Harvey Elliott is barely 19 years of age but has already been highly rated for a very long time. While he has been well known to Liverpool supporters for several years, he came to wider prominence with a very successful loan spell at Blackburn Rovers in 2020/21.
He was mostly used as the right-sided forward in Tony Mowbray’s 4-3-3 formation and proved very productive. Only one teenager in the division topped his total of seven goals, with only two players of any age amassing more than the 11 assists he mustered. Elliott seemed perfectly poised to become Mohamed Salah’s understudy and eventual successor.
Or at least that was the way it seemed. Jurgen Klopp didn’t view his young star in that light whatsoever, as Pep Lijnders has revealed in his insightful new book, ‘ Intensity: Inside Liverpool FC - Our Identity.’
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The Liverpool assistant manager recounts a time he bumped into Elliott’s father outside the AXA Training Centre. “We started talking about when we first met Harvey,” Lijnders wrote. “Jurgen said back then, ‘you are a player for the middle’.”
This would not have been obvious from the loan stint with Blackburn, but it seems Klopp knew Elliott would play centrally all along. The manager was true to his word, too, as the youngster started three successive Premier League matches on the right of the midfield three early last season.
Had he not suffered a serious injury in the third of them, a 3-0 win at Leeds United, who knows how many more opportunities he’d have got there? Although Elliott only made three further starts across the rest of 2021/22, two of them were in the same position. One of the instances occurred in a Champions League knockout match at Inter Milan, which was a tremendous show of faith from Klopp.
Liverpool’s number 19 may not have started a match yet this season, but he is bound to soon, fresh from signing a new long-term contract today. The Reds currently have more injured players than any other team in the Premier League, and half of their eight absentees are midfielders.
While Naby Keita should be back from illness shortly, Thiago Alcantara, Curtis Jones and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are set for longer spells on the sidelines. This quartet accounted for the third to sixth most minutes among Liverpool midfielders last season, with only Jordan Henderson and Fabinho ahead of them. They will be missed until they return.
Filling in for the likes of Thiago would be a daunting task for most teenagers. Lijnders appears confident that Elliott is up to the task, as his comments when writing about the Reds’ 1-1 pre-season draw with Athletic Bilbao last summer made clear.
“Harvey Elliott’s performance was a highlight,” wrote Lijnders, an assessment with which the Echo’s post-match ratings agreed. “There is no such thing as like for like in football, but he has some of the ingredients of Andres Iniesta and thinks like a creative midfielder.”
Talk about very high praise, albeit Jason McAteer also made the same comparison last year. Yet even though the evidence is limited on Elliott’s part, there have been instances which begin to justify the idea.
The best years of Iniesta’s career pre-dated the in-depth data which is now readily available. However, it’s clear he was more important in the build up to moves rather than playing the chance creating pass. For instance, in 2017/18, his final year with Barcelona, he played 44 shot creating passes ( per FBRef ) but only created 18 chances. In other words, much of his best work was the pass before the pass.
When Darwin Nunez opened his Premier League goal account at Fulham, he was assisted by Salah. The Egyptian had received the ball from Elliott, with the teenager playing a sharp first-time ball to put his team-mate clear in space.
“I thought his [Elliott’s] rotations with Salah and Trent on the right, I think – I hope – it’s something we see more of this season,” said Rio Ferdinand after the 2-2 draw.
We saw it last year, with another Elliott pre-assist allowing Trent Alexander-Arnold to set up Sadio Mane for a goal against Burnley. With the injury situation at Liverpool being what it is, it should occur again with Pep Lijnders’ new Iniesta set to play a key midfield role.
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