Blackburn Rovers boss Tony Mowbray has spoken of the difficulty at trying to replace Harvey Elliott this summer.
The 18-year-old made over 40 appearances during an impressive season-long loan spell with Rovers last year, scoring seven goals and claiming 11 assists.
And fresh from signing a new deal with the Reds last month, he was named in the club’s travelling party for their pre-season training camp in Austria.
The former Fulham youngster has been utilised in a midfield three by the Reds during pre-season and again impressed during the defeat to Hertha Berlin in Austria on Thursday.
But while Elliott continues to shine for Jurgen Klopp’s side, Mowbray has revealed he is working hard to try and replace the 18-year-old.
However, Mowbray has admitted that trying to replace someone as good as Elliott with all the attributes he has, is not easy.
He told the Lancashire Telegraph : “We’re talking to a lot of Premier League clubs, with where we are we’re going to have to loan, but they start a week after us so are going through their pre-season fixtures now and using all their players.
“A lot of the big clubs, their players have been away at the Euros or the Copa America and they’re not back so they’re using their younger players.
“When that changes I’m sure the players we’ve identified and spoken to these clubs about might come available.”
Before continuing: “We need more individual talent, players who can beat players, because we have a lot of hardworking honest players which is a real positive, but sometimes the game dictates that you need players with individual talent like (Bradley) Dack brings to our football club when he’s available.
“ Harvey Elliott brought that to an extent last year with his individuality and range of passing, they’re not easy to find, you can’t just pluck them out of the air.
“If we had lost 2-0 I’d have been extraordinarily disappointed with the fact we couldn’t score against Bradford or Bolton, but we scored twice and had other opportunities.
“We have to be able to change the format of games, too often last season we lost by the odd goal and I’m hoping if we can strengthen up before the window closes that we’ll have better options to be able to play different ways with different players.”
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