea of using the pre-season to shed holiday weight is an archaic football stereotype.
However, Szoboszlai will be one of the most senior members of Andoni Iraola’s squad at the base on Monday due to Hungary’s failure to qualify for the World Cup.
This is an important period for Szoboszlai under his third Reds manager in four seasons, and while question marks hang over many this season under Iraola, the level of consistency he showed in Arne Slote’s last term needs to be matched and then improved upon.
It is understood Szoboszlai remains in talks over a new contract at Anfield as the 25-year-old midfielder aims to give his best years to the club, having settled in the North West with his wife Borka and their young daughter.
Negotiations have yet to reach a breakthrough and the fate of Ibrahima Konate, who left as a free agent for Real Madrid at the age of 27, may be enough to worry fans as far as Szoboszlai is concerned, but at least both sides are determined to extend the deal struck three years ago.
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Without Virgil van Dijk, who will enjoy the summer break when the club spend pre-season in the United States, Szoboszlai has as much chance as anyone as he will be named Iraola captain for the games against Sunderland, Wrexham and Leeds United.
There is no obvious alternative given the team have lost Salah and Andy Robertson and Alisson Becker will also be on leave at the end of the season.
And if Szoboszlai is serious about taking the next step into Liverpool’s leadership group, the next few weeks could go a long way towards making that happen under Iraola. Essentially, this could become something of an audition for number eight.
It’s good that he apparently accepted the challenge in the gym set by Salah.