Jurgen Klopp believes Harvey Elliott has made a “big step” during pre-season after explaining the positional change for the Liverpool youngster.
Elliott once again caught the eye when starting in a midfield role in Sunday’s 1-1 friendly with Athletic Bilbao at Anfield.
The 18-year-old struck the woodwork with one curling effort and was afforded a standing ovation from the 40,000-plus crowd on his late substitution.
Elliott is now in contention for a full Premier League debut in next Saturday’s season opener at Norwich City.
And Klopp said: “He was good today, not the first time. He can play the position.
READ MORE: What Elliott did after the final whistle
“A little bit later, when he went up front and Mo (Salah) went into the centre, Harvey can play on the right wing and smashed the ball on the crossbar. He can play different positions, there is no doubt about it.
“In pre-season we wanted to see him in a deeper role because as a young player you have to learn a lot of things, when you are a bit more outside you get the ball from time to time and we wanted him to be a bit more involved.
“He made a big step this pre-season. If Harvey stays fit then the football world can be really excited.
“I liked his performance today and I liked his performance during pre-season. Good for us and good for him.”
Elliott and the other 10 starters against Athletic will not be involved when Liverpool conclude their pre-season preparations against Osasuna at Anfield on Monday evening.
Ibrahima Konate is expected to make a first home outing since his £36million arrival from RB Leipzig in a defence including Joe Gomez, Kostas Tsimikas and Neco Williams.
Klopp has already confirmed both Thiago Alcantara and Jordan Henderson – who have yet to feature in pre-season – will be given minutes, while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Curtis Jones, Fabinho, Roberto Firmino, Xherdan Shaqiri, Divock Origi and Takumi Minamino are all vying for a start.
And the Reds boss said: “Nobody who started today will be involved tomorrow, that is clear, but we will have top, top players involved.
“Caoimhin Kelleher will be in goal and in front of him will be strong defensive line, a very experienced midfield and a very exciting offensive line.
“We want to see the same thing that we wanted to see today, our football. It should be possible with different players. They have different profiles in some moments, but still our football should be possible.
“It should be very intense. The same thing in the same shirt but with different players in it.”
