18 year old Harvey Elliott is just on the way back from a horrific ankle injury, and is set to return to the first team during the next game week. Previously on loan at Blackburn Rovers, Elliott finished the season with 7 goals and 11 assists (as per TransferMarkt) which caught the eye of Liverpool’s manager Jurgen Klopp, encouraging him to retain the youngster in his title charge for the 2021/22 season.
Liverpool’s Hidden Key
The Start Of Things To Come
Elliott had a superb pre-season, showcasing his passing and dribbling ability in a newly learnt central midfield role, that would see him play alongside Liverpool’s finest assets. This would all warrant a first Premier League start for the London-born starlet.
Elliott – although not the fastest – possesses an exceptional turn of pace, alongside what assistant manager Pep Lijnders describes as a ‘footballing brain’, allowing him to exploit little pockets of space and create room for attacking threats such as Mohammed Salah to run into.
His unique playing style and quick thinking has been compared to multiple footballing greats. Although very far-fetched, there are snippets of evidence that suggests the potential is there for Elliott to become a world superstar.
Absence
Since Elliott’s absence, Liverpool seem to lack a creative spark and anyone capable of providing such a threat has struggled to stay fit, meaning holding midfielders Jordan Henderson and James Milner have been required to fill that void, which may be why we see Liverpool drawing the games that they do.
With Liverpool’s attacking threat mainly coming from their fullbacks, playing someone with attacking prowess from midfield creates a whole new unpredictable dynamic that sees the ball fed into the front three from different perspectives.
It can allow Firmino to drop into his preferred deeper pockets and have Salah occupy a more central role whilst Elliott covers wide-right, or Elliott can attack teams directly, leaving space out wide for the fullbacks to utilise.
A stand-out star in an already formidable Liverpool team, Harvey Elliott is certainly one to watch out for. Both in the present, and in the future.
Main Image Credit Embed from Getty Images
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