Michael Owen is instantly proven wrong with bizarre Dominik Szoboszlai take

Dominik Szoboszlai scored one of the goals of the season with his inch-perfect free-kick against Arsenal and Michael Owen thought that he’d come up with the perfect counter to it, until he was proven wrong last night.

With Liverpool’s free-kick being so far out, Owen argued that David Raya’s wall was a hindrance to him in that situation as it gave Szoboszlai a target to aim over.

Being 32 yards out, Owen made the argument that in those situations, clubs would benefit from not having a wall when defending a free kick.

“At 32.2 yards, to be honest, if you put a ball there and say ‘can you score from that far out?’, then I’m probably saying no,” Owen told Premier League Productions.

“I’ve said it before, I think the wall in this situation is a hindrance.

“I don’t know but I think soon, when the ball is that far out at over 32 yards, if the goalkeeper stands in the middle and there is no wall, I bet he doesn’t even have to dive, he could just shuffle and catch it.

“If he just stands in the middle and there is nothing in front of him, what would happen is the opponents would start blocking and the opponents would make their own wall.

“That just shows you that the free-kick taker wants a wall there! It gives them a point of reference.

“Don’t get be wrong, 20 yards out you do need a wall. But over 32 yards out, I think a wall is a hindrance to a goalkeeper.”

In fairness to Owen, a number of people on social media seemed to agree with his take, including Reading manager Noel Hunt.

During a Football League Trophy match between Swindon Town and Reading last night, the home side was awarded a free kick from around a similar distance to Szoboszlai’s against Arsenal.

Amazingly, Reading seemed to take Owen’s advice as they didn’t construct a wall to defend the free-kick; they just left one player to block the shot.

The outcome? Swindon’s Will Wright smashed it into the top corner and left Reading goalkeeper Jack Stevens rooted to his spot.

Eat your heart out Dominik Szoboszlai, Will Wright with a beauty. #stfc pic.twitter.com/QVBOR5e4Vg — Call Me Al Farm (@eggforbread) September 2, 2025

In fairness, it looks as if the ball took a deflection off the Reading defender, which could’ve unsighted Stevens and changed the direction of the shot.

However, it’s still hilarious that just two days after Owen had given his advice on defending free-kicks, he was instantly proven wrong.

Wright’s stunning goal in the 47th minute ended up being the winning goal as Swindon held on for a 3-2 victory over their League One opponents.

Given the outcome of that free-kick, we’re not sure that any Premier League club will be taking Owen’s advice anytime soon.

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